My brother in law has a '98 C4s cab............20,000 miles original owner, mint, last year air cooled model. Anyway, he recently moved from Scottsdale, AZ to Ft Lauderdale and put the car in indoor storage after spending $6,500 on new clutch and other work.

He was planning on driving the car to Ft. Lauderdale next week, but got a call a few days ago from the owner of the storage facility with a BS stiory about how the car, along with a bunch of others, were outside the facility "being detailed" when a hail storm hit and caused catastrophic damage to the area. the reality was, that Barrett-Jackson auto auction was going on and the owner most likely over booked his facility with high end cars for the event and got burnt by the hail storm/damage and made up the detail story to cover himself. Anyway, he told my brother in law that there was catastrophic damage to the area and buildings and vehicles and that he would have to go through his personal insurance for reimbursement.

The car suffered 60 plus hail dents, needs a new hood, new windshield, new soft top-Insurance estimate- $9,000..............................

He will file civil suit, has a contract for the "indoor storage" but, to expedite the situation, is going through his personal insurance for the fix.

Never trust someone to do the right thing relating to storage, when they know you are out of town and will not be checking on them............................

 

Hail in florida?

 

No, although we have hail storms in southern Florida (my '07 Lexus SC430 got nailed while grocery shopping), this occurred in Scottsdale, AZ...............

 

That storm was rediculous, and somehow the Trunk on my BMW opened during the storm and i had to scoop almost a foot of water out of the spare tire adn battery wells! needless to say the Computer to the car is downthere and the car was acting nuts for a few days, but thank God now i think its dried, the idrive is being normal !

 

Dent Wizard or similar is well worth checking out. When I had my '95 White M3, it was in a restaurant parking lot when a hail storm came on. We came out and it was covered with water and in the dim light seemed OK.

Next morning when I went into the garage - looked like a golf ball. Every surface facing up was covered in dents - completely - hundreds, or maybe thousands, of little dents.

I took it to BMW repair and the estimate required doing all sorts of horrible things to the car - it was basically ruined. Then a friend who was also out in that storm with his new car told me he had it fixed at Dent Wizard and it looked perfect.

I took the M3 there and 2 weeks later, only one small dent remained right at the roof line crease where they couldn't get it out - but you really had to know where to look. And it cost about 1/2 of what the "body shop" repair was going to be - which the insurance had already cut me a check for, so I came out ahead on that and the car was saved.

Try that first before anything else.

 

I have a similar story from 1991, more or less; my auto insurance agent was pocketing the premiums for my full cover policy, possibly because I had never made a claim before. He was only paying for the minimum PIP/liability required in FL and keeping the rest. Murphy's Law showed up and my 944 sustained catastrophic hail damage to the sound of $5500 and my insurance told me I wasn't covered. The agent had skipped town as there were dozens of upset customers with similar problems because of the hail storm. I had to hire a lawyer who tracked him down and I got paid the full $5500 plus attorney's fees.

 

Be 100% certain to include the repair cost AND the vehicle depreciation (both of which are losses due to this idiot).
I'd seriously look at the possibility of insurance fraud here.
Fact is that if the guy lied about the circumstances, he more than likely committed insurance fraud.
Then, depending on the circumstances and the exact wording of the state law, the damage may have occurred during / as a result of, a crime (stealing the car). Driving or moving the car without permission is very possibly a theft.

 

WOW! I've heard stories before like that about Life Insurance, but never about car insurance. Glad you got him.