5 Steps to Take If a Car Crashes into Your House

Car Crashes Into Your House

Written by Aaron R. Winston
Last Updated: October 9, 2023 2:25am CDT

Car Crashes Into Your House

Motor vehicle accidents are dangerous and unfortunate events that might seem to be something you do not need to worry about off the road or sidewalk. Unfortunately, car crashes can still affect you even if you are not driving or a pedestrian on the street’s sidewalk. Sometimes the carelessness of other drivers can even impact you directly from within the comfort of your own home.

There are recorded instances of reckless or incapacitated drivers veering off the road and crashing a car into a house. This incident can lead to significant property damage, bodily injury, or loss of life at the scene of the accident, which is where the car went running into the house.

When a car drives into your house, determining the appropriate next steps can be confusing and intimidating, with so many concepts hitting you all at once. Suddenly, you have to think about police reports, looking up info on your home insurance policy, insurance deductibles, and policy limits, and of course, trying to get the driver’s auto insurance company to pay for your loss.

Even though having a driver crash a car into your home is a much larger order than a mere fender bender in your average car accident, some situations can make it even more difficult to handle than others.

For example, the car crashing into your house could be a hit-and-run accident, or the driver at fault for running the car into your house was an uninsured motorist. However, no matter the details of the car hitting your house, you can take steps to best ensure that you recover from the damages you incurred from the event.

With this article, we hope to guide you on what steps to take after a car goes running into your house and what you can do for repayment of the damages caused to your home (and any medical costs that the car accident may have caused to you or your loved ones).

Let’s get started!

However, please remember that we do not intend to give you individualized legal advice in this article as we can not know the specifics of your claim. So we provide general, in-depth information on what to do if a car hits your house. So, as always, we recommend speaking to a lawyer who can give you legal advice relevant to the facts of your case, especially since laws and regulations change and can be different depending on your state

Step #1: Seek Medical Attention After the Car Driving into Your House.

We know that we have mentioned this particular advice in several articles about car accidents and personal injury cases still, it warrants mentioning. It is important to never skip medical treatment following motor vehicle accidents, especially if you are hurt when a car hits your house.

When it comes to an accident from a car crashing into your home, the driver of the car is most likely to be the only person who suffers physical injuries. Yet, the odds of your not getting injured are never 0% unless you were not home at the time of the accident.

When something as powerful as a motor vehicle collides with anything, it can send debris flying from the impact point. This debris can range from household items to the scattered parts of the wall or glass windows it came crashing in through.

Seek Medical Attention After the Crash

Like a bomb detonating, the crash debris from your house can fly and hit you even if you are in an adjacent room if the force is great enough and there is a clear line of sight. This is not to say you are guaranteed to be struck by accident debris crashing in on you, but the potential exists, and the potential for injury is significant.

Generally, a larger oversized vehicle like a commercial truck that crashes in through the outside of your house and into the home poses a more severe physical danger. Due to their large scale, large commercial vehicles are more likely to crash further into your house.

If You Get Hit By A Car Crash Running Into Your House

In the worst-case scenarios, the vehicle could hit you directly after it bursts through your home’s outer wall and into your home, which increases the odds of you suffering a severe injury than if you were inside your own vehicle. In a sense, you would be a pedestrian in your own home when the car crashes into it.

Any impact on your body could lead to severe complications and injuries you might not have noticed until well after the time the car crashes into your house. For this reason, seeking medical treatment if the vehicle or crash debris hits you is crucial.

Having a medical professional evaluate your injuries will better alert you to any significant trauma and assign a treatment regimen you will need to recover fully from the injuries you just suffered.

However, this evaluation also serves a legal purpose as the injuries you sustained will factor into any settlement negotiations that arise from the incident where a driver crashed their car into your home.

They factor in because the settlement from the personal injury component that can arise from these incidents is primarily determined by medical expenses. So, if you have high medical bills, you have a higher chance of maxing out the auto insurance claim settlement. So, in an ideal world, you would do well to request updated copies of your medical records and bills to submit with your claim.

However, more on that later.

Step #2: Assess the Damage to Your House and Property.

Much like with standard two-car accidents, when it comes to cars driving into houses, the damage to your property and subsequent repair costs are essential details. 

So, when someone’s car comes crashing through your living room wall, considerable repairs must be made as the sudden collision can severely damage your home’s infrastructure. This impact can render your home not safe to live in until after the costly repair bill is complete.

Assess Property Damage to House

Having the damage to your home assessed enables you to estimate repair costs. This estimate will not mean you can put off the repairs until after the legal proceedings but will assist you in getting the fair settlement you need to pay for or pay off the repair costs incurred once the claim is resolved.

Only the damage to your residence caused by the accident event will be considered and should change depending on your specific circumstances. In some cases, debris may fly and cause further destruction. However, that needs to be proven as a cause of the initial damage coming from the collision of the car hitting your house.

Suing for this type of damage can be time-sensitive and requires you to provide corroboration before being adequately compensated for your financial loss. However, it is also worth noting that the corroboration of your side of the story will not be the simplest thing in the world on your own.

So, like a personal injury attorney, you might want to consider enlisting professional assistance in the form of accident scene investigators. Insurance companies employ full-time insurance investigators for accidents such as this. This can go a long way with the help of someone versed in the law.

 

Step #3: Report the Car Accident to Your Home Insurance Company

One of the essential steps of a civil or criminal incident is reporting it to the appropriate channels. Reporting the incident to law enforcement officials and any applicable homeowner’s insurance policy or car insurance agents to ensure they know about your claim.

However, there is an important caveat to remember when these situations arise. It is impossible to seek out payment for the damage to your home and physical injuries in the same claim, as homeowner’s insurance policies do not cover the injuries of those who live in the house.

Statute of Limitations For the Property Damage to Your Home

Specifically, every state in the country has laws and regulations about the statute of limitations for personal injury and property damage claims. For example, in Texas, you must report and file a property damage claim within two years from the date of loss. 

This two-year time limit you have before your right to file a personal injury claim expires applies to personal injury claims in Texas. Conversely, in Missouri, you must file property damage and personal injury claims within five years of the incident before your right to do so expires. That means the statute of limitations for these case types is three years longer in Missouri than in Texas.

Report The Incident To The Home Insurance Company

Failing to file a claim for the incident within the time limit of your state’s statute of limitations can cost you the right to seek compensation for your financial loss. Although you can easily research your state’s specific statute of limitations online, you should consider consulting with an attorney or a law firm for the detailed laws applicable to the claims process after a car runs into your house.

But ultimately, an incident involving a driver crashing in through the outside of your house needs to be promptly reported if you not only want to be compensated but want to retain the right to hold them liable for driving a car into your home.

Two significant parts of reporting the incident involve contacting the police to report the negligent at-fault driver and finding your insurance provider’s phone number and contact information to reach out to them to get the ball rolling on your insurance claim.

You will need these done before you file the appropriate paperwork with the civil court system down the road. Some of the details that they will ask you to report:

What Info the Insurance Company Will Ask You to Report: 

  • The make and model of the car that hit your house
  • A description of the driver
  • The license plate number
  • The driver’s license
  • The driver’s insurance company
  • Any vehicle damage so they can add it to the accident report.

Each step is crucial to ensure that you can best pursue your claim and earn the reparations you deserve for your damaged property, injuries, and emotional trauma.

Step #4: Hire Lawyer After the Car Hitting Your House

Now, although we believe in our readers and clients exercising their legal rights as they choose, that includes legal representation as they see fit.
However, we recommend that you consider the option of contacting a law firm, as you would likely be able to find a lawyer to hire on a contingency fee basis and not have to pay by the hour, as you have a damages claim.

By having an initial consultation with an attorney, you can discuss your claim against the car’s driver who crashed into your house or against your own home insurance policy company. Typically, hiring them should end up being free if you go to trial and lose your case.

Retaining Legal Counsel For Car Crashing Into Home

You won’t find any insurance companies that enjoy paying out what is owed and will do their best not to pay the claim settlement at all if they can help it. They make money by not paying out insurance claims. However, the services of an accident attorney can help ensure that you have every possible resource you might need to ensure that justice is served and you are made financially whole.

Your attorney will negotiate with the insurance adjusters on your behalf to get you a fair settlement that will help you pay for home repair costs. Primarily though, because insurance companies focus on minimizing the amount, they offer to remain as profitable as possible.

Additionally, an attorney can combat potential counterarguments to the damages you claim. Say, for example, a piece of your house’s wall is after the collision that proceeds to go through a window on the opposite side of the room. Even though the vehicle that drove into your home did not directly break the window, the crash launched the debris, ultimately causing that damage. 

Auto Insurance Policy of the Driver

Therefore, you should be able to attribute the cause of the window damage to the accident resulting from the driver’s negligence and recover the damages from the driver’s insurance coverage. 

Again, this does not mean the insurance company will accept liability for the damage caused to your house. It takes having a skilled attorney who can make your case to the insurance adjuster and get the fair settlement you deserve.

They will often need to go to mediation and possibly file a claim against the driver’s motorist coverage and PIP policy(Collision coverage only covers the repairs of the driver’s car, not the damage to your house and property).

Step #5: Document Evidence of the Car Driving Into Your House

When these situations arise, you might worry that seeking out damages and injuries from the responsible party can devolve into pointing fingers, where no one wins. However, there are ways to enhance your chances of filing a successful claim through the accumulation of documentation.

This documentation does not simply mean reporting the incident and contacting your insurance provider. Instead, you can take information from the damaged areas of your home to use as reinforcement for your claim.

Take Photos of the Car Crash Inside Your House

Once it’s safe, you will want to consider taking photographs of your home immediately after the auto accident. You should take photos of the vehicle, the area it struck, any debris you can locate, and any damage caused by that debris. These photographs help offer tangible evidence of the level of damage caused by the at-fault driver. 

This stage is similar to shows like CSI, where they document a crime scene. So it’s important not to alter the locations in your house before taking photos as much as possible. This information can give you the edge you will need to take the lead in negotiations with the defendant’s insurance adjusters. 

It becomes challenging for them to deny their responsibilities to your situation if there is photo evidence of the damage caused by the car crashing into your house.

Document The Evidence Of Car Crashing Into House

Once you have gathered the needed data, you should provide copies to your attorney if you decide to hire one. They will include the info in your case file, which can be used as discovery evidence for your claim.

This amount and level of detail in the documentation might seem like a minor issue. Yet the opposite is true, as the reality is that it can mean the difference between a successful claim and a failed one—another vital form of documentation for injury claims is the medical assessment.

Copies of your medical bills and records help determine the personal injury settlement you receive from the defendant’s insurance company. Requesting updated copies as you go to provide your attorney or to have them on hand if you do not hire a lawyer will help to ease the procedure. 

Additionally, acquiring copies of any assessment personnel or home repair companies will help factor into the settlement you receive for the property damage of the incident. You’ll also want to document your insurance information, both the driver’s car insurance policy and your own insurance policy.

Closing Statements: Car Crashes into a House Lawsuit

Having a motor vehicle crash into your home is far from a pleasant experience. It’s quite the opposite, as the sudden abrasiveness of it can be traumatizing. It damages your house and risks causing personal injury to the people within the home.

So, figuring out what to do next when it happens is extremely important to have an easier time seeking a injuries or damages claim.
We know that legal and insurance proceedings can be highly intimidating, but it does not have to be. The five steps we went through should give you an excellent head-start in filing claims for property damage and even personal injury.

Closing Statements: Car Crashing Into House Lawsuit

This type of ordeal can be stressful and emotionally taxing. Not to mention financially draining. Footing the bill for repairs to your home to make it habitable again is always expensive.

But when a car crashes into your home, it can bring other unexpected expenses like paying for hotels, interim housing, and medical costs. These sudden extra bills and expenses can add up to thousands of dollars and be a heavy financial responsibility to bear alone.

Fortunately, cash advance resources can be made available to you to mitigate some of these costs and make things more manageable. We at Express Legal Funding, a Plano, Texas-based company, can offer pre-settlement funding to plaintiffs in many states across the nation. (In some states like Missouri, the money is provided as pre-settlement loans. Recourse loans are not risk-free).

These advances of the potential lawsuit settlement funds can help you pay for crucial expenses such as rent, utility bills, or grocery food bills while dealing with these new and sudden expenses. No one can foresee a car driving into their house and expect to have the costs that follow while dealing with the insurance companies. 

Pre-settlement funding is for these situations. It is a risk-free cash advance on the money you expect to recover from your claim or lawsuit. So legal funding company will only expect repayment if you successfully win or settle your claim. 

The crucial parts of qualifying are having a lawyer and a claim, whether it be against the motorist or their auto insurance policy. So you can apply to start your financial recovery early™ and get the help you need. Call us anytime for a free consultation to see how you can qualify for pre-settlement funding for a car accident or other type of personal injury case.

About the Author

Author profile

Aaron Winston is the Strategy Director of Express Legal Funding. As "The Legal Funding Expert," Aaron has more than ten years of experience in the consumer finance industry. Most of which was as a consultant to a top financial advisory firm, managing 400+ million USD in client wealth. He is recognized as an expert author and researcher across multiple SEO industries.
Aaron Winston earned his title "The Legal Funding Expert" through authoritative articles and blog posts about legal funding. He specializes in expert content writing for pre-settlement funding and law firm blogs.
Each month, tens of thousands of web visitors read his articles and posts. Aaron's thoroughly researched guides are among the most-read lawsuit funding articles over the past year.
As Strategy Director of Express Legal Funding, Aaron has devoted thousands of hours to advocating for the consumer. His "it factor" is that he is a tireless and inventive thought leader who has made great strides by conveying his legal knowledge and diverse expertise to the public. More clients and lawyers understand the facts about pre-settlement funding because of Aaron's legal and financial service SEO mastery.
Aaron Winston is the author of A Word For The Wise. A Warning For The Stupid. Canons of Conduct, which is a book in poetry format. It consists of 35 unique canons. The book was published in 2023.
He keeps an academic approach to business that improves the consumer's well-being. In early 2022, Aaron gained the Search Engine Optimization and the Google Ads LinkedIn skills assessment badges. He placed in the top 5% of those who took the SEO skills test assessment.
Aaron's company slogans and lawsuit funding company name are registered trademarks of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He has gained positive notoriety via interviews and case studies, which are a byproduct of his successes. Aaron R. Winston was featured in a smith.ai interview (2021) and a company growth case study (2022).
In 2023, Aaron and Express Legal Funding received accolades in a leading SEO author case study performed by the leading professionals at WordLift. The in-depth data presented in the pre-settlement funding SEO case study demonstrate why Aaron Winston maintains a high-author E-E-A-T. His original writing and helpful content continue to achieve unprecedented success and stand in their own class.

Aaron was born in Lubbock, TX, where he spent the first eight years of his life. Aaron attended Akiba Academy of Dallas, TX.

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