Insurance claim

[siandcian]

Hi all hope this is in right section. Looking for some advice. In October 2018 our insurer (esure) contacted us saying someone was making a claim that our car had hit there garden wall. This had happened in Scotland. Now we have never been to Scotland and we live in the Midlands. So I explained this to insurance and they said they would look into it. Fast forward a few months and again esure get in touch about this claim. They said someone called Michael Townsend had hit property wall in our car. I said I've not got a clue who that person is etc. I said maybe cloned our number plate or somehow claimant has got number plate wrong? Esure didn't know and couldn't even say it was a red Honda Civic like mine but would investigate. Fast forward again to yesterday another letter off esure saying they been trying to contact me about incident can i contact them within 10days else it will go down as a fault claim and we will lose some ncb that will impact our renewal. As stated above we have never been to Scotland let alone hit a wall. Also the person driving is not me and there is only me and my partner insured on the car anyway. Any help would be appreciated

[LosingGrip]

Where were you on the day? Can you prove that you weren't at the location? Google timeline might help kf you have that on your phone.

I'd write back (or email, not phone call) and explain why it's not you and give evidence of why it's not.

If they still say it will go down as a fault claim, make a complaint.

I doubt it's a cloned plate, more than likely a witness has got the VRM wrong. If it was a cloned plate I'd expect more speeding/parking letters etc.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

As LosingGrip says, except don't bother to try and prove where you were, you don't have to. The tp has to prove you (or your car) were there.
They've already given a driver name that isn't you and is not covered to drive your car.

They've just taken down the reg number wrongly.

[BertBert]

As LosingGrip says, but I'd be on the phone to them in the first instance to have a conversation about how they'd tried to contact you and failed, why they were ignoring previous comms, and generally find out what was going on. Make and keep contemporaneous notes of your questions and the answers. I have found that being able to give chapter and verse on the details of a previous conversation when they get it wrong next time and you phone them up again proves to be very effective.

Then I'd follow up with written comms.

Bert

[siandcian]

Thanks for the info guys

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

I would go back to Esure and advise them that you were never in scotland, you live at least 300 miles from the location, and that the other party must have made a mistake, then advise them that they need to go back to the other parties insurance and dispute the claim, and also request a copy of any evidence that the Third Party Insurers may have.

The onus is on the other parties insurance to prove that you were the party at fault for the incident, if all they have is a name and a registration number, then they dont have a leg to stand on, you need the Third Party Insurers to provide photos at least to prove that you were the at fault party.