Location: Tampa, FL Hi everyone, I just want to know if you were me would you fight this with a lawyer? I was in a car accident in Florida in December 2024 while uninsured. A collection agency (on behalf of the original auto Insurance) is now coming after me for over $12,000. They didn’t notify me properly—I only found out after the DMV suspended my license and said I owe $15k. They’ve only sent a vague letter and a redacted repair estimate, but no real proof of liability, payment, or how they came up with that amount. The original insurance company of other driver -Auto-Owners never contacted me at all. I genuinely had no idea they submitted the claim. So all of this is so confusing. Does this seem normal? It seems both companies aren’t giving me the info I need at all but want me to just cough up $12 or 15k Thanks in advance!

So this is a bit long and involved. I’m a 25M who just moved back home to take over a family business after a family member was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. We have a block of commercial units we rent out, most of them under one roof, and two units disconnected from the main building. In total we have about 75,000 SF of commercial retail space. Problem is when the landlord has Alzheimer’s they forget to do important things like carrying insurance on the main building with 65,000 SF. So I went to the insurance agency we’ve always went through for literally everything commercial or otherwise. They insisted for two months that I had coverage on all the properties (unfortunately I don’t have that in writing) despite being unable to provide a bill or declarations listing the units. It took me ambushing the agent at the office an hour away and showing her a map of the property for her to understand that despite the disconnected units being covered, the main building and parking lot carried no coverage. She had never even audited the property or looked at it on maps nor visited it. She finally says she’ll get working on adding the main units to the policy, and today she emails me right before she leaves to tell me there is no way possible for auto-owners to cover us as we have two restaurants on the property (my gf used to work as a receptionist at a different agency auto-owners does do commercial coverage for restaurants in my area). So now I’m stuck here with no insurance on a multimillion dollar lot because I get the feeling the agent doesn’t feel like rewriting the policy. All of my families coverage for everything is through this agency and auto-owners but the agency is incompetent at the very least and it’s evident I need to switch agencies at least. The only experience I have with insurance prior to this is renters insurance and personal auto, I’m really at a loss for where to start or what I should be switching around. Any advice or guidance is appreciated.