Will Insurance Cover Slashed Tires?

You are in a very ecstatic mood, pumped up and ready to go. You walk majestically to your car, rolling the keys in the air and you are ready to get in and zoom off.

All of a sudden, you notice something quite alarming, your car tires have been slashed like a Christmas turkey.

Not just one tire but three slashed tires! All of the high emotions instantly wear off and the feeling of frustration sets in.

You start wondering who or what could have done this and then, you start cursing your luck.

Before you get deep into the tantrums, a question comes across your mind that brings you back to reality, will your car insurance cover these slashed tires?

Your insurance should cover your slashed tires so long the cost of fixing or replacing the slashed tires is more than your comprehensive deductible.

If fixing your slashed tires is less than your comprehensive deductible, then it makes no sense if you decide to file for a claim.

There are quite a number of insurance policies and they all serve different scenarios. So, what kind of insurance policy should you have in place to cover the slashed tires?

How many slashed tires will such a policy cover for? Well, just follow through and we’ll certainly answer all your questions.

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How?

First off, you have to figure out what caused the slashed tires. Was it slashed by someone?

Did you in the course of driving run over something that damaged the tires like potholes or road spikes? Or did your tire just wear out?

Given that you have most likely figured out the cause of the slashed tires, let’s take a look at some insurance policies available. Let’s see if they will cover your slashed tires.

If the insurance you have in place is a basic car insurance coverage otherwise called liability auto insurance, it does not cater for slashed tires.

It only covers damages that result from an accident that you must have caused. This kind of insurance protects other drivers when you are at fault in an accident.

So, it will cover the victim’s medical fees or damage you caused on the car.

To cater for damages to your own vehicle, the insurance policy you should have in place must fall under full coverage insurance.

The full coverage insurance can either be comprehensive insurance or collision insurance.

Comprehensive insurance caters to scenarios that do not result from driving incidents.

We have things like theft, vandalism, and damages induced by weather covered in this insurance policy. So, say someone slashed your car tires deliberately, then, it will be catered for by this policy.

Collision insurance as the name implies covers scenarios due to collision with another vehicle or something stationary.

Tire damages resulting from road spikes are usually covered by this policy.

How Many Tires Does Insurance Cover If Slashed?

There is actually a popular misconception that your insurance policy will not cover the slashed tires if all four tires are not damaged. That is not true, really.

Your comprehensive insurance will cover any number of tires whether it be three, one of four.

Something very important to note however is the fact that your insurance company may only pay for the value of the tires just before they were smashed.

They only pay you for the cost to replace the slashed tires with new tires that have the same level of wear and tear.

The intention of the insurance company is to return your vehicle to the state it was in before the damage happened.

So, many times, when you make an insurance claim, what you get is tires that have covered the same miles and have the same level of wear as your tires before they were slashed.

Steps you need to take to get insurance for a slashed tire?

Before laying a claim on insurance, you have to put your car insurance deductible fee into consideration. So, you have to work out some numbers to see if filing an insurance claim will be worth it after all.

Your car insurance deductible is the amount you will pay for yourself before your insurance company decides to pay the remaining cost of damages.

You can either choose between a low deductible and a high deductible. If you choose a low deductible, it means your insurance rate will be high whereas if you choose a high deductible, it means that the rates you have will be low.

Say, for instance, the cost of the damage to replace the car tires is $2,000. If you have a $500 deductible, it means your insurance company will foot the remaining $1,500.

There are some cases however that the cost of repairs will be lower than the deductible.

For instance, if you have a deductible of $1,000, then, the repairs for your car are valued at $500. In this scenario, you will have to cover the cost of the repairs yourself.

Ultimately, a car insurance deductible is dependent on what you prefer to pay.

If you opt for a high deductible, it means that your insurance rates will be relatively low and you will be paying more to cover the cost of the repair.

So, having decided that you want to lay claim on the insurance, here are the steps to take:

Contact your insurance company to file a claim
Provide as many details as possible
Pay your deductible
Wait for the fix

Contact your insurance company

The first thing to do will be to contact your insurance company. You might also have to file a report with the police if you figured that the slashed tires resulted from vandalism.

The offender in question will have to face the wrath of the law and of course, your insurance company will also sue them for damages.

You should also examine the slash to know if it was someone who slashed it or it just occurred from road debris.

Slashed tires have cleaner cuts and they are usually on the side of the tires. Damages from road debris usually occur at the bottom of the tires.

Provide as many details as possible

You will also need to provide as many details as you possibly can. Make sure you take pictures of the damages and try to document the location of your car when you observed that the tires were slashed.

Given that you did not see the tires get slashed, you can actually give an estimated time.

Giving enough details will put your insurance company in a good place to conduct a very thorough investigation.

Pay your deductible

Once your insurance company processes your claim, you can go ahead and pay your deductible and then, get your new tires from the auto shop.

You generally do not have to pay your insurance company directly. They just remove your deductible from the cost of repairs and then, pay you what is left of the damages.

It is important to know that your car insurance will not cater to a flat tire.

If you need a plan that covers more than the insurance policy, then you should consider a tire protection plan from your auto dealer when you want to buy your car.

This plan covers wear and tear for a period of years and up to a certain number of miles. It could also cover some road hazards.

Wait for the fix

After filing a claim, the insurance company will send someone to you to observe and examine the slashed tires.

If they see that your claim is accurate enough, they will go-ahead to start the processing of your payment.

How to stop my tires from getting slashed?

Having your tires slashed is not a very pleasant experience, particularly if it is not the first time. It most likely means that someone is angry at you and is trying to pay you back with such.

There are no security devices that are designed to prevent your tires from getting slashed.

However, if you have had your tires slashed before, there are some clever things you can do to avoid such from happening again. So, let’s look at some of those clever tips.

Park your vehicle wisely
Make use of lights that are motion-sensitive
Make use of security cameras in your driveway
Get a guard dog
Stay up and monitor your car
Get a dash camera
Make use of alarms that are motion-sensitive too

Park Wisely

Where you park is actually very important. The safest of places to park your car will be behind closed doors, say your garage.

If you do not have a garage, you should opt for the garage of someone you can really trust.

You could also stop parking around where you stay for a while and park a few streets away.

You can even opt for somewhere close to your house if it is a place well lit that you can easily spot from your window.

Make use of floodlights that are motion-sensitive

Floodlights that are motion-sensitive are used in backyards and several driveways.

If any movement is spotted within the area covered by the sensor, the light becomes very bright and illuminates the area.

You can decide on how long you want the light for, you can also adjust the angle and the position of the light.

This will help you keep criminals off as they don’t stay around places that are well-lit.

The best practice will be to have your park area around your bedroom window so you can be easily alarmed once the sensor spots movements.

You can also make use of security cameras in your driveway

This will also be of great help. It is important to get a camera with good night vision as tire slashing most times, occurs at night.

With the aid of the camera, you can easily spot the criminal and it will aid the police in their investigation.

The floodlights can help the quality of the videos that the camera captures. So, you should position the camera around the floodlights. You should get bullet cameras as they have very good night vision.

Get a guard dog

A guard dog can be that loyal friend that can provide some extra bit of motivation. A dog can be a very good alarm system as it could really spot movements at night.

In getting a guard dog though, you have to keep in mind that not all dogs can be trained to become guard dogs.

So, you should not get a dog that is very meek and friendly to strangers but rather get a dog that is very loyal to you and fierce to strangers.

You should also park your car close to where your dog is, so it can easily alarm you once it spots funny movements.

Stay up and monitor your car

If you have noticed that the tire slashing seems to be occurring at frequent intervals, then you can stay up and monitor your car.

You can try to discover who is carrying out that action. It is most likely the person’s face is covered but some of his or her body features could be helpful in giving the person away.

There are possibilities that you have offended quite a number of people and spotting that person even in a mask could help you narrow the search down.

Get a dash camera

buy dash cameras here

Dash cameras are usually installed in your cars and they are used to monitor your car’s surrounding area.

You can use them to monitor any unsolicited activity around your car and also, detect who is slashing your tires.

The best practice will be to use two dash cameras so they can monitor opposing sides of your car and ward criminals away from your car.

Make use of alarms that are motion-sensitive

Car alarms that can detect movements will come in handy. The way it is configured to work is such that it creates two detection fields around your car.

Once it detects movements, it can give away a warning alarm or a full alarm sound depending on what you decide.

Conclusion

So, your insurance policy can typically cover your slashed tires but it all comes down to the type of policy coverage you have.

It is best to contact your insurance company just in case some things are unclear. Remember to keep your deductible in mind too.

The best practice could also be to prevent the slashing of the tires entirely. In warding off criminals that slash tires, it is important to park in safe locations that are not too secluded and make use of security cameras.