Fraudulant wiplash claim loading insurance premiums
Discussion
In spring 2017 my wife was involved in a low speed collision. She was emerging slowly from a junction to turn right onto a road through a line of queuing traffic. As she did this a Yaris with a man and three children in it on opposite side of the road, collided with her car. The collision was at such low speed she wasn’t sure the car had actually hit hers (Discovery). The bumper on the Yaris appeared damaged, but there was no physical damage to her car at all, and I went over it with a fine toothcomb, as did the lease company as it has since been returned to them. No damage at all. It is worth noting that there is some suspicion that he Yaris had pre-existing damage before the “collision”
My wife took numerous pictures of the scene at the time and got the Yaris driver’s details.
I called the driver that day and said, let me know what your bumper costs to fix and I’ll sort it. He came back with £500+ and I said, seems a lot mate let’s go through insurance. I then received a number of texts telling me how there were “kids in the car” etc. implying a claim. I ignored and let insurance deal with it.
Sure enough some weeks later my wife’s insurance company receive a claim from the third party stating there were three children and two adults in the car, all had suffered whiplash injuries, with a doctor’s report. No claim for any damage. Seemed odd as my wife had pics, there was definitely only one adult in the Yaris. The claim was being brought by this second adult, an uncle.
Wife’s insurance company inspected her car, and they also asked to inspect the Yaris. It had mysteriously been sold or scrapped by the owner, so they couldn’t look at it. They also reviewed pictures and agreed no damage so rejected/ defended the claim. When the claimant saw the pictures they withdrew the claim for the adult and uncle, but stated they would be claiming for the children. Nothing has yet progressed.
In November 2017 I had to renew insurance on both our cars, and my wife’s Disco went back to the lease company. This has loaded both our premiums as my wife is a named driver on my car. Her insurance company are viewing the claim as still potentially outstanding, so it is being stated as the full value. Her car is with the same insurer but mine is with a different one. They stated our premiums would be refunded appropriately when the case was closed
I understand they have 6 years to bring a claim, maybe longer as they are children.
My wife’s insurer has now gone a bit quiet, any chasing they just say they are waiting to close the case.
Do I really have to wait all that time to clear it off, even though it is clearly a fraudulent claim? I will be renewing insurance again in November I assume if this is not closed by then I will not be getting the money back on this year’s loaded premiums?
Does anyone have any advice on how to close this out?
Thanks.
My wife took numerous pictures of the scene at the time and got the Yaris driver’s details.
I called the driver that day and said, let me know what your bumper costs to fix and I’ll sort it. He came back with £500+ and I said, seems a lot mate let’s go through insurance. I then received a number of texts telling me how there were “kids in the car” etc. implying a claim. I ignored and let insurance deal with it.
Sure enough some weeks later my wife’s insurance company receive a claim from the third party stating there were three children and two adults in the car, all had suffered whiplash injuries, with a doctor’s report. No claim for any damage. Seemed odd as my wife had pics, there was definitely only one adult in the Yaris. The claim was being brought by this second adult, an uncle.
Wife’s insurance company inspected her car, and they also asked to inspect the Yaris. It had mysteriously been sold or scrapped by the owner, so they couldn’t look at it. They also reviewed pictures and agreed no damage so rejected/ defended the claim. When the claimant saw the pictures they withdrew the claim for the adult and uncle, but stated they would be claiming for the children. Nothing has yet progressed.
In November 2017 I had to renew insurance on both our cars, and my wife’s Disco went back to the lease company. This has loaded both our premiums as my wife is a named driver on my car. Her insurance company are viewing the claim as still potentially outstanding, so it is being stated as the full value. Her car is with the same insurer but mine is with a different one. They stated our premiums would be refunded appropriately when the case was closed
I understand they have 6 years to bring a claim, maybe longer as they are children.
My wife’s insurer has now gone a bit quiet, any chasing they just say they are waiting to close the case.
Do I really have to wait all that time to clear it off, even though it is clearly a fraudulent claim? I will be renewing insurance again in November I assume if this is not closed by then I will not be getting the money back on this year’s loaded premiums?
Does anyone have any advice on how to close this out?
Thanks.
It's out of your hands I'm afraid - you've done all that you can by reporting it to the insurers and letting them sort it.
The 3 year Limitation period only starts to run for a Minor on their 18th birthday, so they effectively have until they're 21 to issue Court proceedings against you for this accident.
I suspect you'll have to pay your increased premiums for the next 5 years or as long as you have to notify your insurers of a potential outstanding claim.
The 3 year Limitation period only starts to run for a Minor on their 18th birthday, so they effectively have until they're 21 to issue Court proceedings against you for this accident.
I suspect you'll have to pay your increased premiums for the next 5 years or as long as you have to notify your insurers of a potential outstanding claim.
panholio said:
In spring 2017 my wife was involved in a low speed collision. She was emerging slowly from a junction to turn right onto a road through a line of queuing traffic. As she did this a Yaris with a man and three children in it on opposite side of the road, collided with her car. The collision was at such low speed she wasn’t sure the car had actually hit hers (Discovery). The bumper on the Yaris appeared damaged, but there was no physical damage to her car at all, and I went over it with a fine toothcomb, as did the lease company as it has since been returned to them. No damage at all. It is worth noting that there is some suspicion that he Yaris had pre-existing damage before the “collision”
My wife took numerous pictures of the scene at the time and got the Yaris driver’s details.
I called the driver that day and said, let me know what your bumper costs to fix and I’ll sort it. He came back with £500+ and I said, seems a lot mate let’s go through insurance. I then received a number of texts telling me how there were “kids in the car” etc. implying a claim. I ignored and let insurance deal with it.
Sure enough some weeks later my wife’s insurance company receive a claim from the third party stating there were three children and two adults in the car, all had suffered whiplash injuries, with a doctor’s report. No claim for any damage. Seemed odd as my wife had pics, there was definitely only one adult in the Yaris. The claim was being brought by this second adult, an uncle.
Wife’s insurance company inspected her car, and they also asked to inspect the Yaris. It had mysteriously been sold or scrapped by the owner, so they couldn’t look at it. They also reviewed pictures and agreed no damage so rejected/ defended the claim. When the claimant saw the pictures they withdrew the claim for the adult and uncle, but stated they would be claiming for the children. Nothing has yet progressed.
In November 2017 I had to renew insurance on both our cars, and my wife’s Disco went back to the lease company. This has loaded both our premiums as my wife is a named driver on my car. Her insurance company are viewing the claim as still potentially outstanding, so it is being stated as the full value. Her car is with the same insurer but mine is with a different one. They stated our premiums would be refunded appropriately when the case was closed
I understand they have 6 years to bring a claim, maybe longer as they are children.
My wife’s insurer has now gone a bit quiet, any chasing they just say they are waiting to close the case.
Do I really have to wait all that time to clear it off, even though it is clearly a fraudulent claim? I will be renewing insurance again in November I assume if this is not closed by then I will not be getting the money back on this year’s loaded premiums?
Does anyone have any advice on how to close this out?
Thanks.
I wonder if you would receive a refund if the claim was settled after renewal and no payouts were made. Would the insurance company restore you back to original position of no claim? Somehow i doubt it...My wife took numerous pictures of the scene at the time and got the Yaris driver’s details.
I called the driver that day and said, let me know what your bumper costs to fix and I’ll sort it. He came back with £500+ and I said, seems a lot mate let’s go through insurance. I then received a number of texts telling me how there were “kids in the car” etc. implying a claim. I ignored and let insurance deal with it.
Sure enough some weeks later my wife’s insurance company receive a claim from the third party stating there were three children and two adults in the car, all had suffered whiplash injuries, with a doctor’s report. No claim for any damage. Seemed odd as my wife had pics, there was definitely only one adult in the Yaris. The claim was being brought by this second adult, an uncle.
Wife’s insurance company inspected her car, and they also asked to inspect the Yaris. It had mysteriously been sold or scrapped by the owner, so they couldn’t look at it. They also reviewed pictures and agreed no damage so rejected/ defended the claim. When the claimant saw the pictures they withdrew the claim for the adult and uncle, but stated they would be claiming for the children. Nothing has yet progressed.
In November 2017 I had to renew insurance on both our cars, and my wife’s Disco went back to the lease company. This has loaded both our premiums as my wife is a named driver on my car. Her insurance company are viewing the claim as still potentially outstanding, so it is being stated as the full value. Her car is with the same insurer but mine is with a different one. They stated our premiums would be refunded appropriately when the case was closed
I understand they have 6 years to bring a claim, maybe longer as they are children.
My wife’s insurer has now gone a bit quiet, any chasing they just say they are waiting to close the case.
Do I really have to wait all that time to clear it off, even though it is clearly a fraudulent claim? I will be renewing insurance again in November I assume if this is not closed by then I will not be getting the money back on this year’s loaded premiums?
Does anyone have any advice on how to close this out?
Thanks.
pavarotti1980 said:
I wonder if you would receive a refund if the claim was settled after renewal and no payouts were made. Would the insurance company restore you back to original position of no claim? Somehow i doubt it...
Yes they would and they often do. Not at all unusual. Not sure why you would think otherwise. OP, whilst they have many years to bring a claim, it is quite usual for an insurer to mark a claim as closed from 6-12 months if no tp correspondence is forthcoming.
It does seem that insurers can do what they want and try everything they can to increase your premium.
It is fairly obvious this was a guy looking a gift horse in the mouth and thinking he could make 10 grand out of this.
The fact the car was scrapped says to me it was either done so deliberately, or as you say had hidden damage that meant the insurer scrapped it anyway. If it was inspected properly surely a decent inspector would be able to match the damage your wife did to the other damage and decide if they were linked.
Either w3ay this sucks, but it does not surprise me, insurance companies seem capable of nailing your premiums higher whatever you do, fault or not. Have you shopped around? No point in loyalty with a company like that, I had a no fault claim years ago that was ignore by 2 insurance companies for 2 years, then miraculously appeared for the third renewal.
It is fairly obvious this was a guy looking a gift horse in the mouth and thinking he could make 10 grand out of this.
The fact the car was scrapped says to me it was either done so deliberately, or as you say had hidden damage that meant the insurer scrapped it anyway. If it was inspected properly surely a decent inspector would be able to match the damage your wife did to the other damage and decide if they were linked.
Either w3ay this sucks, but it does not surprise me, insurance companies seem capable of nailing your premiums higher whatever you do, fault or not. Have you shopped around? No point in loyalty with a company like that, I had a no fault claim years ago that was ignore by 2 insurance companies for 2 years, then miraculously appeared for the third renewal.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Yes they would and they often do. Not at all unusual. Not sure why you would think otherwise.
because insurance companies will use any opportunity to extract money from a customer in anyway possible. Do they would refund the difference in premiums between a non-claim policy and claim-pending policy? Surely they would actually have to communicate to do that and my experiences have been that that part of the service is lacking somewhatpavarotti1980 said:
because insurance companies will use any opportunity to extract money from a customer in anyway possible. Do they would refund the difference in premiums between a non-claim policy and claim-pending policy? Surely they would actually have to communicate to do that and my experiences have been that that part of the service is lacking somewhat
Whilst it is undoubtedly true that all insurance companies are bandits and anyone who works in the industry is a lying, cheating charlatan they do regularly refund the premium in such circumstances.There is a similar scenario with my Mother from 2 1/2 years ago, someone claims she ran into them in a car park. No damage to Mothers car, no accident at all according to my mum, no claim made by third party despite initially trying to suggest there had been damage. So the insurance company have a potential outstanding incident that they say must be kept open for 6years. It would have been better to have just made a pay out, at the moment insurance company have paid nothing but charging mother an extra £200 a year!! Bonkers.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Yes they would and they often do. Not at all unusual. Not sure why you would think otherwise.
OP, whilst they have many years to bring a claim, it is quite usual for an insurer to mark a claim as closed from 6-12 months if no tp correspondence is forthcoming.
But the potential claimant has 3 years to make an injury claim and 6 years to make a damage claim - plus a few months for service of a writ.OP, whilst they have many years to bring a claim, it is quite usual for an insurer to mark a claim as closed from 6-12 months if no tp correspondence is forthcoming.
When I worked for an insurer our file destruction dates took this into account! After all you just don't know!
TwigtheWonderkid said:
aka_kerrly said:
Can you not issue a counter claim via small claims for your increase in premium.
No.* the merits of the case do not get considered until waaaayyy later in the process. Out of interest, what's the legislation that forbids using the Small Claims system for these out of pocket costs?
Had something similar happen to me, bus pulled out on the car in front of me and we touched corners, no damage, just a bit of scuffing. No repairs to either car, car I touched had 2 men in it, my insurer paid out £40,000 in personal injury claims for the 5 occupants of the car.... Insurer didn't even discuss it with me, no communication at all about it. They didn't even increase my premium..
Found out when I asked them for proof of no claims.
Found out when I asked them for proof of no claims.
Foliage said:
Had something similar happen to me, bus pulled out on the car in front of me and we touched corners, no damage, just a bit of scuffing. No repairs to either car, car I touched had 2 men in it, my insurer paid out £40,000 in personal injury claims for the 5 occupants of the car.... Insurer didn't even discuss it with me, no communication at all about it. They didn't even increase my premium..
Found out when I asked them for proof of no claims.
Don't believe a word of it, or certainly if there is a grain of truth to it, there's a lot more to the tale than you are letting on.Found out when I asked them for proof of no claims.
Insurers may pay out a couple of grand to make something go away that they fear will cost them more to get into a protracted battle over, but no insurer pays £40K to 5 injured third parties without even asking their policyholder how many people were in the tp vehicle. It didn't happen.
Foliage said:
Had something similar happen to me, bus pulled out on the car in front of me and we touched corners, no damage, just a bit of scuffing. No repairs to either car, car I touched had 2 men in it, my insurer paid out £40,000 in personal injury claims for the 5 occupants of the car.... Insurer didn't even discuss it with me, no communication at all about it. They didn't even increase my premium..
Found out when I asked them for proof of no claims.
Gosh! Amazing! who would have thought it!Found out when I asked them for proof of no claims.
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