Should I inform insurance? No damage to anything else.

[tanderson]

Was driving my old micra, caught the verge on a country road and rolled the bloody thing. The car is in the verge on the other side and im getting it recovered by the local garage as we speak. Rung 101 at the time and the police came out and had a look, said everything looked fine and that I hadn't caused any damage to anything else.

I'm moving to the city and won't need to drive for a year or so and am privately scrapping the car. Everyone has told me not to tell my insurance as it will just cause problems (even the police officer said just say you are scrapping it!). However- I have read that you should always tell your insurance that you have had an incident but 'for information only' and then it wouldn't affect your premiums much (if at all) and you could still keep your no claims. I know if I had just scratched or dented the car you wouldn't ring insurance; this is more serious but if people don't bother to inform their insurance about damaging their car less seriously, as long as I haven't caused damage to myself or anyone else I don't need to either? I don't want to be dodgy- have a big accident in 5 years that goes to court and they bring up and accident on the police database that I never officially reported- but I also don't want to cause myself unnecessary costs and stress when I eventually do need to take out insurance again.

Want to let them know ASAP either way as it happened last night. I can either tell them I'm scrapping it because im moving to London and leave it at that or tell them I damaged my vehicle and scrapping it but I don't want to claim. What would you guys do?

Edited by tanderson on Friday 29th August 15:37

[schmalex]

Strictly speaking, you should tell the insurance, although I probably wouldn't bother if there was no damage to anything else other than the car itself. Just get it scrapped and be done with

[tanderson]

Indeed there was no damage. Luckily didn't go through the farmers hedge, just scuffed up the verge. I'm just worried that now its been registered with the police I might get in trouble in the future if I ever need to make a serious claim and the insurance do some digging and find I had an accident which I didn't admit to in the past- hence making my future policy invalid. Yes I'm a worrier haha.

Also If I don't admit it should I just ring up and say: I'm moving away from home and have scrapped my car today. I would like to cancel the policy- they won't ask any further questions? Insurance just went past renewal so I'm in the 14 day grace period if that helps as well?

[DanielSan]

As above, technically yes you should tell them. Personally I'd just scrap it and cancel the policy for that reason

[TVR1]

tanderson said:

Was driving my old micra, caught the verge on a country road and rolled the bloody thing. The car is in the verge on the other side and im getting it recovered by the local garage as we speak. Rung 101 at the time and the police came out and had a look, said everything looked fine and that I hadn't caused any damage to anything else.

I'm moving to the city and won't need to drive for a year or so and am privately scrapping the car. Everyone has told me not to tell my insurance as it will just cause problems (even the police officer said just say you are scrapping it!). However- I have read that you should always tell your insurance that you have had an incident but 'for information only' and then it wouldn't affect your premiums much (if at all) and you could still keep your no claims. I know if I had just scratched or dented the car you wouldn't ring insurance; this is more serious but if people don't bother to inform their insurance about damaging their car less seriously, as long as I haven't caused damage to myself or anyone else I don't need to either? I don't want to be dodgy- have a big accident in 5 years that goes to court and they bring up and accident on the police database that I never officially reported- but I also don't want to cause myself unnecessary costs and stress when I eventually do need to take out insurance again.

Want to let them know ASAP either way as it happened last night. I can either tell them I'm scrapping it because im moving to London and leave it at that or tell them I damaged my vehicle and scrapping it but I don't want to claim. What would you guys do?

Edited by tanderson on Friday 29th August 15:37

And

tanderson said:

Indeed there was no damage. Luckily didn't go through the farmers hedge, just scuffed up the verge. I'm just worried that now its been registered with the police I might get in trouble in the future if I ever need to make a serious claim and the insurance do some digging and find I had an accident which I didn't admit to in the past- hence making my future policy invalid. Yes I'm a worrier haha.

Also If I don't admit it should I just ring up and say: I'm moving away from home and have scrapped my car today. I would like to cancel the policy- they won't ask any further questions? Insurance just went past renewal so I'm in the 14 day grace period if that helps as well?

Quoted, you know, just in case.....

Although the above story is absolute rubbish, please humour me with a question- As there is no grace period after the expiry of your insurance and you are, in fact, uninsured, how have you managed to avoid being done for no insurance after plod attended?

[sc0tt]

Because he has had a new policy started.

[Hol]

IF it is exactly as described - no third party is involved , or expected to become involved and you are not intending to claim on your insurance.

Then, it does not involve them.


BUT, if there is any chance that someone else was involved - who may try their luck with a claim against you, then write to them and let them know you have damaged it past its reasonable value, but are not claiming on your insurance.

[TVR1]

sc0tt said:

Because he has had a new policy started.

Op says he has gone past renewal, so no new policy.

[xRIEx]

To the letter: you should declare it, and on future quotes.

In reality: depends on how likely are you to get discovered. Insurers do share claims info between each other, but I doubt they access any police incident database. If it's not recorded on an accessible, searchable medium then you should be in the clear.

Disclaimer: That's just musing on the possibilities, if I were in that situation I'd probably mention it.

[Conscript]

I'd just go ahead and scrap it. You haven't damaged anything/anyone, so no one is going to try and claim off your insurance. And you aren't bothered, so you won't either. I'm guessing future insurance companies are only interested in accidents which resulted in a claim, so it shouldn't ever come up as an issue.

[xRIEx]

TVR1 said:

sc0tt said:

Because he has had a new policy started.

Op says he has gone past renewal, so no new policy.

Well yeah, current policy is in force; I don't see the problem. He never said he didn't renew it.

Edited by xRIEx on Friday 29th August 16:10

[oilslick]

OP, did you actually renew your insurance or has your policy ended?

[Falsey]

If theres nothing to pay for Id just scrap and cancel the policy as Ive scrapped the car. They dont need to know why you've scrapped it.

[hman]

Plainly NO.


unless you want this to be an added risk factor on your policy for the next 5 years.

[TVR1]

xRIEx said:

TVR1 said:

sc0tt said:

Because he has had a new policy started.

Op says he has gone past renewal, so no new policy.

Well yeah, current policy is in force; I don't see the problem. He never said he didn't renew it.

'Going past renewal' is a fair indication that he didn't renew. If he didn't renew, he doesn't have a valid policy. Or am I missing something really obvious?

[oohcarfreind]

I think what the OP means is that the policy automatically renewed after the year, but is still within the two week cancelation period, so he will get his policy amount back, minus admin cost.

If you do get pulled up on it years later, just say you didn't crash it, just scrapping it your own way via a verge on a country lane.

[tanderson]

TVR1 said:

Quoted, you know, just in case.....

Although the above story is absolute rubbish, please humour me with a question- As there is no grace period after the expiry of your insurance and you are, in fact, uninsured, how have you managed to avoid being done for no insurance after plod attended?

You've got the wrong end of the stick. By 14 day grace period I meant my car insurance had automatically renewed less than 14 days ago and I know its easier to cancel during this period. The police checked all my details at the road side, before you call me a liar or a crook.

[tanderson]

TVR1 said:

Op says he has gone past renewal, so no new policy.

I pay via direct debit. I have been with my insurer for 4 years, this years policy renewal was 10 days ago. I got a letter saying if I do nothing it will automatically renew, so yes I have a policy.

[hman]

perfectly fine as long as no claim is made in the grace period

[tanderson]

Just to confirm I DO HAVE INSURANCE! My insurance company does auto-renewal- it happened 10 days ago and automatically carried on for the next year. I was just saying grace period because I know its easier to get more of your money back if its in the first 14 days or so of a policy renewal.

So the general consensus is I should ring up and just say I am moving away and scrapping my car. WIll they ask where I'm scrapping it or some kind of report. I'm just worried they might somehow get wind that it was rolled and then put on some insurers database that I didn't announce and accident. I may be paranoid I just don't want to get involved in a big claim in say 4 years time where they try and discredit you and find out that I had an incident (albeit with no damage to anyone or anything else) and then claim my future policy was invalid as I didn't tell them about the incident in the past. But you guys seem to think thats unlikely. Don't want to be a crook just don't want to cause my self unnecessary monetary loss and stress, especially when even the officer who gave me a lift home just told me to tell them I'm scrapping it!