Claim for "reporting only"?

[dtr]

Hi,

I had a very minor non-fault accident a while ago caused by nasty old guy in a vauxhall. Damage turned out to be minimal so I never claimed just reported to the insurance as required by law. Aviva said they marked it as "information only".

I checked my file today and it is marked as a claim. This is not what they told me back then and haven't paid out a single penny.

Is this right and what shall I do about this?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

dtr said:

Hi,

just reported to the insurance as required by law.

Which law is this?

[LoonR1]

dtr said:

Hi,

I had a very minor non-fault accident a while ago caused by nasty old guy in a vauxhall. Damage turned out to be minimal so I never claimed just reported to the insurance as required by law. Aviva said they marked it as "information only".

I checked my file today and it is marked as a claim. This is not what they told me back then and haven't paid out a single penny.

Is this right and what shall I do about this?

Holy fk, Batman.

[mikeveal]

dtr said:

Hi,

I had a very minor non-fault accident a while ago caused by nasty old guy in a vauxhall. Damage turned out to be minimal so I never claimed just reported to the insurance as required by law. Aviva said they marked it as "information only".

I checked my file today and it is marked as a claim. This is not what they told me back then and haven't paid out a single penny.

Is this right and what shall I do about this?

They will have recorded it as an incident, not a claim. Having had an "incident" you are statistically more likely to have another, so your insurance co. want to know - hence the clause that you will more than likely find in your contract requiring you to inform them of any "incident" that you have.

If you press them to explain this to you, then will no doubt point out that to them "incident" is synonymous with "claim".

Some insurers will feel that since you now represent a greater risk, your policy price should increase. Others will not.

It is also possible that your insurer paid out to the nasty old guy, meaning their really was a claim.

Its neither fair nor unfair. Its a business model. If they raise your premium, shop around.

[Riley Blue]

What should you do? Phone Aviva, they're to only ones who can tell you what's what.

[pidsy]

OP - Ive had this issue.

in 2012 i bumped into a lady at a roundabout and ended up giving her a couple of hundered pounds for a new bumper. got a letter from her signed saying she wouldnt go through insurance and that it was full and final settlement.

all good, so i thought.

mentioned it on here and got a couple of people saying that i needed to notify my insurers "just in case" she made a personal injury claim within the 3 year period.

called them, told them that i had paid the lady. she was happy, i was happy and that was that.

so, my insurers take it upon themselves to call it a claim (fault) and contact her insurers admitting full liability.

after many phonecalls by myself and the lady to both insurers, they admitted that they had been at fault in putting it down as a claim.

so now i have a non fault claim on my record for absolutely no reason at all.

it wasnt a claim,
was never intended to be a claim
didnt cost the insurers anything

and it still comes up every time i get a quote.

[anonymous-user]

Your risk profile has changed. You made a mistake and bumped into someone. Easy to do, many if not most of us do it at least once, usually no biggie. But insurers have to work on assessments of risk. As Mike Veal says, this is neither fair nor unfair, it's just a business model.

Mike, I am stealing you words for use on the buttheaded Beavis parking thread.

[ZOLLAR]

mikeveal said:

dtr said:

Hi,

I had a very minor non-fault accident a while ago caused by nasty old guy in a vauxhall. Damage turned out to be minimal so I never claimed just reported to the insurance as required by law. Aviva said they marked it as "information only".

I checked my file today and it is marked as a claim. This is not what they told me back then and haven't paid out a single penny.

Is this right and what shall I do about this?

They will have recorded it as an incident, not a claim. Having had an "incident" you are statistically more likely to have another, so your insurance co. want to know - hence the clause that you will more than likely find in your contract requiring you to inform them of any "incident" that you have.

If you press them to explain this to you, then will no doubt point out that to them "incident" is synonymous with "claim".

Some insurers will feel that since you now represent a greater risk, your policy price should increase. Others will not.

It is also possible that your insurer paid out to the nasty old guy, meaning their really was a claim.

Its neither fair nor unfair. Its a business model. If they raise your premium, shop around.

This is the best description of the situation you're going to get.

[Devil2575]

pidsy said:

and it still comes up every time i get a quote.

It won't for much longer.

I wrote off two cars and my insurer paid out for a personal injury claim as well. Total bill to them including legal fees was about 25k. However it was more than 3 years ago so I no longer have to mention it when getting a quote.
Even at the time my insurance didn't go up massively, although I did change insurer at my first renewal as my exisiting company wanted an extra £300. I think I ended up paying about £80 more. It's now about £180 a year, half what it was when I crashed. Being older has some benefits.

[Joeguard1990]

Only advise I can give is to mention it when obtaining quotes but switch every year. 9 times out of 10 sticking with your current insurer is never the cheapest option, loyalty gets you nowhere when it comes to insurance.

[dtr]

Breadvan72 said:

Your risk profile has changed. You made a mistake and bumped into someone. Easy to do, many if not most of us do it at least once, usually no biggie. But insurers have to work on assessments of risk. As Mike Veal says, this is neither fair nor unfair, it's just a business model.

Mike, I am stealing you words for use on the buttheaded Beavis parking thread.

It was the other way round. Old angry fart made a mistake, not me. I ended up calling police to make sure they mark the incident as his fault. They did.

[mikeveal]

dtr said:

It was the other way round. Old angry fart made a mistake, not me. I ended up calling police to make sure they mark the incident as his fault. They did.

You might think that all insurers would draw the distinction between blame, claim and incident.
Truth is, some do, some don't.
Your choices are:

• Don't accept that this is the case.
• Accept that this is the case.

Your possible actions are:

• Stay with your current insurer.
• Find a new insurer.
• Become instantly rich enough to self indemnify.

If you crack the last option, please drop me a pm with details. Cheers.

[LoonR1]

dtr said:

It was the other way round. Old angry fart made a mistake, not me. I ended up calling police to make sure they mark the incident as his fault. They did.

Powwwww Law slap.

Where did the police mark this incident as fault?

[mikey-r]

LoonR1 said:

Powwwww Law slap.

Where did the police mark this incident as fault?

Possibly on their incident report? They did the same for me when I was hit head on, on my side of the road. Marks in the tarmac clearly indicated the point of collision and they stated it was the other parties fault. This report was used to change a 50/50 claim to 100% their fault.

[LoonR1]

mikey-r said:

LoonR1 said:

Powwwww Law slap.

Where did the police mark this incident as fault?

Possibly on their incident report? They did the same for me when I was hit head on, on my side of the road. Marks in the tarmac clearly indicated the point of collision and they stated it was the other parties fault. This report was used to change a 50/50 claim to 100% their fault.

What incident report? He "called them".

Just for info, police reports contain a generic statement along the lines of "we do not apportion blame for an incident and nothing contained in this form relates to blame from an insurance perspective. It is the role of insurers to apportion and agree liability".

[anonymous-user]

dtr said:

Breadvan72 said:

Your risk profile has changed. You made a mistake and bumped into someone. Easy to do, many if not most of us do it at least once, usually no biggie. But insurers have to work on assessments of risk. As Mike Veal says, this is neither fair nor unfair, it's just a business model.

Mike, I am stealing you words for use on the buttheaded Beavis parking thread.

It was the other way round. Old angry fart made a mistake, not me. I ended up calling police to make sure they mark the incident as his fault. They did.

I wasn't responding to you, OP, but to the poster immediately above my previous post.