Car hit while parked - go through their insurance?
Discussion
Evening Gents,
My car was hit in a public car park. Thankfully, the person left a note. There's around £300 worth of damage, so I don't exactly want a non fault claim to potentially increase insurance over the coming years for such an amount.
I have details of the other parties insurance (they didn't want to sort private) - do I just contact them and ask them to sort? Or do I have to inform my insurers? Not had to do this before!
Cheers PH!
My car was hit in a public car park. Thankfully, the person left a note. There's around £300 worth of damage, so I don't exactly want a non fault claim to potentially increase insurance over the coming years for such an amount.
I have details of the other parties insurance (they didn't want to sort private) - do I just contact them and ask them to sort? Or do I have to inform my insurers? Not had to do this before!
Cheers PH!
sgtbash said:
Evening Gents,
My car was hit in a public car park. Thankfully, the person left a note. There's around £300 worth of damage, so I don't exactly want a non fault claim to potentially increase insurance over the coming years for such an amount.
I have details of the other parties insurance (they didn't want to sort private) - do I just contact them and ask them to sort? Or do I have to inform my insurers? Not had to do this before!
Your insurance company will require you to tell them about any accidents whether or not you intend to make a claim. Failing to tell them could invalidate your policy of they subsequently found out.My car was hit in a public car park. Thankfully, the person left a note. There's around £300 worth of damage, so I don't exactly want a non fault claim to potentially increase insurance over the coming years for such an amount.
I have details of the other parties insurance (they didn't want to sort private) - do I just contact them and ask them to sort? Or do I have to inform my insurers? Not had to do this before!
Obviously people who have a minor bump and either settle it with a handful of banknotes or just live with the dent trend not to inform their insurers, and usually suffer no harm as a result. However if you make a claim through the other drivers insurer there is a chance that it will end up being recorded on a database and the change of not telling your insurer coming back to bite you increases. Personally I wouldn't risk it.
You can inform your insurance company "for information only" and then speak directly to the third party insurers, but you will have to declare this as a no fault incident going forwards I'm afraid.
I'd go through the other persons' insurance.
That way you won't have to stump up your excess or have an outstanding claim on your policy while the claim is getting settled. That's what I did last year when I got tapped in the rear at a set of traffic lights.
You do have to tell your insurer, but only when your renewal is due - hopefully it will be settled by then!
That way you won't have to stump up your excess or have an outstanding claim on your policy while the claim is getting settled. That's what I did last year when I got tapped in the rear at a set of traffic lights.
You do have to tell your insurer, but only when your renewal is due - hopefully it will be settled by then!
sgtbash said:
There's around £300 worth of damage, so I don't exactly want a non fault claim to potentially increase insurance over the coming years for such an amount.
And there's the rub. Declaring it (may) cost you more than £300 over the next few years.So pay for it yourself, and hassle the f
k out of the guy to see it you can get him to offer a "contribution".It's difficult to decide sometimes when wondering whether to notify your insurance company. By not declaring it, and the other driver then later fails to settle the costs, could your insurer claim you didn't notify them at the time and refuse to assist, with a mark against your name?
Edited by The Gauge on Saturday 27th January 21:40
Sebring440 said:
sgtbash said:
There's around £300 worth of damage, so I don't exactly want a non fault claim to potentially increase insurance over the coming years for such an amount.
And there's the rub. Declaring it (may) cost you more than £300 over the next few years.So pay for it yourself, and hassle the f
k out of the guy to see it you can get him to offer a "contribution".GasEngineer said:
As mentioned above: even if you do pay for it yourself (regardless of any contribution from the TP) would you still have to declare it to your insurer?
If there was no (or little) damage to the other car (and they have not notified their insurance), and you decided to pay for your own damage, why would you declare this to your insurer?It may NOT increase your premium.
I claimed off a third party insurer direct as other driver t boned me = no increase
An unknown person hit my car in a car park. I notified insurer but did not claim (£250 damage). No increase although this did take some arguing with direct line and a formal complaint got me £300 compensation for bad advice from their call centre.
Firstly call handler told me no need to declare it if no claim! Then they called it an at fault accident. It wasn't and I wasn't claiming.
Eventually it was sorted with comp as above and a letter stating no fault etc etc.
If there's a likelyhood the other driver claims for their damage and you do not declare it . That is a breach of your ts and cs.
I claimed off a third party insurer direct as other driver t boned me = no increase
An unknown person hit my car in a car park. I notified insurer but did not claim (£250 damage). No increase although this did take some arguing with direct line and a formal complaint got me £300 compensation for bad advice from their call centre.
Firstly call handler told me no need to declare it if no claim! Then they called it an at fault accident. It wasn't and I wasn't claiming.
Eventually it was sorted with comp as above and a letter stating no fault etc etc.
If there's a likelyhood the other driver claims for their damage and you do not declare it . That is a breach of your ts and cs.
sgtbash said:
Just to update - thankfully, the other party has seen sense and decided to do this private. None of us have informed insurance yet so jobs a good un!
I wish I could have done that last year... Whilst I was parked, a campervan scraped down the side of my car. Enough to put some scratches in the doors, mirror, front wing and headlight. I contacted the campervan hire company who wouldn't discuss it with me directly. Fair enough. I then involved my insurers (first claim ever in 25 years+ of driving). My insurer put me in contact with their 'approved' accident management company.They supplied me with a hire car, and fixed my car. (Well, they forgot about the headlight, but I since sorted it myself).
The third party insurer is now disputing the cost, mainly around the hire car, meaning it's looking likely I'll need to attend court to explain why I needed a car for the week and why I let my insurer / accident management company get one at great cost, rather than me doing it myself.
Also, my renewal is now due, but with this claim still technically open, I'm struggling to get reasonable quotes...
All good fun!
sanguinary said:
I wish I could have done that last year... Whilst I was parked, a campervan scraped down the side of my car. Enough to put some scratches in the doors, mirror, front wing and headlight. I contacted the campervan hire company who wouldn't discuss it with me directly. Fair enough. I then involved my insurers (first claim ever in 25 years+ of driving). My insurer put me in contact with their 'approved' accident management company.
They supplied me with a hire car, and fixed my car. (Well, they forgot about the headlight, but I since sorted it myself).
The third party insurer is now disputing the cost, mainly around the hire car, meaning it's looking likely I'll need to attend court to explain why I needed a car for the week and why I let my insurer / accident management company get one at great cost, rather than me doing it myself.
Also, my renewal is now due, but with this claim still technically open, I'm struggling to get reasonable quotes...
All good fun!
You won't need to attend court, it's a scare tactic, couple of people I know had the same thing, they had to write letters explaining why they needed the hire car, they even had a court date but the week before both cases were settled and no-one had to attend court. They supplied me with a hire car, and fixed my car. (Well, they forgot about the headlight, but I since sorted it myself).
The third party insurer is now disputing the cost, mainly around the hire car, meaning it's looking likely I'll need to attend court to explain why I needed a car for the week and why I let my insurer / accident management company get one at great cost, rather than me doing it myself.
Also, my renewal is now due, but with this claim still technically open, I'm struggling to get reasonable quotes...
All good fun!
NikBartlett said:
sgtbash said:
Just to update - thankfully, the other party has seen sense and decided to do this private. None of us have informed insurance yet so jobs a good un!
Except that both parties have now very likely breached their insurance t&c'shttps://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
zedx19 said:
You won't need to attend court, it's a scare tactic, couple of people I know had the same thing, they had to write letters explaining why they needed the hire car, they even had a court date but the week before both cases were settled and no-one had to attend court.
Hopefully that's the case. I'll let you know if it isn't! I'm just annoyed that my own insurance company happily puts its customers in that position. I can see why people avoid claiming where possible.Edited by sanguinary on Monday 29th January 14:49
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