Notifying Insurer

[_Hoppers]

I was parked at a friend's house last week and luckily (or not) witnesed his neighbour scuffing my bumper with his car. Neighbour has admitted liability and has notified his insurer. Damage is fairly minor but the BMW approved repair centre said it needs fully repainting (which I would prefer over a local SMART repair).

I understood that I 'should' inform my insurer of the incident, the third party's claim management company said I'm legally obliged to inform my insurer, but I've been told by two people at the BMW approved repairers that I do not need to.

Who is correct?

[deckster]

Notify your insurer. Why would you not? Chances of it making any difference to your premium are miniscule and you can't now honestly answer "no" to to the "any accidents, incidents or claims in the last 5 years" question.

Added to which they will already know, if it's going through the third party's insurers. I forgot to notify my insurers once after my wife had a minor knock that was sorted by the third party, and then got a mildly shirty email off them at the next renewal asking me about this claim that I hadn't told them about. It didn't make any difference to the premium but I did have to send them photos of each side of car for some reason, I guess so they could check that I wasn't tooling around in a car with the bumper hanging off.

[NGee]

_Hoppers said:

I understood that I 'should' inform my insurer of the incident, the third party's claim management company said I'm legally obliged to inform my insurer, but I've been told by two people at the BMW approved repairers that I do not need to.

Who is correct?

This question comes up time and time again with boring repetition, when the answer is actual very simple.

The third party's claim management company are talking bks and have the two people at the BMW approved repairers read your insurance policy?

The answer is to do whatever is stated in your policy (if nothing is stated then you don't have to do anything). All insurance policies are different so just do whatever is asked in your policy.

Nobody, who hasn't read your policy, can answer your question. (Although it won't stop a lot of people trying!)

[_Hoppers]

Thanks both, my gut feeling was to notify. Several years ago someone opened their car door onto mine, denting the drivers door. I rang insurance straight away to inform them a claim could be pending. The third party paid for a PDR chap to take out the dent. That was on my record with DL for 5 years (IIRC). I didn’t want to give an insurer an excuse to hike my premium if I wasn’t obliged to notify. Will have a look at documents, which coincidentally, I have plenty of time to do as I’m sat in A&E with a cut to my hand. Perhaps my employer needs to notify his insurer?!

[martinbiz]

NGee said:

_Hoppers said:

I understood that I 'should' inform my insurer of the incident, the third party's claim management company said I'm legally obliged to inform my insurer, but I've been told by two people at the BMW approved repairers that I do not need to.

Who is correct?

This question comes up time and time again with boring repetition, when the answer is actual very simple.

The third party's claim management company are talking bks and have the two people at the BMW approved repairers read your insurance policy?

The answer is to do whatever is stated in your policy (if nothing is stated then you don't have to do anything). All insurance policies are different so just do whatever is asked in your policy.

Nobody, who hasn't read your policy, can answer your question. (Although it won't stop a lot of people trying!)

I have yet to see a policy that doesn't state that you have to inform them in event of an accident irrespective of fault or whether a claim is being made

[_Hoppers]

martinbiz said:

NGee said:

_Hoppers said:

I understood that I 'should' inform my insurer of the incident, the third party's claim management company said I'm legally obliged to inform my insurer, but I've been told by two people at the BMW approved repairers that I do not need to.

Who is correct?

This question comes up time and time again with boring repetition, when the answer is actual very simple.

The third party's claim management company are talking bks and have the two people at the BMW approved repairers read your insurance policy?

The answer is to do whatever is stated in your policy (if nothing is stated then you don't have to do anything). All insurance policies are different so just do whatever is asked in your policy.

Nobody, who hasn't read your policy, can answer your question. (Although it won't stop a lot of people trying!)

I have yet to see a policy that doesn't state that you have to inform them in event of an accident irrespective of fault or whether a claim is being made

The only relevant clause in my policy documents is this

[NGee]

martinbiz said:

NGee said:

_Hoppers said:

I understood that I 'should' inform my insurer of the incident, the third party's claim management company said I'm legally obliged to inform my insurer, but I've been told by two people at the BMW approved repairers that I do not need to.

Who is correct?

This question comes up time and time again with boring repetition, when the answer is actual very simple.

The third party's claim management company are talking bks and have the two people at the BMW approved repairers read your insurance policy?

The answer is to do whatever is stated in your policy (if nothing is stated then you don't have to do anything). All insurance policies are different so just do whatever is asked in your policy.

Nobody, who hasn't read your policy, can answer your question. (Although it won't stop a lot of people trying!)

I have yet to see a policy that doesn't state that you have to inform them in event of an accident irrespective of fault or whether a claim is being made

This only applies when the policy is being renewed not at the time of the accident.
As -Hoppers has now read his policy he can quote the relevant bit, which confirms this.

There is nothing in my policy which says I have to inform them although obviously I have to answer all the questions correctly at renewal.

[Durzel]

Insurers share claim data so in the event of a significant claim on your own policy in the future they would likely discover it and raise it as being an instance of non-disclosure, and seek to void the policy from inception.

Whether or not they'd actually get away with that is another matter, I presume the ombudsman would take issue with it, but it would still be a world of aggro either way.

[BertBert]

Discover what? Looks like the OP will do exactly what his policy asks him to do.

[martinbiz]

NGee said:

martinbiz said:

NGee said:

_Hoppers said:

I understood that I 'should' inform my insurer of the incident, the third party's claim management company said I'm legally obliged to inform my insurer, but I've been told by two people at the BMW approved repairers that I do not need to.

Who is correct?

This question comes up time and time again with boring repetition, when the answer is actual very simple.

The third party's claim management company are talking bks and have the two people at the BMW approved repairers read your insurance policy?

The answer is to do whatever is stated in your policy (if nothing is stated then you don't have to do anything). All insurance policies are different so just do whatever is asked in your policy.

Nobody, who hasn't read your policy, can answer your question. (Although it won't stop a lot of people trying!)

I have yet to see a policy that doesn't state that you have to inform them in event of an accident irrespective of fault or whether a claim is being made

This only applies when the policy is being renewed not at the time of the accident.
As -Hoppers has now read his policy he can quote the relevant bit, which confirms this.

There is nothing in my policy which says I have to inform them although obviously I have to answer all the questions correctly at renewal.

As the OP made no mention about renewal in his post I read it simply as "do I have to report the incident to my insurer" to which the answer is a categorical yes. You are correct in that most changes in the material facts such as some motoring offences (but not all) can be notified on renewal and not at the time of the offence, but an RTA is not one of them The renewal notice is just that, it's not a policy document, just a standard blanket warning not to hide any facts on renewal. I will 99.99% guarantee that if the OP looks properly into his ins schedule wording they will find that an RTA needs to reported within a given time period, usually 48 hours or as soon as is practically possible

[_Hoppers]

martinbiz said:

As the OP made no mention about renewal in his post

For clarity, my renewal is March next year.

[Mr Tidy]

I got hit in the rear some years ago and claimed direct from the insurer of the vehicle that hit me.

The advantages were I wouldn't have an outstanding claim and wouldn't have to fund my excess then claim it back.

You only have a duty to disclose an accident at renewal and by the time mine came around it was a non-fault claim that had already been settled, so it made no difference to my premium.

[MustangGT]

Mr Tidy said:

You only have a duty to disclose an accident at renewal and by the time mine came around it was a non-fault claim that had already been settled, so it made no difference to my premium.

If your policy requires you to disclose immediately, then yes, you do have a duty to disclose. Not all insurance companies have the same contractual requirements.

[Richard-D]

If my car was hit when parked and I wasn't in it I wouldn't inform them. I haven't had an accident, someone else has. I haven't had a claim, the other party has. I actually had a similar incident a few years ago (neighbour reversed off drive into car). At renewal I had a comment about a previous claim and when I explained the situation they agreed that it was a mistake. I took from this that their interpretation was the same as mine.

[Stuart70]

deckster said:

Notify your insurer. Why would you not? Chances of it making any difference to your premium are miniscule

I completely agree that disclosure is required to be able to answer the insurance questions honestly.

Sadly the comment above is not correct - no fault claims are a rating factor, sadly and will hike premiums.
No fault claims, statistically make a subsequent fault claim more likely. Ask the actuaries…

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Stuart70 said:

Sadly the comment above is not correct - no fault claims are a rating factor, sadly and will hike premiums.

You are incorrect. "Might" hike premiums, not "will" hike premiums. Hence several people on this thread saying it made no difference to their insurance.

[jondude]

My personal view would be once the other party has informed his insurer then you really have no choice other than do the same.

Although I guess it depends how much information the other insurers add to the database? And how much they can under data protection? I would think you have agreed to them sharing your data by acceptance of their handling of the claim.

[Ninja59]

jondude said:

My personal view would be once the other party has informed his insurer then you really have no choice other than do the same.

Although I guess it depends how much information the other insurers add to the database? And how much they can under data protection? I would think you have agreed to them sharing your data by acceptance of their handling of the claim.

CUE contains more than you would expect if you have done a DSAR via MIB.

[Oceanrower]

Ninja59 said:

CUE contains more than you would expect if you have done a DSAR via MIB.

OMG WTF YCBS.

IANAL…

[Stuart70]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Stuart70 said:

Sadly the comment above is not correct - no fault claims are a rating factor, sadly and will hike premiums.

You are incorrect. "Might" hike premiums, not "will" hike premiums. Hence several people on this thread saying it made no difference to their insurance.

Absolutely fair point. Across the four big insurance companies that I have worked for, all applied it as a rating factor.