Yeah, ripped off news, need advice? Who you don't help?
Come running just as sass as we can.
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This is the Troubleshooter Show now, Tom Martinez.
Welcome my friends to the only show of it's kind. We are here to help you. We are here to help you solve problems, answer questions, try to make your life a little bit better. If you just got a question out here. We have got a team of attorneys and professionals, and contractors and pretty much you name it referral list dot com to get directly involved in your
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I'm rare to go to help people with whatever problems I have.
Mark, I absolutely love it. We've got Kelly answering your calls and Shannon running the board. The phone number is easy. I'll always tell you when the line's open. Right now, we have two open, three h three seven one three eight two five five three zero three seven one three eight two five five. I am trying to get an attorney on that basically sued Colorado, and it really does. It comes down to the state over the seventy five dollars civil penalty of crossing the double lines. It's insane.
Kelly emailed me this last night, and I believe it was nine News that put it on, and I think Kelly was that yesterday. Do you know, did you actually see it yesterday live or what?
No.
I saw it on Twitter and I was flat acid. Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty I'm pretty shocked by the whole thing. So the bottom line is this guy suit and we're gonna talk about it whether we can get him on or not. But I've actually texted Is a cell phone and reached out to him and Kelly as as well. So we really want to get this guy's on. But how many people out there have gotten these seventy five dollars tickets. I know a lot of people got the warnings before they went live with it. But here's the
bottom line. We see these double lines everywhere. Now. The one I see all the time is if I'm driving from our house or from Castle Rock to Colorado Springs. That double line is absolutely everywhere, and your car if you go into the double line. What they say is it's an infraction. But the problem is the infraction is not what the infraction rules say, so this attorney, so basically they say, you're not if I recall them, I'm going to pull up the information. But here's the bottom
line of what the attorney said. And by the way, he won. He won and did not have to pay the seventy five bucks. But he's an attorney. It would cost the average Joe a ton of money to do this. But here's basically what happened. It's really bonkers. If you read the statute, it says it's not paying a toll. So they're using a statute of not paying a toll by giving you an infraction for driving over the double lines, which he argued in front of a judge. That's insane.
I did pay the toll because he did go into the lane. He just went into it late, so we went through the double lines. Listen to this. It's nuts. He goes through the double lines and he goes through the toll and his toll account got billed. So he showed the judge, Look, I did get billed. I got built on the toll right where I got this ticket, So I did pay the toll. And the statute talks
about not paying a toll. How can you give me a ticket for seventy five dollars or a civil penalty for seventy dollars for crossing a double line when that's
not even the infraction. If there was an infraction for reckless driving or something that would have to come from a police officer, it cannot come in the method that he got and he won, and he's thinking about doing listen to this, he's actually thinking of getting everybody together that's paid that seventy five dollars in doing a class action. I absolutely want to get this guy on and understand it better, and I would love to help feed him
different people. Because how many calls have we gotten on this, I'd say, what do you think, Kelly? At least twenty five? I'd say at least twenty five, maybe just in the last month. We get them absolutely all the time, Yes, and I'm sick and tired of it. I mean, it is kind of strange if you're paying the toll. I understand that people are trying to get around the toll,
that's an infraction. But people that act get in and end up paying the toll or get out of it because they're about to miss their exit, depending on where you are. This particular attorney was somewhere on I believe it was I twenty five and then going onto E four seventy. But it's just crazy. So we're going to try to get them on a little later in the show and talk about that. Three oh three seven one three eight two five five three oh three Martino, Hey, Danny, what's going on?
Uh?
Yeah, I was.
I was in a car accident, little fender bender. Uh the other party I got noticed from my adjuster State Farm adjuster that I'm being sued by the other possibility of being sued, let me put it that way. Uh, apparently the other party has an attorney that got in contact with my adjuster and gave my adjuster. Uh've been pushing my adjuster from Affi Davids that I'm supposed to sign and so they sent it to me and it's all it's all uh lawyer language. Oh, I'm supposed to
mark the box if it's if it's true. Or true or untrue.
Hey, Danny, I want to go back. I want to go back in time a little bit. Explain the accident to me.
Uh, I got I got I ran a red light. I got charged with running a red light, got it, and other person plowed into me.
Well, you ran the red light. What do you mean they plowed on into you? They was it in an intersection? They t boned you?
Yeah, I just I just got into the intersection and was plowed in and I got hit by her.
Yeah, but like t boned right, you got hit in the side of the car. Where'd you get hit?
She hit me right right about the front wheel, got it, and I was I was westbound and it hit me and it spun me southbound.
And you did run the red light. How much coverage do you have? And who is your insurance?
Come company, State, Farm and twenty five thousand dollars maximum, just like the state requires that. I just got the minimum.
Boy, Danny, Danny, let me ask you something, and we're gonna we're gonna help you out. In fact, I'm going to get an expert on because there's a couple of things going on here. Let me kind of get directly to your question. Then we'll work through the whole thing. But directly to your question, your insurance company has to defend you have has an has an attorney reached out and then these affidavids they want you to sign. Did your insurance company send them to you or did they?
Did State Farm send them to you? Directly?
My State Farm is my insurance company. The other person's lawyer gave these affidavits to my State farm adjuster, got it? Who relate them to me and is bugging me to fill them out and send them back.
Yeah. So give me an idea of one of the questions that you're a little nerves about.
Uh, there's the I'm supposed to say, Mark, what's true in the box?
Yeah, So give me an idea what's in say?
Okay?
Uh?
I understand that the information being supplied in the Sabademan is being used and relied upon by her name and her attorney determining whether to accept payment within State Farm insurance policy coverage of twenty five thousand dollars in settlement of the claims injury relating to the accident. I understand that this decision was based on my representation and this is the only insurance available for this claim and all other representations here out.
All of that seems true. Every bit of that seems true.
Well, but.
I've never seen a thing like this where where where I'm supposed to mark if it's true or not.
Yeah, well, I understand exactly what they're asking you. They're saying, do you have any other insurance? What are your assets like? Hat of curiosity. I'm sure you didn't have any other insurance, but what are your assets like? So, in other words, do you own your house?
Yeah, I'm eighty one years old, I'm retired, I'm social Security.
Yeah.
How much is your houseworth?
Though?
Except Biden, by today's standard, it's like eight hundred.
Thousand and you got it paid off.
Yeah, I've been here for fifty years.
Yeah, Okay, listen, I want to do a couple things here. Let me put you on hold. I'm a little concerned, so I do want to get John Fuller on Kelly. I do Hey, Brian, I know you're holding and you've got a very limited time. I'm gonna have Kelly call you back. But really what I want to get is on John Fuller first, So hold on, Danny. We're going to get you some help in some advice. I'm a little nervous for you right now, I really am, But I want to get John Fuller's take on this.
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Sorry, three oh three seven one three eight two five five. Look, I got John Fuller up. He's an expert and he's an attorney. But I need to use this as a learning lesson for everybody listening. Poor Danny, he's eighty one years old. He owns his house outright. It's worth maybe eight hundred thousand, and Danny, don't worry. No one knows your last name. But he actually ran a red light and someone hit him. But of course he's he He was the one that had caused the infraction, and the
bottom line is the accident's his fault. The other insurance company is coming after him. His own insurance company, State Farm, is sending them multiple affidavits to sign. And we're going to ask John how normal that is. And his insurance company does have to provide a defense. But I want to tell people something. In this particular case, he has a minimal Having the minimal amount of insurance. Honestly, folks, is crazy. When you have assets that are sixteen times
at sixteen times at think about that. There's people out there right now. You know how much your house has increased in value. Maybe you started buying insurance fifteen years ago. Now you're in your mid thirties or forties and you actually have assets in equity, but you still have that
minimal amount of coverage. If I had three hundred thousand dollars in damages due to you, and you only had two twenty five thousand dollars of insurance, but I knew about your eight hundred thousand dollars home, what would I do? I would call up John Fuller or a personal injury attorney, and I would say, I don't want to twenty five thousand. That leaves me two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in the hole. Help my car costs seventy five thousand
dollars that the guy ruined. Think about that, Think about your assets and what insurance is there for. It's to protect you. It is to protect you. So John Fuller, Hey, John, this is a two part question to you. One, you just kind of heard everything I was telling everybody. I'd
love your thoughts on that. But second of all, what is the limit if someone has just the bare minimum for liability insurance and there's a lot of damage done that they caused and their insurance company is getting sued or that you know, they have to represent that person in a lawsuit. Is there a maximum amount of money the policy would pay out to the lawyer? Does that make sense? Or do they have to put on a defense at any cost?
Well, first and foremost, I mean to your specific question. If State Farm is defending this matter, the lawyer that's defending it is a State Farm employee, got it. They're not going out and hiring an outside attorney. In ninety nine percent of the cases, they're sending the file down the hall to one of their staff attorneys, who you know,
is kind of a pseudo employee. They'll technically be the employee of you know, Bob Jones Law office or something, but Bob's an employee and has an office down the hall in the State Farm building. So they're really they're really, really a State Farm employee and that's their job is to defend this gentleman under the policy.
But do they have to defend them? Okay? Here, I guess here's the exact question. Then I didn't phrase it right to you.
I think I know where you're going.
Can they say we're going to give them case. We're going to give them twenty five thousand dollars, which is exactly the coverage you have, and then we're done with it. Or do they have to give them the twenty five and defend and defend them if they decide to go after other assets and there is more damage.
Okay, So that's a multi part question, And the bottom line is this The only way the insurance company is going to pay anything anything is in exchange for a complete release of all liability or a jury verdict that exceeds their policy limits amount. And if the jury verdict exceeds the policy limits amount in most cases, barring a bad base scenario to the whole separate topic, they're going to pay out their twenty five and be done with it.
But that'll be at the end of the entire representation and going all the way through a.
Trial, and then they can try to collect what's then the other company would try to collect.
They can go they can go after or this plaintiff can go after the collection of the balance of their damages.
Okay, judge, but let me tell you.
What's really going on here. Okay, here's the scoop. This guy hurts somebody, and everybody's trying to figure out what
his ill is. They find it pretty hard to believe that this guy with the free and clear house has the state minimum of insurance, which is the cheapest level you can carry high logs, and they're trying to figure out and probably it's his uninsured motorist carrier, meaning the carrier for the injured party, who is looking at being held responsible for some of the damages because they exceed
the twenty five thousand. They're trying to make a decision as to whether they'll grant permission for them to accept the twenty five and let the guy off the hook.
So what does that mean. It means that if you have assets and you voluntarily choose to under insure yourself, a subsequent insurance company may say, no, we're not going to give permission and we'll go directly after this guy for the full amount of your damages because we believe that he was voluntarily underinsured relative to his financial.
Where I get it, World, I get it, John, Let me do this. I'm going to bring him up. His name is Danny, and he called up because State Farm sent him this information from the other person. What read that affidavit again, Danny?
Well there, it's it's quite long. But the the partment where they the financial I mean they go on and on and on on financially.
They want everything there is. It's basically hold on, hold on, John, Is it basically interrogatories? And does he have to fill this out?
Interrogatory? It's not in litigation. He can choose to throw it out or or he doesn't. It's up to him. But and here's what's going on. They're trying to decide whether or not to take his crappy twenty five and
he needs to fill that out. One of the conditions that the planet's attorney on the other side is imposing is I'll only agree to accept the twenty five if the guy doesn't have any other assets or any other policies that might be available, such as maybe an undisclosed umbrella policy or something, so the guy can fill it out and maybe they'll conclude that there's nothing else worth going after, or he can choose not to and then the next thing will be a knock on the door
and he'll be getting sued and he can disclose all that information down the road when they get a big judgment.
Well, here's his direct question. Should he fill it out now or not? Or should he wait? I mean, it seems to me it really doesn't matter because ultimately it's going to happen.
Well, I know when I send out those affidavits on behalf of my clients, it's normally because I'm either trying to make sure there's no other coverage so that I can then move along to the uninsured motorist policy and go after more money than I know I can collect. And if the person ever refused to fill it out, that would just tell me they've got assets somewhere, and I would immediately follow a lawsuit, so you can let that guide your caller on whether or not to fill
it out. It's probably somebody trying to decide, I guess, whether or not they should accept the twenty.
Five and that could very well be a bad person's insurance because they have underinsured coverage.
Yeah, that's exactly right. And let me just throw this one little kicker on there. I'm not giving this guy legal advice at all.
Yeah, but I'll tell you.
Who will give him legal advice. And if he really insisted upon it, State Farm would probably let him talk to one of the State Farm attorneys to advise him on what his options are relative to that appidation.
Well, hold on, hey, Danny, state Farm, who actually sent you this stuff? Your insurance company, right yours?
Yeah, he was a State Farm.
Yeah, but he's here. So but they came from it's the game from the other side. It came from the other side. So what John just said is if you call up your adjuster, say hey, I want to talk to one of your attorneys on that, they most likely will. John, I want to bring this one step further. And Danny, I'm not sure the answer to this, but your whole situation makes me really nervous because of your assets. But
you did do something wrong. I get it. But here, John, if he does get sued, let's say there is a judgment for eight hundred thousand or whatever it is, what happens if he wants different representation than State Farm. I mean, he might want to bring on somebody else because State Farm realizes they only have to pay up twenty five thousand. He might want to hire someone a lot better than someone working in a cubicle.
Yeah, that's that's you know. I would defer you to his policy, which gives them the right to defend and the right to about how to handle the claim. And certainly he's entitled to his own counsel, and that council would be you in charge of communicating and protecting his personal interest in this, which is somewhat different than the
State Farm interest, which is exactly what you're saying. And that comes up a lot mark when we had situations where the plantiff may have said, we'll take policy limits if you pone him up right now, and if the insurance company puts their interest ahead of their insured and refuses to pay those limits, then we believe that there's a conflict between the interests of the insured and the insurance company, and that almost requires independent counsel to keep
the insurance company honest and to move forward, because in that situation, the insurance company could be held liable for that whole eight hundred thousand.
Hey, Danny, what kind of damage? Was an ambulance showed up or anything like that? What happened? What kind of damage? I assume. I don't care, no offense to you. I don't care about you. I'm talking to the other people. Did there is your entire car look like it's gone or truck? Did they have injuries? Did an ambulance show up?
I don't.
I don't know. This sounds weird, but but I got knocked out and I drove my car to get out of the intersection, and I sat there and I never could see the accident sight. So I didn't know anything until I got that. I got this loss or got this message from my thing. I don't know if the amorys showed up or whatever. There was basically nothing done to me. I had a little bruise out there.
Danny, you've got to call You've got you've got to call State Farm and asked to talk to one of the attorneys. Tell them you guys sent me this stuff. I need advice from you. You guys are supposed to represent me. What is going on with this? Should I fill them out? Should I not fill them out? What I'm worried about is if they if they see or smell blood, that they're going to try to get everything they can. And and I don't want to beat you up.
This is really for other people listening. If you have eight hundred thousand dollars plus or a million dollars in assets, or four hundred thousand dollars in assets, don't have twenty five thousand dollars in liability insurance, you can get wiped out.
That's good advice.
I understand advice.
I know it's a little too late now for that, but Danny, do me a favor. I want Kelly to get all your info, and I want to follow this with you and if you have more questions. But I'd love to know what State Farm ultimately tells you when you call them, So call them today. I'd love to hear back from you today and hear what their attorney said, or if they refuse to let you talk to one of their attorneys for advice. Then what would you do, John, real quick?
Well, then then I would get a private attorney to advise me and to potentially communicate with state barm YEP about their their handling of this. Yes, I would it would be well or the a couple hours of whatever an attorney would cost you to do that.
And ultimately that is a personal injury attorney just acting on the other side.
That's that's right, that's right.
Go ahead, Danny, go ahead. That's what I want. That's what I want. I want an an attorney that I can have a consultation with. And uh, I called John Fuller and your screeners said you wouldn't do that because you would be on the other side. So uh, injured parties. So that's that's really a but here's a crazy thing about it. Okay, and and and you know I didn't take your call, but that's exactly what I would have told you as well. That we you know, we represent. I'm not going to represent.
This is so so. But here's the thing when it comes up that we have that we have situations where an insurance company may be refusing the tender limits or we get in one of these situations we often work with another plaintiffs attorney that we hand so leg so listen carefully to what I'm saying. The plaintiff's attorney will often hand select the attorney that's going to individually advise the defendant on his communication and his decisions relative to
his own insurance company. So what I might suggest to you is again, talk to your adjuster and if you express some you know, if you ask the hard questions here, what's going on? Is this you know APPIDVID being tendered to me in response to a policy limits demand? Or really what is going on? And if they can't give you good answers and they won't let you, you know, talk to one of their staff counsel, which is they will they just simply will.
But if they don't.
But if they don't, then then you know, I'll try to find you somebody to talk to. It's it's not me, and it wouldn't be hugely beneficial to have somebody just out of the blue. You'd want to have somebody that has some you know, connection to the case and stuff. And I don't want you to tell me who the planet's attorney is.
Or yeah, I got you.
I like that. On the on the air.
So all right, I got to come up on this hard breakdown. You know how that goes. Danny Kelly's gonna get all your information. Call State Farm as soon as you hang up. Ask to talk to their in house counsel about this and ask them should I sign this? Why are they doing it? Are you? Guys? Just just ask them all the questions seriously, and if they don't have answers for you, then we'll help you get an
attorney that can make them get answers for you. Okay, listen, Bill in Evan, you guys, hold on, we'll be back right after this.
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All right, Bill's got a quick comment on that. I'm going to go to that really fast. By the way, this hour brought to you by waterpros dot net, the best for less. Paul the Waterman. He's the man you know. He came out and gave us a bit on a water softener. I think it was about a year ago, might be a year and a half ago. We got three other bids. He was half the price, half the price. The system has been flawless. We absolutely love it. It came in at about I think we spend thirty five
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Now I'm going to go to this comment and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but it's one of the most important things in the world to have the right coverage. But Bill, what's your comment on the Danny issue?
Yeah, my comment, I've been a real estate broker thirty five years. My grandfather was an attorney. He had a client that was wiped out financially because he had a lot of assets. He was sued and so he went out.
That's what he did as he started calling up all these clients started setting up irrevocable trusts, which my understanding was it hit their assets with respect to the person that owned them, did not own them, to trust owned them, and therefore it would shelter them from that type of stuff. And so that's just what I mean. My goodness, And as you get older, you're more pro to stuff and they just start throwing it at you, and then all
of a sudden, you know, you're defending yourself. You're paying a lot of money to do that, a lot of energy, Oh goodness, and the stuff can be gone. So that's just my comment. I don't know if this guy's looked into that. I don't know what kind of help that could have been.
Well, it's too done, it's too late for him. There's a look back period on it. It's interesting you said that it is one of the way to shield your money. One of the problems with it is and that's not for everybody, but you know, whoever you leave it to, it's irrevocable. In other words, if you get mad at that child or spouse or something happens, it's done. It's locked in. I mean, you can't even touch it.
Uh So I think you can be the executor too if it's If it's irrevocable, if you have access to it, then it's part of your asset.
In other words, then you're not going to be able to hide it. If it's in someone else's name, say.
That again, it's revocable, then if.
It's revocable, they can go after that. I wouldn't even mind getting one of our experts on to talk about it. Mackenzie, that's an interesting question. There definitely is ways. In fact, keep listening, Bill, I'm going to get him on, and I know there's ways to do it. But I know there's a look back period, and I'm pretty sure it has to be irrevocable in order for no one to go after it because it's no longer years. If it's still yours, it's not going to be an irrevocable trust
because it's yours. But I will get on Dan McKenzie because that's interesting. But the other thing about this is it's so and Bill or I'm sorry, Evan, I'll go to you in a second. But it is so important. And once again I don't want to beat a dead horse on this deal. But if you have assets, people will come after them. That's why you should have insurance up to your assets, or up to a reasonable amount of them. Think about the average price of a car right now. You can't buy a new car for fifteen
thousand dollars. You know how many people in Colorado have this twenty five thousand dollars for bodily injury okay, liability, and fifteen thousand dollars for prop py damage. So you run into somebody with a newer Mercedes, the hell you run into anybody with a newer Ford Tourists if they still make them. You could run into anybody with a new car and you're not even going to be able
to have the coverage to pay for their car. If you ran into you know, docs car, you might have a forty thousand dollars bill and only fifteen thousand dollars in coverage, and then if he's injured in it. If DOC gets injured twenty five thousand for bodily injury, my god, like a cat scan, an MRI, an ambulance, and an emergency room visit. You're at fifty thousand without even blinking.
They've walked. Does an umbrella cover this?
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's why how it's important to have the right coverage. I swear to god, people look into it. If you have the asset stock with an umbrella. Though, umbrellas you can't just go out and buy when you have the state minimal. An umbrella is two fit fifty to five hundred, so you have to have two hundred and fifty thousand in liability insurance per person five hundred thousand per accident. Then you can get an umbrella that would kick in if it goes over that.
But if you have state minimum, no one would give you an umbrella.
I didn't realize that because the gap.
Coverage would be massive. Most you couldn't afford. The person couldn't afford the gap coverage, got it. It would be crazy And then folks the other one really quick, and I just want to harp on this. The other one people never seem to get is under insured, okay, underinsured coverage for yourself or no insurance coverage for yourself. So someone hits you, they only have twenty five thousand, or they have no insurance whatsoever. That coverage is for you.
That's for you. You'll go out and cover liability for other people. Start thinking about yourself, thinking of some kid t bones you and you can't walk again, and he's out minimal insurance. My god, you're gonna end up with twenty five thousand dollars and you can't walk for the rest of your life. Or you've got a traumatic brain injury or something happened and you only get twenty five
thousand dollars. You buy that coverage for yourself. That way, your own insurance kicks in to cover the difference between what that person at fault ad and five hundred thousand or a million or two million or whatever your coverage is, so you actually have money to live on when your life changes. Don't just think of the liability part. You want to cover for that so people don't take your house.
But you also want to be insured if someone creates chaos in your life and you can't work for a while because most people in Colorado have minimal coverage, or honestly, there's a lot of people in Colorado with zero insurance. Hey, really quick, Evan, you're going to be next. But what is the issue? So I can think about it during the break?
I don't even know if I need a lawyer. I just need help.
I just need told it.
If I need a lawyer, All right, fair enough? Hold tight? Is it got to do with a car accident or what?
No, like we just bought a truck, got it? Oh?
Yeah?
Is it a piece of crap? Did you buy a.
Piece of crap?
All right? Hold on? Hold on three oh three seven one, three eight, two five five. We're gonna have three lines open three zero three Martino, give me a call.
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Right, three oh three seven one three eight two five five. A lot of comments on that insurance. Will probably touch base on that a little throughout this show. It's so important and I hope that guy doesn't lose his house. But I need to go back to Evan. Hey, Evan, where'd you buy this truck? Was it from an individual or a dealership?
I'm from, like a used car dealership?
And what kind of vehicle is it?
It's it's Chevy twenty seventeen.
He's fifteen hundred, so it's a pick up, a fifteen hundred And I'm sorry, a Chevy fifteen hundred? Right?
Yeah?
And what's going on with it? Let's start there. When did you buy it? How long you goo?
I bought it in October?
Got it keep going? Real quick? And does it run right now?
Oh?
No, it's been in the shop the beginning of February.
Oh my god? Does it have does does it? Did you buy it with a aftermarket warranty or a warranty? Real quick? A service plan? Okay, hold tight, hopefully we can help her out. I don't know what car dealer it is, but we're all gonna find out after the break. Tom, you hold on and Jeremy as well.
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Lead time for an insurance checkup, free no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three O three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
News as we can Shoot is gonna help coming.
This is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martinez. Welcome my friends to the only show this guy. We're here to help you out.
We're here to solve your problems, answer your questions, take complaints. We have a list of experts at referral lists dot com that are always willing to hop in the weeds with us and try to figure out how to either get your money back or help you from losing money in the first place. We talked a little about insurance the first hour. We're gonna touch base on that as well. And someone actually called up and said, I wonder if the guy put everything in an irrevocable trust, if he'd
be actually covered. So we're gonna reach out to Dan McKenzie later on and talk about hiding assets and that's not really hiding them, but protecting assets asset protection, and he specializes in that as well. So we're gonna have that coming up. But right now, Wow, I'm going to go back to Evan. She bought a two thousand, seventeen Chevy fifteen hundred, bought it in October. You know, we're in April now and that vehicle's in the shop. Hey, I Oh, by the way, I'm sorry. We do have
some lines open. I'd love to hear from you. Any questions. Maybe uh, Tom was on hold with the scam but he had to drop off, but you name it. We want to help Deputy Docks ready to jump on something. Three oh three seven one three eight two five five three oh three seven one three eight two five five or three oh three Martino. So, so, Evan, you said that you bought it in October from a used car dealer and now it's in the shop. How many months of use, if any, did you get out of it?
Okay, so don't like the map.
I it's been in a shop four times.
What is it in for?
At first it was just like a little bus.
Check engine light came on. A week later we had to take it back.
And then it was in the shop for all of December for the lifters.
Oh my god, they actually had to tear into the engine.
Yeah.
So now it needs a whole new engine because it has not been fixed yet because we've been fighting with the service contract company.
Are they saying that it's a pre a precondition? I mean, why why are they fighting with you? What is the warranty company saying?
This is where?
This is why I think I knew it need a lawyer. They said that it's because it has aftermarket tires on it and the three inch list we bought it with that.
Well, let me let me evan. It's it's so funny you're arguing with that warranty company. You bought a car from a dealer that sold you a warranty that is no good on the vehicle they sold you did you or or wait, I want to make sure that's correct. Did they sell you that warranty or did you go out and buy that warranty?
No, they sold me the warranty, and not only that, when it was in the shop all of December, the warranty company.
Told my mechanic not to file the claim.
Because it was the mechanic or it was the dealership's fault.
And so I went in and I said, Okay, I want.
To cancel this service contract. And the dealership.
Was like, no, no, let me get my rep on the phone and.
Explain it to you.
They're gonna cover it.
Blah blah blah. So I tried to cancel the service contract.
They convinced me not to.
And now just now, like I'm talking, yesterday.
I found out all of our claims have been denied because of this lift and this yeah.
And I and I promise you what is the name of the what the warranty company?
It's called.
Until a drive vehicle service dealer Loyalty Protection.
See, Okay, I'm gonna do a little research on that, but here's the bottom line. In that agreement, in that service contract, it does say exactly what you're talking about it's saying, especially a lift. Honestly, a lift is a pretty big modification. If the tires were basically pretty close to the same size, I would argue that all day for you, and I'd say, yeah, this, this service comp or this warranty company needs to stand up. But in a case where you actually have a lift on it,
I agree with them. This should have never been sold The dealer that sold it to you with that lift on it should have never sold you a warranty that is basically void. There's no use to it. How much did you pay for it?
Thirty?
Yeah, and I go another step. I go one more step on this. You probably wouldn't have purchased that vehicle if you couldn't get a warranty on it. Is that correct?
Yes?
And I didn't know.
And they only gave me the first page of the contract until I begged them to send me the whole contract, and finally they did.
Well, oh, normally we don't have.
To spend that because you don't you only mean the first page.
Well, okay, they're full of crap.
Who is it the dealership?
Yeah, it's called off road Automotive off road geez, where are they in Fort Lupton.
Are you in Fort Lupton.
I'm I'm close, Kelly.
I want you to do me a favorite. Try to get these guys on hold on. I'm trying to find their website real quick. I don't want to give the phone number out yet. I think, have you actually talked to him about getting out of this deal? I mean, what are they telling you right now? What are they telling you the dealership forget about the warranty company. I don't think you're going to go. It's not the warranty company's fault.
Uh, the dealership.
I talked to him like this.
Morning and he's like, oh, well, I called my guy Yesterday's.
Trying to get it figured out.
They're trying to give get that wave and sent.
To you or and get it approved.
So another thing that I just hold on a second. Is the vehicle still there or is it a different shop.
It's a different mechanic shop that they recommended we go to because they only had they didn't have.
Enough space I guess in their mechanic shop for it to be there.
But they're the ones that basically told you to go there or brought it there.
Yeah, and the mechanic has been He's.
Obviously I got it.
We probably doubled it. Heaven, you got to watch the language. Okay, sorry, that's right, go ahead. So how much for the vehicle?
There? The purchase price was twenty thousand, four hundred and ninety seven dollars.
Yeah, this is Did you trade anything in or was it just a finance deal?
We did?
We trade it in a truck.
This sucks. This sucks.
So yeah, at this point I'd rather have the other one back.
Well, I get that, but before the trade in, where were you at? In other words, you said it costs you twenty thousand? Is that truly? I mean, does that include your trade in?
Like?
What was the actual amount for this vehicle?
Okay, I don't have all of that paperwork, it's actually in my car right now. But the I'm pretty sure, I'm sorry if this is wrong. Pretty sure it was listed at twenty four or something. And then they gave us eight grand for the truck, and then we bought the service contract.
So I think our loan exactly is for like seventeen thousand.
See, I don't think you should have ever. I think at this point, if they can't get it fixed, I mean, you're telling me they're still saying they're dealing with this company. But I don't know why this warranty company in a million years, wou'd pay for an engine unless if this dealer sells like a million of their contracts a freaking year, and that's why they do it. I mean, really, they should have never sold you that contract on that vehicle.
But once again, I go a step further, and I really do evant, and that step further is I think they should undo the deal because you wouldn't have purchased it without that warranty. They totally misrepresented this entire deal to you, in my opinion. Give me the name of it again, I can't find him anywhere.
It's called off Road Automotive.
And it's in Fort Collins, No, Fort Lupton. That's why I'm screwing it up here. We are right here, four by four off road.
No, I no, it's just called it.
I mean it's literally when I look up off road automot I got.
It, off Road Automotive, I got. It's like a kind of like a steel building barn looking thing.
Yeah, that's their old building.
But yes, that's the picture on the website.
Hey Kelly, I want and who are you been dealing with there, like what salesperson? What service person? Who is it?
The person who runs the contract?
His name is Jordan. Now forget about who runs it. But that's who you've been dealing with, is Jordan?
Yeah?
Yeah, because anyone else you talked.
To there has no idea about anything about the service contract.
So all right, hold on, let me get you on hold Kelly off Road Automotive. Did you look them up as well? I'm gonna put their phone number up. Yeah, Jordan. She's saying, Jordan's got something to do with the contracts. If he can come on, that's great, But really, uh, this place looks small enough. I bet the owners sitting in there, or at least a GM. Let's try to get the owner or GM or someone on uh with their opinion and what they're gonna do on this. I mean,
I can't imagine. I don't want to call them dead beats, but this seems pretty simple if they can't get it covered. This woman hasn't had use of her vehicle now for quite a long time. It needs an engine, and they're saying they're trying to pressure the warranty company into doing it. I don't even know how they're gonna do that though. I mean, if I was a warranty company, I wouldn't
cover that in a million years. They put a lift on it, I guarantee it says any off road or any other parts that are on there not meant to be on there that change the vehicle, and a lift most certainly changes the vehicle. Uh, you're not gonna have coverage. We're gonna take a quick break. Three zho three seven one three A two five five two lines open. I want to hear from you. Three zero three Martino.
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Three seven one three eight two five five, Hey, Jordan's on He's a sales manager at off Road Automotive, and I love when businesses come on, Jordan. I appreciate you coming on. So Evan called, she's just got a problem. It looks like you guys are trying to handle it, but I'm trying to get just a little more information on the situation. According to her, she bought the vehicle, a twenty seventeen Chevy fifteen hundred in October of twenty
twenty four. Uh, there was some problems with it. You guys basically had the lifter's done and she got it back. But now ultimately she hasn't been in the vehicle for a while. It needs an entire engine. The warranty company a thirty five hundred dollars warranty like in tell Us something or something along that line. They're claiming they're not going to cover it because the vehicle had a lift
on it. In every aftermarket warranty I've ever seen, if something's dramatically changed like that, they generally, well, first of all, they always try to find an out, any out, but if if literally it has a lift on it, most of them would never cover anything like that. But it looks like you guys are trying to get get them to do it. But let's say they don't fix it and stand up to it. Where is this going to leave her in this deal?
So yeah, the whole story behind that was it went into the shop late October early November for some left to work. The warranty company paid out that claim and got it fit, and then it had to go back into the shop. I'm not too for sure when apparently something mess up with the lifters again, But the warranty company should be reverting their denial because it's only a three inch left.
Okay, So the argument is there's no way to cause the engine damage.
You're right that too, So I'm a little confused on why they're inspector.
Well, I want to go back. I want to go back to that question, and that's basically what Evan said. She said, you guys were communicating with her, you know, as recently as yesterday, and basically said that you think it's going to be covered. I want to go back to this though, if you don't mind, what is going to happen if they do decline it. That's what I'm more worried about.
Well, then it would have to unfortunately come out of someone's pocket when we're always trying to make everything right for our customers, So we could potentially look into trading her out of the vehicle.
Or yeah, we know that's generally. I'm not saying you guys would do her wrong like that, but we do know of dealerships where you know, something like this happens and they end up in even worse shape. But I'm not saying you guys would do that. Honestly, I don't think we've gotten many complaints on you guys over however long you've been in business, So I mean, I don't think that's an issue. I would say this, and I'm curious from a sales manager's point and as you as
a consumer, because you buy stuff. I've always said if I went out and bought a used vehicle and someone sold me a warranty on it and then we find out to warranty is no good, generally the calls we get is pre existing condition. That's the biggest one. The warranty company goes, oh, we're not going to do that transmission because it was there prior to you buying the warranty. I'm sure you've heard that a million times too, So yeah,
that's that's our number one call. We get the exact same call on cars that we're talking about now, but not nearly as much where there's been a modification. But I've always made argument, and we have an attorney, Kelly, what is her name? I always Rena, Rena, Rena buy off.
So all she.
Does, Jordan, Well, she does a ton of lemon law. But all she does is deal with cars. But most of it's new cars and lemon law. But what's curious, and her and I have discussed it. I think although it wasn't done on purpose, in most cases, when something is sold with a warranty and people are not thinking that they're going to have to come four five, six, seven, eight thousand dollars out of pocket because they have this warranty,
I would argue she wouldn't. And I've asked Evan this on air if she would have bought the vehicle if it didn't have some form of warranty and she said absolutely not. So I would say, if it doesn't get handled by the warranty company, I would say, you know, maybe she pays for some of the mileage usage she has, but she gets to pretty much undo the deal. Or maybe you guys to have up and fix it or kind of like what you said, you guys kind of trade or out of it, but you do it in
a very fair and honest way. I mean, do you think you guys would handle that in one of those approaches.
Oh, definitely, there were not in the business of unwinded deals. So we want to find the right vehicle for excellent.
So do you really think you're going to get this warranted company to come through? Do you guys sell a lot of their paper?
Oh?
Yeah, no, this is my most used warranty company.
And so you got some armed twists there. Oh that you have some arm twisting to do with these guys.
Niah, There's no reason for it to be denied because of the three inch lift, because they only deny claims if the search hard for a six inch lift and above got it is not clicked. So there wouldn't be a reason for a three inch left to be the client.
You know, I haven't what's the name of that warranty you sell? What's it called again, intel A, it's.
A dealer loyalty protection? Is the company got it?
So what's interesting not from that company but from other companies. We have actually had other warranty companies deny almost anything transmissions engines. You know, repairs over a thousand bucks based upon just the tire size. I mean like literally on tire size, and we have helped fight and basically make them pay out. So we have definitely done that. I agree with you if it's only a three inch lift, but you're sure you're sure a three inch lift doesn't tax that motor more?
Oh yeah, I mean that's just some suspension work, that's it. And the previous claim was paid out and it had that same lift on it, so there's no reason why this one wouldn't.
All right, When do you think you'll know what direction to go? Go ahead? Evan? Did you have a question?
The lifters haven't gotten fixed at all? Like the claim that he's there was.
There was a claim that got accepted and approved, but it was just for the lifters, and the mechanick was calling them every day telling them, hey this.
And need a new engine.
How do I submit that?
Evan? I'm sorry, Evan, I dig exactly what you're saying. But if you've been following the conversation I've had you up, I get that they went in they wanted to try to fix it by the lifters. It was diagnosed, they probably got some approval to get the lifters done. They got it done, and kind of the issue was still there because more or less the whole time it needed
an engine. But everybody there at off Road now, especially Jordan, knows what's going on, and if you heard everything we talked about, they're either going to get these people to fix it. They're either going to step up to the plate and fix it, or they're basically going to give you what you paid back towards another vehicle that you're happy with there. I mean, those are decent outcomes. If you ask me for the circumstance you're in, would you agree.
So I agree.
I was also looking at it, and I guess this is I was just looking at it. But it also says something about like the a doometer being off, and when we bought the truck, the Kelly Blue Bucks said that a dometer was off, and it's one of the things that it says it's not going to cover for that as well.
So maybe, well, what would you cover on that. I mean, let's just say worst scenario, the odometer was rolled back. I mean, what do you mean covered on that. What does that mean, like you want the odometer said it to correct?
No?
No, for the same session where it says we're not going to cover a vehicle.
With these things, yeah, such.
As the lift and the aftermarket tires.
Yeah, it says we're not going to cover a vehicle that has an a dometer that's not correct.
Yeah, but what does that mean? What's not Jordan? Do you know what's not correct about her dometer?
That looks like a shop made a typo back in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two.
But that's that hasn't come up from the warranty company at all, has it.
That's not a brand title or anything like that either.
So much.
Yes, so Evan, I mean if someone miskeyed something, yeah, I wouldn't worry about that. And let me explain that to somebody what he just said. Any shop out there, I mean, Jiffy Loub at this point probably does, but I know Goodyear Firestone breaks. Plus all these people are point of sale. The point of sale systems literally talk to like Carfax, and when you do an oil change,
it sends it up to Carfax. So when someone pulls the Carfax at some point and I don't care if it's Kelly Bluebook or a dealer or whoever pulls that carfax, they're going to see it. So if someone fat fingered, you know, one entry way back when, but then the rest of it all makes sense. None of that's going to affect anything we're talking about. So really, what I want you to do, Evan as simple as this. I
want you to stay in contact with Jordan. Jordan, what do you think you'll hear something the next couple of days on the warranty stuff.
Definitely the next couple of days.
Okay.
I think I'm worried about is if the shop's trying to file for entire engine and it could be just the lifters, So if they if the first claim was never officially.
But this is a shop you told her to send her to.
Right, I don't know?
Yeah, well Evan, Yeah okay, So Jordan, why don't you call it? How about we give you a couple of days to look into it. I mean, would you do that for us and then get back to her then, Evan, give us a call back and let us know where it's at. I mean, can we all be on that same page? Is that good? Is everybody good?
With that.
No, I'm just waiting on Yeah, that's.
Yeah. No, And Evan, I'm giving you advice right now. So I think we're in good shape, and let me do this real quick. Stay Evan, I want you to stay on. But hey, Jordan, I really appreciate you coming on. Do me a favor and get involved to the to the point where you're a thorn in their ass and try to figure out how to get it paid or move forward with her.
All right, Oh yeah, absolutely, I hope I've been on top of it.
All right, thank you very much. And then Evan, what I want you to do is listen, give them a couple of days and give us a call back and let us know what's going on. The guy seems like a good guy. Kelly's got him on hold right now. And I'll tell you this since he's on hold, you know, I want to do everything to try to rectify this quickly for you. So I'm not going to go ballistic over this. But if they're not going to do anything, and I do, I really have a gut feeling they
are going to come through on this. But if they don't want to do anything, I have another tactic. I am very good at But I think these guys are going to get it handled for you, Okay, and then if they do want to buy you out of that vehicle, I want to see the paperwork on it to make sure it's fair. Okay, sound good?
Yes, sir?
All right, hold on, I got to put you on hold. I want your information, Kelly, get absolutely everything from her. Miles has got a question on a bridge loan. Yeah, Miles, I'll tell you what I've had him and I've had actually you've given them or written them, so Hank tight, we'll figure exactly what's going on. But your next three oh three seven one, three eight, two five five, I'd love to hear from you. Got two lines open three zero three Martino or at help at troubleshooter dot com.
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Kai three oh three seven one three A two five five. We're gonna have one line open in a minute. I know some people are on hold waiting to get up. I promise you guys will be first. But Miles has a question on a bridge loan. Hey Miles, what is your exact question?
Hey, mart thanks for taking my call. Actually, here's my situation is, Uh, my parents need to go into assistant living facility, and in order to pay for that, I have to sell their their property. Uh now, I they've have they have a ton of equity in their in their property.
Well let's talk. Let's define a ton. What is a ton?
Sir?
What what is a ton of equity? In your opinion?
Well, well, but I mean they they they've got about about eight hundred thousand equity.
Oh that's a ton. I agree with that. Yeah, that's what I was saying.
Though.
More more, what I was curious about is the loan to value.
So got a metric tone?
What is the loan to value? What's the house worth?
Well, the house is worth about a million Uh.
Nice, that's great.
Yeah, they have alio about two hundred thousand.
Now, explain to me why why you need money or they need a loan in order to get into long term care, I assume is what you're looking at. Yes, And how much is the long term care per individual?
Well, we we found a place. It's not eight thousand, eight to nine thousand.
A bus for both of them, you know, for.
For both of them. Yeah, that's pretty nice.
Hey, I'm just curious because I'm starting to I'm gonna have to start thinking about these kind of things. But like, do they live in the like is it in an apartment at that at that kind of cost where they both live in the same unit if you will.
Yeah, it's basically a one venue apartment. Have a bedroom, then you have a sitting area, and you've got you don't really have a kitchen at but you know, you've got a refrigerator and the sake of ace.
So the facilities has the breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They have probably care depending on where your parents are at that maybe they get checked on once a day, maybe they're checked on every few hours. And as they get older or in worse health, you know, it just changes.
Yeah, well, my father is pretty.
Advanced Alzheimer's or Alzheimer's.
No is with Parkinson's.
I had my Suzanne's grandmother. We watched her. Uh, she actually lived pretty long. But man, Parkinson's it's a nasty sucker. Man, it is nasty. But keep going. So you need how much? Like I mean, I would assume that house would sell pretty quick. So I'm still trying to understand where the bridge loan or not that.
Not necessarily. It's very unique property. It's in Bolder, it's on two acres. Uh, it's a farmhouse. And the thing is, it's gonna take me about six months to get that place properly ready to sell because they have barns that are just full of stuff.
Yeah, I gotcha.
And the house is full of stuff.
And the semi hoarding semi hoarding situation, but it's mostly just stuff collected from a long life.
Yeah, for long life. And plus whenever you have a barn and someone needs to source something for a month, they bring it over there.
How much are you thinking? So I'm looking at this in two ways like Okay, what would I personally do? And then I'm also looking at it as almost like a lender at a certain point. So what right, So what are you how much are you trying to get right now? Well, six months times nine thousand, nine times six fifty sixty grand, yeah, somewhere around there. And then what kind of interest? So there's a couple way to look at this. I mean, bridge loans are pretty high
end or loans. There would be nothing to pay ten percent on that, So I mean would that even bother you?
It depends. I mean we have a liquid assets or you know, a few months maybe three months okay, and uh but you know, like I said, it's gonna take me about six months to get that property properly ready to sell.
They get a heelock on their home.
No, I don't know what their income stances, but it seems a lot to go. No matter what, you're going to have to go through closing. You're going to have to come out of pocket no matter what. So I'm trying to figure out for such a low amount, what would the actual amount be. You said you had three months or are you only looking for like thirty thousand.
Maybe another three months?
Yeah, about thirty thousand.
Well, and you don't want to come out of pocket or you can't come out of.
Pocket, right, Yeah, I can't come out of park.
You don't want to do that, well, I mean, I'll be honest, man, I mean go ahead. Well I would do. And I'm talking me personally, and I'm not saying this because this is an awkward circumstance because you know, I'm on the radio and you're calling in for advice, but to give you an idea. If my typical people came to me and said, hey, do you want to do this, if you wanted thirty thousand, I would do a one time fee of five grand on it, and I'd give
you thirty thousand. I would make five grand on that, and i'd give you nine months to pay it back, and i'd hold the d to security. So I mean, that's kind of a hard nose lender looking at it. But even if you got a heat lock or something, no matter what with closing costs and interest, you could easily be about that amount there. So the other thing you can do is literally talk to this. See this would cost a fortune, but it would get you out of it. But it doesn't make economic sense compared to
a five thousand dollars fee. So what you could do is get a reverse mortgage, and they would instantly have access to a lot of that. But then, I mean, you're paying all that money and doing all the qualifications and everything, and you might actually have to bring the home up if there's big problems with it to a certain amount. It's just not a good option. You know what I would like to do, though, Here's what I'd really really like to do. I want to get John
Clays up. You heard what I do. Let's ask a guy that literally lends money, traditional pass every which way. So I want you to hold on Miles, all right, and we're going to get John Clay's up, Kelly, and then Teresa's got a problem with AT and T cellular, Kei's got an issue with a basement man contractors. It's that time of year. Wait till we start getting the landscaping calls. But I'd want to finish up with Miles after the break. If we can get Clayson real quick, we'll be right back.
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Three oh three seven one three A two five five. Hey, listen, John Clace, partner in lending dot com. John, If I got to keep you over the break, I will, but we got a caller Miles. Bottom line is this, his parents have eight hundred thousand dollars in equity. The home's worth about one one one two. They're gonna sell the home. That's the ultimate goal to sell it in six months. It's gonna take them six months to sell it because it's got a lot of barns and garages, and it's
just got a lot of stuff. The parents are in the eighties. They're moving into an assisted living facility. He needs thirty thousand dollars for the next six months to basically pay the assisted living facility while they're getting the house ready to sell. I basically said, for someone like me that does hard money loans occasionally to me, if everything smelled right, I would charge basically five grand. It would be a six month note, and I'd give them
the thirty grand. But you know that's going to be what is that twenty to twenty five percent interest? So I mean, but that's it. But any other ideas you have, I mean I kind of gave you the scenario. I figured even if they went in to get a he lock, first of all, I think they'd qualify. But maybe, But what ideas do you have and how much would the closing costs be on those ideas, because like on a reverse mortgage for six months, it's going to cost them ten fifteen grand to do that easily.
Well, yeah, exactly what you just gave them. It is actually a good deal because a lot of people won't touch it under fifty thousand.
Puts it's not worth it too.
Yeah, and you know your typical loan on that is, you know it's going to be you know, twelve thirteen percent and three points up. Well, it's basically the same.
Deal you just told them.
Yeah, it's basically really the best option.
But they got to go through the qualifications and stuff. Do you have other people that do that if I didn't want to do it, you got to list the hard money people you trust.
I do.
I do have some very good I bet people.
I bet we know some of the same people. Isn't that funny? Hey, Miles, do you have any questions? Man? And I'll love Kelly. I'll have Kelly give you my information and you can reach out to John as well. Man.
Okay, yeah, because the facility gave me a place that does bridgelians specifically for this kind of thing. Yeah, but I think it's online. I don't really trust anybody. I'd rather you know.
Well, it's all hold on, see now, I am going to put you back on hold Miles, hold on, I want to hear about ED. Get that website and I'll look at it over the break. Kelly, get the website from Miles. John. If you want to hang, please feel free.
Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot Com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
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Come man, This is.
The Troubleshooter Show. No, Tom Martinez, welcome my friends to the Only Show.
If it's kind. We're here to solve problems, to answer questions, our goals, to help you out. Maybe a bad landlord's given you the business, as Wally Cleaver used to say, maybe a contractor. In fact, I think we have a contractor call coming up here in a second. But that's what we do. We love getting involved, we love helping you. We've got a great list of people at referral list dot com, including attorneys that help us every single day right here on this show. Hey, I still wanted to
get up Kelly. Maybe as we get a lull, well forget if we get a lull or not, I definitely want to bring him up. I want to get McKenzie up. Just call him up. See what's a good time for maybe twelve thirty ish or something, But tell him I've got some questions on asset protection from a call we took this morning. And that's very interesting stuff and it provokes some thought in a lot of people that want answers on it. So that'll be Dan McKenzie Attorney coming up.
And three three seven one three two five five. We've got two lines open right now, by the way. This hour brought to you, brought to you by Compass Insurance. These guys help us basically every single day on the show. They can also help you save money when it comes to insurance. You know, they shop Susanna and I's insurance every single year. Our car insurance, are our v insurance, our motorcycle insurance, our homeowner's insurance. Man we have too
many insurances. But anyhow, they shop all the companies they deal with every year to make sure we're having the best discount. They also make sure our house is staying covered properly. A lot of people are undervalued. If you haven't checked the value of your house compared to what you actually have it insured for, you might be unpleasantly surprised. So please please please give these guys a call. Go to Compassinsurance dot Com and tell them to run the numbers.
That's its simple as that, Compass Insurance dot Com. Now, let me see who's been holding the longest. And I really do appreciate people when you call up and hold. I know it can be a pain in the ass, but really we do want to help you. So Keith's got an issue, and then Teresa your next three h three Martino two lines open. Hey, Keith, what is going on with this contractor it looks like something to do with your basement.
Yes, Hi, thanks for taking my call on court.
I really appreciate it.
I've I'm in the process of doing a basement finish, but I'm doing it in phases. My first phase consists of one bedroom in a living area in the basement at the.
Base of the stairs.
Basically, it's it's kind of a large space, so I'm doing about about six hundred and forty square feet. It's been framed up. I've got the mechanical and the electrical, so I've got all my rough inspections done. I've moved on to the insulation, and that's kind of where the hiccup starts.
I've got the insulation up in the.
Area that I'm doing Phase one finishing on and when the insulation inspector came for that before I can move on to drywall, they failed me on the insulation, requesting that I do continual insulation throughout the remaining portion of the basement that's going to add on. Like I said, it's keep in mind it's a large basement that's going to add on about ten thousand dollars Keith, and extra cost that I was out budgeted.
Hey, Keith, I want to understand something on the layout. You said it's framed in. Is it just that six hundred square feet framed in or when you had the framers come in, or if you did it yourself, did you actually frame the entire basement or just at six hundred feet we're.
Talking about.
Just the six hundred feet we're talking and they're basically saying untouched.
You would have to go in and frame the rest. Is it a walk out by the way or just cement. It's cement, so you would have to go up and basically frame the rest of the basement, and then they you wouldn't have to finish it. But I'm just trying to understand this. If you just framed the rest. Forget about finishing the rest that you're saying would cost ten grand plus the insulation, or he's not even giving you that option.
No, that's what he's requested me to do. I'm saying, not even framing.
If I were to just put up a continual insulation, yeah, fell insulation.
And oh, because I'm sorry you're not doing would so even if you just put up like the blanket insulation going on the wall, that would really cost that much more.
About ninety bucks.
Wow. Wow, I didn't realize that stuff is so expensive. What county are you in? It's in Adam's very interesting. He wants you to do the whole thing. Did he point to where it says that in the code? I mean, is it purely just a code issue and you're not going to get around it? Or are you actually trying to argue with him?
So I put a call in great question. I put a call into him for him to call me back, and I've been ghosted. They're not calling me back.
Hey, Kelly, let's get Mark Schamansky on. I know Mark's done a ton of basements and remodels in Adams County.
That's where it brought me to the residential So the international Resibudhill code.
Yeah, but that doesn't matter international listen, Keith, it doesn't matter what international code says. Well, I'll take that back. If international code says you have to do the entire thing, then I'm going to agree with you one hundred percent. It's relevant. But if it says you don't have to do the entire thing, that doesn't mean anything. If Adams County makes you do it, you follow, okay, And that's what it does.
That's where that's why I'm calling you, because it does actually stay that if you're if you don't touch anything on the on the existing portion, that does not have.
To be brought up to code.
Yeah, and see Adams County. Actually Adams County can have different code in there. But I'll tell you what. We're going to get Mark or one of our contractors on and we're going to figure it out with you man. In fact, they could probably even look up the code. I think Shamansky will probably know the answer right off the bat. What what municipality are you in? It's Brighten and are you doing the work yourself? I am curious did you do the framing? Are you going to do
the finishing. You're going to do the drywalls, so I.
Have I have framers and I have drywallers. Oh cool, But I did the mechanical and the insulation.
Nice Who did the electrical?
I have an electrician as well.
All right, cool, that's cool. Did you what did you do for HVAC? Those kind of uh, those big what do you call him?
There?
I don't know the technical name, but it's not just duct work. It's basically like well, it's definitely duckwork, but it's not the old aluminum stuff. It's the stuff you can bend and twist everywhere.
Well, no, I didn't do any of that. I did hard pipe. I did.
I did the hard pipe. I'm not a big fan of the flex And.
What kind of egress window did you do? That must have cost some bucks.
So that's the great part is is there was actually three egress windows already into the home.
Oh wow, I don't have to do anything with those.
You probably got to put a certain like a ladder or something on him. But hold on, here's our export march manscra Hey Mark with Genesis Total Exteriors. Mark. He's done a ton of work at our house. In fact, if you're back in town Mark. You need to get over there, hopefully next week or the weekend so Suzanne and I can get finished up on the projects you're doing for us. But Keith's got a question. Man, it's pretty interesting. He passed electrical mechanical the base. It's been framed,
but it's only six hundred feet. He's basically putting a bedroom down there. So he's doing just six hundred feet in the basement and everything has passed so far, and he's to the point where insallation's in, so he had the insulation put in. The guy gets there from Adams County and basically says, nope, I'm going to fail you on insulation because you need to do the entire basement. So remember though, he's only doing this one bedroom down there.
So hey, Keith, real quick, how big is the entire basement?
The rest of it's about fourteen hundred square.
Feet, so he's got a two thousand square foot basement. He's doing a six hundred foot bedroom down there, and this guy failed him on insulation. Keith actually looked at a few different things that come to international code or national code, whatever you want to call it, and it doesn't call for that long as you're not doing anything for the other areas. But do you know if Adams County is, if this, if this inspectors correct, what do you know about it?
Well, so you know, every city and county is different. And you know, it's funny because we just did a remodel of the whole house and they weren't concerned about the rest of the house even though everything was on a code on there. Yeah, and for him, for that inspector to you know that, to me, it's just not right. They're overstepping their bounds. I would I would contact the head of Inspections or the head of the county building department and have a conversation with him and ask for
exemption of or not have to do this. They you know, we're not working, they're not we're not using it as a livable space, you know, Yeah, just holding our our boxes and our Christmas trees and stuff. We don't need it insulated. We're not going to you know, put extra heat down there, just in the bedroom.
So basically file what you're saying is to file an appeal, a grievance, a grievance could you mark, can you do something for us? You don't have to do it right now, but I would love to know if that building code, why this guy is failing it, if that's actually part of Adams County or whatever municipality. And then in the follow up question to both of you, I assume you
walk down the stairs into the basement. Do you walk down Keith, into a big empty areas and like back in the corner is what we're talking about.
So that's what I finished.
When you walk down the stairs, that's going to be like a living area.
Yeah, part of the finish.
See I don't get that at all, then Mark, I agree with Mark. I started thinking if you walk down and you're just at a cement floor, no insulation, and there's a room way over in the corner, I'm going maybe I get where this guy's coming from.
But that's not the case, right, Yeah, I put in all mechanical work.
Go ahead, Yeah, go ahead, don't go ahead?
Yeah go Keith.
Yeah, where I actually where I actually put in mechanical work. That is all been insulated. That's going to be the living area and the bedroom that's down there. The mechanicals all closed off there at the to the right of the stairs, and all the unfinished. Is also got a temporary wall that's going to have an actual closing door.
There's no mechanical runs into that.
I get it, there, you.
I get it or after, So I would do that. So Mark, what do they?
What is?
What should he literally do? First? You said to call the guy's boss, which I would do Keith or even you know what, I would do nicely because you told me the guy just like drop you. He's not calling you back. I would actually leave them one more message, and I'd be really nice. I'd be like, you know, I've left you a few messages. I'm trying to understand this, but I got to get resolutions. So I'm going to try to reach out to your boss or someone, but be nice about it. Go ahead.
That's where I did. That's where I did get to I did. I did leave a message for his boss, and.
You haven't got a call back there return, Hey, Deputy Doc, you want to call over and ruffle some feathers, I mean, do it in a nice way, but call over to Adams County, get Keith's information, and let's try to help him through this. You good with this? Stock, Yeah, so we're going to do that. But then Mark, is there somewhere actually on the website to file that grievance that you know about, What exactly do you do?
I would another thing you can do is just go down there and just say, hey, I needed to talk to ahead of the building department. Here's my situation. You know, maybe eventually you're going to finish the whole basement, but it's not in my budget right now. Let's let's get this approved. I mean, they should be reasonable.
Let's say if it is part of code, Mark, and I am assuming it is. I'm assuming this guy is just not going rogue for no reason. But let's say it is. Typically you could get a variance on that. Wouldn't you think on something like this we.
Should be able to and you know, give me a give me a half hour and so and I'll see if I can get a true answer on that for you.
Hey, so, Keith, hold on, Keith, I want to make sure we have all your information. Deputy Doc's going to grab that. He's going to call over there to Adams County. Meantime, Mark's going to look up and figure out the exact building code for you there, and let's see if this guy has anything.
Okay, all right. I appreciate your help, guys.
Yeah, you hold on, hold on, hey, Mark, let me ask you real quick. I had to put him on hold a couple things. One, what are you guys going to be doing in the next month? Man? You know, I actually had a little bit of snow if you can believe that in frank Down overnight, which is crazy. But honestly, it's beautiful out now, and it's been beautiful for a while. I doubt we're getting that big April dump. But even if we do, what are you guys going
to be concentrating on? I mean, Genesis exteriors. Is it time for everybody to start getting bids on decks getting their house painted? I mean, what is your call in April and May? What floods you guys?
I'll tell you what. The most most calls we get right now are there paint is because you know, I have to go through the winds all saying whoh my house is on looking so good because winter is really really tough on paint big and so people are calling and say, hey, can you come take a look to paint our house? So that is a big one right now, and I think you know, we're only a month away from starting to be able to paint outside too, So it's ready to start calling to get estimates.
Yes, sure, get them guys. And because he brought painting up, I'll tell everybody listening. Look, they did the exterior of our house. It's spent probably four or five years, absolutely beautiful. He brought a color expert to scout, came out with him and talked to my wife and they looked at the color of our like our r V garage and our barn, and kind of put the whole thing together and came up with the right color. And we wouldn't have never chose that color, but it was the best
thing ever. And in fact, remember I said at the beginning of Mark coming on air, I need him out next week. They're going to paint the entire interior of our house. So yeah, these guys unbelievable interior exterior. He's got one of the best painters. I always forget his name, but he's worked for Mark for twenty years. What's his name?
Diaries is who he had come out to.
No, no, no, who was your actual omar?
Omar was your paint I know.
I swear to God if he listens to the show. He's got to hate me because I always forget his name. But it's unbelievable, Mark. The exterior still looks brand new. Anytime I've had anything after Winner, I hit it with the powerwasher, like on forty five PSI. It looks brand new, like you just did it. But get the quotes on the decks, get whatever quotes you want. These guys do it all. That's Mark Schamansky. He's the owner Genesis Total Exteriors.
As in the beginning Genesis, these guys are absolutely wonderful. Genesis Total Exteriors dot Com three oh three, six seven nine eighty five oh nine. Mark, I appreciate you looking into Adams County. Text me or call back with the information as soon as you get it. I'd love it. That's what our referral list members do. They help people like you. Keith and Medina hang type.
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Help.
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot Com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
All right, three oh three seven one three eight two five five Fix it twenty four to seven thirty nine bucks. Look, get them out there, get that ac, get it clean. They're gonna tear everything apart, including the blower motor in that furnace, and clean it up and get that condenser outside. Think of all that snow and rain and sleet and hail and everything that's hit that thing in the last four or five months. They'll come out for thirty nine
bucks for first time customers and get it clean. You're gonna absolutely love it, and you're not gonna beat that deal anywhere. No, it's not a sales job. They're gonna come out. They're going to put a no breakdown guarantee on it when they're done and make sure it's ready for summer coming up. They do it because in the future, you know that furnace breaks, the AC breaks, you need electrical work, you need plumbing services, you need drain cleaning.
They do all that. They want to introduce these great texts and give you a deal. They can't be beat. Thirty nine bucks are going to spend an hour and a half two hours. You probably see the commercials with Tom on TV as well, but check them out. Fixmihome dot com, get set up right now, Fix my home dot com. Now we're going to go to Teresa has a problem with AT and T. Hey, Kelly, I would like to get Dan on too. Did you reach out
to McKenzie? I would like to get him on with some asset protection questions that came up of a insurance call this morning. Teresa, what is going on with AT and T?
Well Mark? I sent him a an email with final notice documentations from AT and T. I was with AT and T for twenty seven years, and I stopped service with them September last year, paid off our two phones, and paid my final bill. Recently, just a couple of weeks ago, I received the first letter stating that I owe one hundred and eighty dollars and forty six cents on this particular account number, noted the account number is
not my account number. And then if you have questions to please call this number or when I've called the number, uh, it states and my email.
It states.
That this account is managed by an AT and T resiler reseller and that I need to contact reseller or current provider.
Me.
Don't let me. Let me just ask one question real quick. Did I hear you correctly that you emailed us something? Yes, Kelly, can you send that over to me look through the help I'd like to look at it at least on the next break.
I'm Teresa regarding AT and T. If I don't notice, yeah, I'll get.
I'll get it turned the break and look at it. But let me ask you something, Teresa. First of all, I think this whole thing sucks for without even knowing anything about it. I hate when you're loyal to a company for so long that they treat you like crap. And I don't care if it's Comcast, AT and T, Sprint, they all seem to do it these days. It's just par for the course. So when AT and T told you it has nothing to do with them, it's this reseller, did you call the reseller?
I don't know who it is. I have no idea who it is. I can't get through to a number.
Well, let me ask you this, Why are you even worried about it at this point? Isn't it so? At and T is saying you don't know him and Nickel?
Right, well, well that was back in September when I paid everything off. Yeah, but I'm saying and a count is closed.
But Teresa, I'm not trying to make this complicated. So what I'm saying is, right now, I understand the reseller whoever it is, is saying some money is owed or at and T is telling you you owe money to the reseller. But my question to you is do you owe AT and T any money?
No?
Okay? And they acknowledge that, right.
Well, yes, yes they do.
Okay, Well just yeah, that's doc. That's kind of where I'm going. But I'm trying to figure out, so Teresa, they're they're like sending you an email or a bill, what kind of notifications?
It's a letter in the two letters in the mail.
And that's what you sent me, right, That's what I said. All right, hold on, let me get you on hold take this. I'm going to look at it during the break. Then we have a U haul issue. Oh man, I hope it doesn't involve you haul insurance. Everybody, hold tight. We're going to have two lines open eventually. Three oh three seven one three A two five five. I'd love to hear from you. Three oh three Martino.
How's you can.
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Help.
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank Durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
All right, three oh three seven one three A two five five three zero three Martino, goodness, gracious, we got two lines open. I'd love to hear from you. I'm gonna go back to Teresa's issue with AT and T. Bottom line is this Teresa? I still am looking at this and it says, uh yeah, is it? Tracy beal at and T. Here's the documents final notice AT and T total amount to one hundred and eighty. We recently final bill AT and T one hundred and eighty. You
still have an outstanding balance. Go online to AT and T. This appears to be directly from AT and T. This doesn't appear to be from a third party source. But why do they say it's a third party source.
That's what the recording says when you call their eight hundred number, the eight hundred two eight eight twenty twenty.
All right, well, listen, I'm gonna make this I'm gonna make this easy on you. We have an angel over there, My wife Suzanne's listening. We're gonna we're gonna email AT and T for you, someone that handles real problems and hopefully gets is handled and find out what's going on. But I want to say this T as well. I mean, really, I wouldn't even play around anymore. If you're sure you don't owe it? Was that the exact amount you paid for the final bill?
No, no, I paid off our phones. I don't remember what the amount was. I have no idea where they came up with this one hundred and eighty dollars and forty six cents. And what scares me, Mark is you know I have an eight hundred and ten BICO score. Yeah, and they're threatening to put this to you know, a collection agency. Are you freaking kidding?
Well wait, wait wait, I want to push you a little at ease. So just because something's getting collection, they're not supposed to put on your credit report. What happens is and with AT and T I assure you this would happen. They're not going to use some crazy collector, not saying it couldn't end up in the hands sold pennies on the dollar. But really, what happens, Teresa, is
they hand it over to collections. Collections tries to intimidate you to get paid, and then they got to make the real decision is it worth bringing her to court over one hundred and eighty dollars. So then if they do want to go to that, what they would do
is they would literally file the lawsuit. Have you served, You would go to court, you would have your time in court, and let's say you did lose, then they could put it on your credit report, but they have to go through and get the judgment that you own it before it's going to be put on your credit report. If not, they could be facing some pretty big penalties.
Okay, Yeah, I'm just really upset, right.
Yeah, no, hey, listen, I protect my credit score the same exact way, the same exact way. In fact, everybody out there should.
The account number isn't even my account number.
Well that even makes it even crazier. So but here's the deal. We're going to reach out Kelly. Please forward that same email that you sent to me to Suzanne
and she's going to reach out to you. So Teresa, make sure you give Kelly your phone number and more importantly, email, and Susanna will reach out to you where it is and if it's all if it's all bogus, in other words, it's literally bogus because it's the wrong account or something, Susanna will lets you know or she'll let you know okay, they they made it right or whatever.
Okay, I appreciate it.
Make sure you call back in when it's done so I can give Suzanne the dinger. Three oh three seven one three A two five five three zero three. Martina, we're gonna have two lines open, Medina, What is going on with you? Haul guy?
Can you hear me?
Okay?
I can hear you perfectly, Okay.
So I had rented a pickup truck, not a moving van or anything. I rented a pickup truck for a friend who came to town to visit back in January. January bucket and I live in Montana and it's really cold here around that time, and he wanted me to take him around and do like odd jobs. He's trying to raise money to get his dog out of the hound in Florida.
Hey, Medina, let me ask you. Let me ask you a question right off the bat when you said you rented to truck for him. He was out in your neck of the woods. Yes, and you went into a place, a U haul dealer and rented the truck under your name, because I'm assuming he couldn't pay for it based upon the story you.
Told, right right right?
So was he added as a driver and was he driving or were you driving?
No, he was added as a as a driver.
Okay, now keep going.
And so I when we got into the U haul place, he went in first, and then he came and got me to sign it. So when I went in, he yelled and it was just the four of us met him, a manager and another worker, and he yelled out and he said, then I got insurance on this too, and I said, okay, so and I just went and I signed it. I just trusted everything was fine. And I've never really rented a U haul truck before, so I didn't.
It's just like running a car. But so so that I guess you're kind of teasing where we're going here. So you thought you had the insurance, but it turns out you didn't.
Right, so on, I was supposed to return it on the sticks, and what happened though the evening before. The guy that I had rented it for. His name is Randy, and he's kind of handicapped where he was in a wreck couple of years ago, so he doesn't.
Walk right, got it.
And then it's really icy here, so he fell on the ice as he was going in to rent a room for them, him and his friend that.
He yeah, that's fine, but what happened with the vehicle itself?
So he handed the guy the keys to repark the car while he went in and got the room.
And the guy is the friend he's getting the room for, which of course is not listed on the contract, right right, Okay, hold on, this is uh well, I don't want to say it's complicated. It's interesting. I'm hoping we can come up with some answers. I promise right after this, I'll bring you right back up Medina.
Wow, hold on, go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.
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Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance. Pay too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
All right, three oh three seven one three eight two five five three zero three Martino. We got We're gonna have three lines open, and I'd love to hear from you any problem you have. You need some advice on anything, We've got attorneys available. If I can't answer the question, We've got contractors. We even have Denis available. Three zero three Martino. Now, I want to go back to a
situation I hope no one gets themselves into. And I know exactly where this is going I'm trying to figure out how we're going to be able to help Medina. But basically she's kind. I'll start out like that. She's a very nice lady. She has a friend in need, was trying to get some odd jobs done. Needed a
pickup truck, so she rented a pickup truck. She did the right thing renting it from you Haul, because she added the friend on is a driver, so in case if something happens there, he's covered under the insurance as well. But the issue seems to be he had a friend with them. And by the way, this guy, the reason he's doing these odd jobs and she's helping out is his dog got taken away and I guess it's in the pound and he's trying to come up with the ransom to get the dog out. I mean, that's pretty
much the story, but that's not the problem. What the problem becomes is he had a friend. It was really slippery. The guy that was added to it slipped and fell after parking it, and they had to move the vehicle and basically he couldn't get back in and move it right away, so he had his friend move it. And what happened, What did the friend do Medina.
So the friend it's actually a homeless guy, he thought, because I was hoping him he would turn around and pay it forward. And he helped this guy. He bought him new shoes, new boots to the winter.
So he let the homeless guy drive the truck that you rented for him.
Well, he only had him park it, but he went to let him stay the night with him, and a couple of nights. So he was doing good and they were running around together and he was helping him, and he said he did not imagine him just taking off with the truck.
He stole it the guy. Wait, so the guy just literally stole it.
He stole it.
Now, and you said something you couldn't imagine it. I could easily imagine a homeless guy stealing the truck.
Yeah, because he was helping him so much. He helped him two three days. I don't even know.
Did you know? Did you know this guy was involved at any of this point?
No?
So I assume you reported it stolen.
Yes, he reported it, Randy, he reported it.
Uh, you are so screwed.
Yeah, So let's just jump.
Forward to where we're at right now. What is U Haul asking for?
So we asked. He asked for insurance, and they fell to put it on. They did not put it on.
It wouldn't have mattered. Neither of you were driving the car even if he did ask for insurance. I mean, here's the bottom line. There was either insurance or there wasn't.
Right.
Do you have the paperwork?
Yeah, you do, it's fourteen thousand.
No no, no, hold on, hold on, I listen. I want to make sure because it is possible. I highly doubt it, but it is possible. We had a case years ago where they claimed the person didn't have insurance. They claimed it. It was a very strange rental car company. It wasn't like Hurtz I can't think of the name of. It wasn't a big one like Dollar anybody. But the
bottom line is they said he denied the coverage. He literally had the original paperwork in a PDF form where he accepted the coverage, and they ended up changing their story and paying out. So do you have the original receipt from that U haul dealer on the insurance where you either declined it you usually check it in initial it or were you accepted the insurance.
I don't recall, I just recall finding it okay, I didn't know about any of it because I thought he took care of the paperwork.
Listen, I'm going to assume there was no insurance, and I'm just going to assume it all together. If you can get a copy of that, I would like to look at it just to one hundred percent make sure you didn't have coverage. But hold on, listen, you're gonna be first up again. It's just the top of the hour. I've got a few ideas on this, but I need to know how much they're asking. And I hate to see say this, but I need to understand your assets
and your collectibility. So hold on three zero three Martino, two lines open.
Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home.
With Max Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
Yeah, news advice who you don't have. You'll come running just as fast as we can. Shooter's gonna help come man.
This is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martinez.
Welcome my friends to the only show this guy. We're here to solve problems, to answer your questions, take complaints. We get directly involved in your life. You have any problems, or maybe you see a problem coming up and want some advice on it. We'd love to hear from you that three oh three Martina works all the time. Please
tell your friends leave a message. I promise we'll get back to you either right away depending on when you leave the message, or the next day, or you can email us at help HLP, Help It troubleshooter dot com and we can do the same. We've been talking to a lot of things today. I left off last hour with Medina. I hope this is a lesson to everybody out there. When you rent a vehicle, you got to list everybody that's going to drive it on there, or
basically you have no coverage whatsoever. You have absolutely zero coverage, and I'll tell you where the call generally comes in. You rent a vehicle and you rent it for your kid because they're under twenty five and you can't find a rental place and they end up driving this rental and they end up in an accident, and then bam. Your own insurance company typically won't Your own insurance company typically won't do it. In the insurance company itself, the
insurance you bought isn't going to cover it. Now, what'd see if the driver's not on there? You just look at it this way, You're not going to have coverage on it. You're just simply not going to have coverage. There might be some situations where your own insurance might cover something, but that's pretty iffy. I sure wouldn't bank on it. But in her situation, Medina, she did the right thing at the beginning. Well, actually, Medea, I don't
think you did do the right thing. And I once again, this is for everybody else out there, you know, renting the vehicle and adding someone else on and then they're really the ones driving it. I am so glad you got a big heart and you were helping this guy out, and I know you did not know he was going to allow some homeless guy to start using the truck as well. But I hope in the future you never even consider anything like this again. Teck, No, how much
does you all want? Fourteen thousand, fourteen?
I already paid one seventy three, one.
Hundred and I'm sorry, one hundred and seventy.
Three fifty seven and that's just for the rental for the forty Yeah, they charged me fourteen thousand, six hundred and forty one dollars and fifty cents extra.
Did you pay that?
Well, they took it out of my credit card. They charged my credit card without asking me.
Oh my god, you agreed to that. You agreed to it it? Yeah, you agree to it.
I'll tell you that.
Yeah, So what happened? And then did you actually call your credit card company up and dispute it?
Yes, and they won't let me.
They said it's a torque.
Claim it is they stating that they.
Can't do anyth Yeah, they can't. They signed the contract. Wow, you're in worse shape than I thought.
Yeah, well it hards me wrong.
Drop off of.
Twelve hundred, Madina. I mean, let's just kind of look at the big picture overall, though I'm a little I don't quite understand why it was only fourteen thousand. Was it an older vehicle? Did they ever did the homeless guy wreck it? And that's what it costs to repair? How did they come up with the fourteen thousand?
I have the list here.
It's no.
I mean in general terms, did they ever recover the vehicle?
Yeah?
They did, and it adds fourteen thousand dollars in damage.
Basically, No, I wish, I wish it was just damages. My insurance would have taken care of it. My insurance after my thousand dollars deductible. They only they only paid me fifteen hundred.
Why what did they cover on it?
Just the damages which was barely any damage.
So what was the rest of the money Just time of use? They couldn't rent it out, so they charged you basically the whole time it was gone.
That too, But it says missing and damage fee of twenty five hundred, okay, calling fee eighteen hundred, cleaning fee twelve hundred, wrong drop off twelve hundred, seven thousand, seven hundred just in miles. Yeah, and I guess they recovered it.
They said in South Dakota.
They hauled it all the way to North Dakota.
Yeah, that's it. That's the wrong drop off. I hate to say this, I don't say.
I.
Okay, if you wanted to try to go after some of it, like seventy five hundred dollars of it, okay, if he wanted to try that in Colorado, at least that would be a small claims. But here's what I'm afraid of. You agreed to every bit of this, every single bit of this. When you swiped that credit card, you agreed that they could charge that credit card, which you already learned through your own credit card company. I'm
more curious on this. Do you have the money? I mean, what is this going to financially do to you?
No, I'm a disabled, single mom. I'm not even working. I'm trying to get on disability.
So let's talk about your particular circumstance. We know you have credit card debt of at least fourteen thousand right now, right?
Yeah?
What other debt do you have?
Well?
I have a you can ballpark? Do you ow on a car?
No?
I got my house paid off and my car paid off?
Okay, so how much how much is your house worth?
Over too?
So over two hundred thousand? And you do you have any access to that kind of equity or I'm sorry, you have it paid off? Do you have like a heat lock or any line of credit on it or no?
I have no idea.
And where do you live? Do you live in Colorado?
No?
In Billings, Montana?
Hey, doc, do me a favor. Look up Billings Montana bankruptcy home loans. Just look it up just like that. I'm just not familiar with there. What else do you actually own? How much is that car worth?
Probably seven?
So the car's worth seven maybe? And what else do you have? How much money in the bank?
I don't have anything?
Okay, so you basically get what each months so security or what?
I get? Nothing?
How do you eed? Just help me?
I'm just using my credit.
Card, okay, so you're using their credit card. So interestingly enough, if you were in Colorado and you filed a bankruptcy, you wouldn't lose the house, I mean, unless there's some kind of fraud or something else. And I'm hoping it's the same way in Montana, and you would keep your car. I would be able to argue, or most people would be able to argue the vehicle. If you're saying it's seven grand, it's probably going to be under the exemption.
You could argue us under five certain things you couldn't get rid of. I don't know if you own any guns. Do you no any jewelry, antiques? No, any paintings, artwork?
No?
Okay, I'm just mentioning some stuff that you would have to give up for other people listening. So, honestly, Doc, did you find anything on that?
What did you want me to look at? Billings Montana?
Yeah, Billings or no, not just Billings Montana bankruptcy exemptions. I'm looking for the car exemption number in the home exemption number. So listen. What it's actually looking like, Madine, is not the most horrible thing, because you appear to be non collectible. If you were in Colorado, you're non collectible. You would simply go bankrupt right now. You would file a Chapter seven in federal court. You would hire somebody for maybe one thousand bucks or whatever it is, and
you would owe nothing anymore. The credit card debt would go away. Your house would be exempted, so they couldn't touch it. If you do have some kind of qualified plans like an IRA or Social Security or something, they wouldn't be able to touch that. Going forward, I mean, really, you're not in a bad place considering your uncollectible and considering you have no way of paying anything right now. And I got the exemptions, mark, what are they? What's a home exemption?
Home exemption is up to two hundred and fifty thousand.
Bam, Emily, they can't touch.
Your HOUSEBI is twenty five hundred.
You might have an argument, and personal property is forty five hundred. Yeah, so listen, you are basically uncollectable. I mean, there's good and bad to it in your circumstance right now. Uh, it's actually good because you do owe that money, and you're not going to hire an attorney and fight it, not simply because an attorney would cost you a fortune to do because I personally don't think you'd win it.
And that's not legal advice. But these calls like this for over thirty years I've heard, and honest to God, listen to this. You agreed to all that when you rented the vehicle and some homeless guys stole it, that one of your drivers allowed to use it. But Medina, you understand what I'm saying. They have nothing to get from you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The problem is is my credit score is over eight hundred, and I've been doing so good, and that'll ruin it all.
Won't it?
Well, Medina, I guess I'm a little bit of a loss then, And here's what I mean by that. You said you're trying to get on Medicare, didn't you? Or Medicaid?
No?
No disability on Social Security disability?
Yeah?
Okay, So uptill, how did you pay your credit card bills a month ago?
So?
I just I sell things locally, like I'll buy stuff at thirst stores and then I just sell them. And that's how I've been.
Kind of like SKA market stuff, yeah.
Like getting gas and food, And that's.
How you've been doing it. But long term, long term, what were you expecting? In other words, if this okay, let's get real here, because I want to make you feel better if I can. Let's get super real. If this did not happen, if this homeless guy didn't steal it, where would you be right now? What's the difference in your credit score? In other words, your income wasn't going to change.
No, but I wouldn't have that fourteen.
Thousand on there right But you have no ability to pay the fourteen thousand back. I guess what your argument is I guess what your argument is. You could still charge some stuff to your credit card and make a little bit of money to pay it off each month.
Yeah, but how long do you think?
But Medina, please, how long do you think that would have lasted? I don't know what's your ultimate goal? And forget about this fourteen thousand listen, it's gone. I want to really tell you my advice to you on this. I would get and talk to a bankruptcy attorney, and I would do it before you pay another nickel to anybody, to anybody, to anybody. You follow what I'm saying. Yeah, you talk to a bankruptcy attorney. If you have another credit card, you don't pay that off, then call him.
If you have anything anything, talk to the attorney and a bankruptcy attorney and find one that is relatively cheap. To me, you sound like what we call a no asset Chapter seven. You should be able to find somebody in Montana for somewhere between one thousand and fifteen hundred bucks. But talk to a few of them, but you have to tell them the circumstances where you're at. You're not going to do anything about that debt. Besides get rid
of it through bankruptcy or pay it off. And if they say, hey, go ahead and just pay one hundred bucks a month, don't do it. Talk to that attorney first. Okay, Now side note, I want you to feel better. What is your long term plan?
I don't.
I don't have one.
Well, if you got on social Security disability, I assume you might what sell the house after the bankruptcy. You have two hundred thousand dollars there. You would have your Social Security disability coming in if that two hundred thousand dollars didn't take some of that away. I mean, would you move into an apartment?
What?
I mean, really? What what do you want to do?
No?
I would I.
Would stay in the house.
Because, yeah, you would just stay in the house and figure out how to pay for the insurance if you have insurance, and figure out how to pay for the taxes.
Yeah.
Hey, Medina, are you working with an attorney to get you the disability?
Yeah?
Yeah, So listen, I really want you to call the bankruptcy attorney. The other thing you might think about, how old are you?
Fifty one?
Reverse mortgage never gonna happen.
No, I was gonna say, ask that attorney to get a referral.
Listen, well, I just say, yeah, listen, Madina, Honest to God, you gotta find just because of your money, they're going to want cash up front. You're not going to hire a five thousand dollars bankruptcy attorney. You don't need it. You need to find someone that can file it. You have nothing to go after. Everything you own is basically under exemption. I think everything. Someone could argue that car with no problem. It's so close. But I just really I'm trying to think more long term. I want you
to forget about this. This is done, but it is so important you get that bankruptcy filed. If they go out and get a judgment and come after you the credit card company for that fourteen thousand dollars, and that stuff can happen pretty quick. You want it. You want to get that bankruptcy to where it just all goes away right now. But talk to an attorney there and then when you come out of the bankruptcy. I'm going
to tell you something. If you have a credit score of over eight hundred, now it's going to nail you with like two hundred points, But in another another two or three years, you're gonna be able to get a credit card. If you've been paying these guys forever, your credit's going to go to hell. If the credit card, if you come up with one hundred bucks a month, you're going to be paying them forever, and your credit's gonna be worse than if you file bankruptcy now and waited a couple of years.
Oh okay, it's.
Just gonna be horrible. Please talk to a bankruptcy attorney if you were here in Colorado, I get one of ours on, but it is imperative. I swear to God Medina if you get anything out of this call, I want you to take two things. One you have to call a bankruptcy attorney and discuss the situation. They can't touch that money in your house if you go bankrupt, okay, tell them exactly what happened and how much you owe to each credit card company and to anybody else you know.
And number two, there's nothing you're going to do in my opinion, on that fourteen thousand dollars that you got charged. That's how those companies work. You had a homeless guy that was driving. Oh I don't even want to get into it again. I'm beating a dead horse. I swear to God Medina, please please follow up after you talk to hold On. I want her to follow up, Kelly,
get her number. I want her to file up in the next couple days or next week with what the bankruptcy attorney said, and if she wants more advice on that, I'll get one of ours on go ahead doc.
I was gonna ask if this is a bread and butter filing, because the attorney that she's working with on disability just file it for her.
It might be the only reason I'd say it might be worth asking is social Security disability is actually in federal court as well as bankruptcy. So it's if the guy's ever done it before. But I don't know. If he's never done it before, I wouldn't even think about it. It only can't have to ask, No, it can't hurt to ask at all? All right? Three oh three Martino, one line, open, go.
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Hey, folks, if you listen to this show, Uh, not only do we help people, we've recouped over three hundred million. I mean, think about that. But you know the education value of it is insane, just for people listening. So I want to go to one of my experts, Justin Petty, and where this is coming up. And Justin's listening right now. And I also have John Fuller, another expert on referralist
dot com. Of course you've heard him do the show here, but I'm going to ask him something about this same call after I talked to Justin on a different aspect. But Emily said something, And here's a quick recap. She got hit in her Honda fit. It's a pretty small little Honda and got rear ended by Stevens and Son painters or landscapers or something. None of that's relevant, and she basically is having problems getting her car fixed. How she wants they took all liability. They basically said, it's
our fault and Justin, I got a couple questions for you. One, let's talk about property damage. When someone rear ends a car in or made in twenty eleven. We're talking about a two thousand and eleven Honda Fit and it's got thirty five hundred bucks worth of damage. So they basically fixed whatever was done to the rear end and they painted it. She's not happy that it didn't blend perfectly into the rest of the car. So let me ask
you this. First of all, if someone rear ends me and I have got a fourteen year old car, do they am I entitled to a completely new paint job all the way around? Or is it just that quarter panel? Or what typically is the insurance company going to pay for?
Well, normally, if you can prove that the paint doesn't match, if it's an older vehicle, they're going to offer an appearance allowance instead of a full repaint because you probably can't match it the original paint. Yep, it's probably not the exact same tint that it would have been to begin with, and it would take some real good custom
paint mixing to get it to look exactly rot. So normally an appearance allowance is what would resolve that issue, just you know, some money to compensate for the fact that it doesn't match.
So but but when you say an appearance allowance, I want to understand this. Would that be whatever amount of money that it would take for a really good painter to create that exact color of what's on there. So, in other words, your paint would match. Or are they simply going to give you a few extra bucks because it's not perfect?
Yeah?
The second option, there's no signs to it.
Yeah, yeah, I got you. Now, this is a more curious question that comes up all the time. She got hit by this company, and let me bring her back up really quick. Let me lock you in. Hey, Emily, you said the body they so far have paid. She already picked her car up. She wasn't happy with justin and wants some of the paint work. We're done talking about. But the whole thing was thirty five hundred, right, Emily, that's about what they paid out.
About around that reage.
Yeah, that's fine, And she's valuing her car at eight thousand, and I started thinking, even though that car is thirteen or fourteen years old? Justin, you have taught me something over the years. I really don't care how old it is. For the most part, diminished value will always come in. Emily, did anybody give you a check for diminished value?
No?
And in fact, this year Hunta still has the car. Yep, there we do part of the drifts, paint on the bumper. Yep, I'm headed over.
No, I know you're going over there. But you've never even heard the term diminished value? Have you?
No?
But it's well, I mean I started to see that appear on Google when I'm fooling about it.
Yeah, so hold on, let's let's let Justin I get it. I just wanted to know if the insurance company or anybody brought it up to you. But Justin, even on a car that old, wouldn't you say, in general, if it had thirty five hundred dollars in repairs and the vehicle truly were was worth eight thousand that I mean they basically wrecked a third of that car, that there would be diminished value.
Oh certainly, Yeah, I mean.
And what do you think the percentage of the value of that vehicle was diminished? Twenty percent?
Probably probably not that much on that year. And also, you know, we want to make sure that it didn't already have an accident history of some kind. But considering that it wouldn't have an accident history before this, probably more in the range of twelve to fifteen percent.
So that would be another that would be another fifteen hundred bucks on the high side. Right now, since that insurance company, whoop, she might have walked in there, but justin since that insurance company did not offer her that, what does she do at this point to get that diminish value because they never cough it up?
Do they not?
Easily?
Yeah, you have to demand it and you know that it is the amount I should say, document the amounts that dragging for.
So they never So here's what I'm saying. They never gave the first thing we were talking about, is that her all right? So so listen, Emily, they never gave you any value of what what did you call that? For the paint? I forgot what you called it? Justin b Yeah, yeah, yeah, they didn't give you the appearance. So listen to Emily. They didn't give you the appearance allowance, nor did they paint it right, And you're not happy. Hopefully they get the drips and stuff fixed. That's a
different issue. Nor did they give you anything for the diminished value. Here's what I want you to do. I don't know how well this is going to align, but I would guess if this was just in dealing with this, you would be looking at anywhere from fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars more and some of that cash in your pocket the diminished value because your vehicle simply is not worth how much it is now prior to the accident. So here's the deal. I'm going to give you his
phone number and website. I want you to call him and talk to him about diminish value and how to get it and how much he thinks it is. He'll ask you some basic questions about the vehicle, all right, will do absolutely, thank you, and I want you to check back in with us. Don't you forget to call back in and say, hey, job, well done.
Okay, I absolutely will. I'll be excited to place by call.
Yes, I love that, Emily, Okay, Justin H. Petty diminished Valueexpert dot com. Diminished Value Expert dot Com. His phone numbers two one, four, two, two seven two, one, five, four, I've got to take this quick break. But actually, hey, Justin, I appreciate that man. Anybody out there, this guy's absolutely wonderful. He helps a lot of our callers out for free. Hey real quick, John Fuller. Listen one of the things she said, and it kind of grabbed my ear at
the beginning. And we've got to do this real quick. But this drives me crazy. I asked, just because she got rear ended and the vehicle has been in the shop for a while. I said, you have injuries. She goes, she kind of hesitated. She was like yeah, And I was like, well, ambulance hospital, what happened? She goes, No, But you know, I guess you call it whiplash. I had to go to my primary care a few times, and you know, I hurt for a little bit. But
she never called an attorney. But she literally has bills, She probably had a copay, She probably had some lost time at work. I mean, when do you call an attorney? And John, I got to try to keep you under a minute. You know the deal?
Everything I know in one minute or left. Here's the thing, just like Justin said, the insurance companies are never just going to volunteer to pay you what they're lawfully required and are lawfully responsible for. And in Colorado, the at Fall party is responsible for all of those damages. So when you go to the doctor, you pay those copays, use your health insurance. All of those avenues are really supposed to be repaid out of the proceeds of the settlement.
You have to go out and advocate for yourself to you know, to successfully pull that off, or you need to call some money like myself. If you don't do it, they're not going to remind you, and you just kind of gave up on the entire opportunity to be taken care of and to be pay They made hold.
It is a total side note, not like I'm fighting for healthcare insurance companies, but honestly, how insurance works. If you're hurting an accident and they have insurance, Ultimately those people are supposed to be paying, not you paying a deductible, not your insurance, your health insurance company paying for it. The other people are the ones that are supposed to pay for it. I mean, right, John, is that not how it works?
That's absolutely the way it's supposed to work.
Yeah, So everybody kind of gets ripped off when it's not done the right way. Listen, John Fuller will take any call you have on personal injury. John, I appreciate it. Three ZHO three five nine seven forty five hundred. He'll be with us tomorrow too as well