Caught out by insurer - help?
Discussion
Hi all,
A few months ago, during torrential rain conditions, i aquaplaned on the motorway and hit the central reserve.
No other vehicles involved. No injuries at all.
The car was recovered, i got a quote privately to fix up the car - but the cost to repair would have made the car a write off / not economical.
I made the decision to sell the car for scrap and take the loss - as i did not want my insurance to go up by a huge amount over the next 5 years.
Today however, my insurance have emailed stating that they have been "advised by a third party" that i was involved in an incident (stating the road and the date which are correct)
and asking why i did not inform them.
So now what do i do? :s
If i come clean - and say as there was no involvement of other drivers i didn't want to claim - will they cancel the insurance? Or massively rise the price.
Advice would be hugely appreciated. Moral of the story - i should have informed them either way....
Cheers!
A few months ago, during torrential rain conditions, i aquaplaned on the motorway and hit the central reserve.
No other vehicles involved. No injuries at all.
The car was recovered, i got a quote privately to fix up the car - but the cost to repair would have made the car a write off / not economical.
I made the decision to sell the car for scrap and take the loss - as i did not want my insurance to go up by a huge amount over the next 5 years.
Today however, my insurance have emailed stating that they have been "advised by a third party" that i was involved in an incident (stating the road and the date which are correct)
and asking why i did not inform them.
So now what do i do? :s
If i come clean - and say as there was no involvement of other drivers i didn't want to claim - will they cancel the insurance? Or massively rise the price.
Advice would be hugely appreciated. Moral of the story - i should have informed them either way....
Cheers!
TooMany2cvs said:
Did you expect the armco pixies would rock up in the middle of the night and magically mend (for free, of course) the barrier you trashed?
Nope - but as i said - i was in a state of shock, and was in the back of an ambulance before i had time to survey any damage. I genuinely assumed there wasn't any damage to the barrier.covboy said:
How did you think the damage to your car happened ?
I scraped down the barrier btw - not directly into it. Damage to my car was not horrendous - big scrapes across many panels = expensive to repair. Thought the barrier would have been fine - they are pretty sturdy. desolate said:
Or you could settle the claim yourself. Just do the maths.
Cheers - this would be done direct with HA? I have already paid HA for recovery and storage charges - they did not mention barrier repair.I would have happily pay this direct had they contacted me. I'm assuming their policy is to claim straight form insurer. But i did not know there was damaged suffered. Didn't really fancy hanging about the central reservation for too long really.
TankRizzo said:
What's the rough cost for repairing a bit of Armco? Is it comparable to what the Nurburgring charges?
Hope not! Im sure i'll be able to tell you shortly enough...andyc11 said:
It's no biggy, just advise them that as you didn't claim you weren't aware of the need to declare it, but now understand that it's ANY accident or claim you've been involved in that you need to declare. Chances are will see about a 10% hike in premium regardless of whether you protected your bonus or not.
Not claiming on a policy after an accident does not mean you've not had the accident - this is what the insurers want to know.
Cheers Andy for the helpful response. If i only come away with a 10% increase i'll be surprised - fingers crossed. Not claiming on a policy after an accident does not mean you've not had the accident - this is what the insurers want to know.
Soov535 said:
You could be in a tricky position.
How long ago was the accident?
How long ago was the accident?
Early Jan
ging84 said:
I would own up, say you were not aware of any 3rd party damage so did not report it.
You could of course deny it, as although hato might have checked video and identified your car, that doesn't mean you were driving.
I could have been someone else legally driving your car with their own insurance, or even you driving on business covered by an employers policy.
The problem with this is if you were to push that angle, you might find yourself looking at a hit and run charge.
Yeah i'll be doing the former. Don't much fancy the latter. You could of course deny it, as although hato might have checked video and identified your car, that doesn't mean you were driving.
I could have been someone else legally driving your car with their own insurance, or even you driving on business covered by an employers policy.
The problem with this is if you were to push that angle, you might find yourself looking at a hit and run charge.
LoonR1 said:
If you do the right thing and inform your insurer early on about a claim, then your reward is a loss of part of your NCD (unless protected), a hike in premiums and a bit of hassle.
Exactly. Had i come forward and reported, my premiums would have gone up massively, as even though there was no "claim" - i needed to add that i have been in an accident to my insurance for the next 5 years. This would have added a large amount.So i decided that - as there was only my car involved - it would be worthwhile paying all costs privately. In hindsight they should have been informed regardless of whether i claimed or not...
Would have obviously come out of this alot better if i had put in a claim as i have now paid all recovery + storage + wrote off my car at a loss in the hopes of not affecting insurance.
andygo said:
Well as the insurance company are involved now, why don't you try and claim for your expenses you have already paid to the HA plus the cost of your car? They will no doubt tell you to go away, but no doubt there will be an expert along soon to advise...
Car has already been sold to co part for scrap so can't claim as far as I'm aware. May be able to claim for HA costs...Quick update for anyone who is interested - i emailed, told them what had happened, held hands up, awaiting reply.
It has been over a week, no reply yet - not sure whether to chase up...
I'm guessing that this will have been marked on the insurers database either way, so i'll have to report an "accident" on next insurance quote?
I'll keep this thread updated - i know how annoying it is when reading a thread that goes nowhere.
It has been over a week, no reply yet - not sure whether to chase up...
I'm guessing that this will have been marked on the insurers database either way, so i'll have to report an "accident" on next insurance quote?
I'll keep this thread updated - i know how annoying it is when reading a thread that goes nowhere.
LoonR1 said:
There's nothing to more for them to say. They'll pay the claim and you'll lose some NCD (if it's not protected) and have to declare a fault claim for as long as any new insurer asks about claim history (usually 3 or 5 years depending on insurer).
I was surprised they did not ask for an increased premium for my current insurance policy? So i'll need to report this when searching for quotes etc i'm assuming this will be now on the insurers database? Cheers! Loon, I also replaced my car soon after and took out a seperate policy with the same provider.
In light of this i have emailed them and let them know about a claim going through - they have not yet responded. Is this something I need to make sure they acknowledge, as I'm assuming should the worst happen they would bring up the policy was taken out after an incident?
In light of this i have emailed them and let them know about a claim going through - they have not yet responded. Is this something I need to make sure they acknowledge, as I'm assuming should the worst happen they would bring up the policy was taken out after an incident?
LoonR1 said:
No idea. Only your current insurer can answer that, as there's no real market standard on that. Why have you taken a new policy for a change of car? Why not just swap cars on your existing policy?
Ok cheers - will follow up with them and see what they say. I did swap cars, but then bought another car as 2nd car with new policy.Thanks for the advice on this.
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