My sister accidentally backed into our house this morning with her car. While the damage to the car was only moderate (There was a large dent in the bumper, a few smaller dents, and some scrapes), the damage to the house was somewhat extensive. It damaged the electrical lines, telephone lines, etc., not to mention the damage to the walls, door, and shingles. We had an "emergency contractor" repair most of the damages today, but as far as insurance, my dad assumed that his home-owner's insurance should cover the damages to his house (with a deductible of course). But somebody I know told me that the home-owner's insurance can go after the car insurance because the damage was done by the car (which is also in my dad's name). This would in turn raise his car insurance rates, which he does not want. What will the home-owner's insurance likely do in this situation? Should we file a claim on the car? Everyone on the auto policy is accident-free, except for this one complicated situation.
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To make things more clear, my dad was thinking about whether or not to file a claim with the auto insurance company before. But if the home-owner insurance goes to them anyway, it's still going to raise the rates, so they might as well file a claim anyway... hopefully you'll understand the predicament here. Also, they have some umbrella policies on these things (not sure what the specifics of their policies are though). Sorry I couldn't be more specific with this.