Timeframes on declaring an accident to insurers

[robsco]

Hi all,

Apologies if this has been touched upon before, but is there any particular timeframe that an accident should be declared within?

Long story short. Partner had an accident 10 days ago. There is an argument over liability, she is adamant that he was at fault, he says the same. She had declared the accident to the insurers within the hour, it took the other party a week. Is the other party liable by default due to excessive timeframe?

Thank you in advance.

Rob

[mmm-five]

No

[Sebring440]

robsco said:

She had declared the accident to the insurers within the hour,

She's done the right thing. There's nothing else for her to do now, let her insurance company sort it all out.

[poo at Paul's]

Doesn't road traffic act say that an accident must be reported to the Police at the time if anyone is injured and within 24 hours if not?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

poo at Paul's said:

Doesn't road traffic act say that an accident must be reported to the Police at the time if anyone is injured and within 24 hours if not?

No.

[robsco]

Thank you all for the replies.

[poo at Paul's]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

No.

I think it says if yiu don’t get other parties details you need to report it within 24 hours.
So what info did the OP get?
He says the other party have not reported it to their insurance yet, so does he know this as he’s contacted the other party, or has his insurance company told him that?

If the other party refused to give details at the time, he needs to report it to the police i think.

Btw, I’m pretty sure back before a few years ago, you did need to do as I suggested, ie call police if injured and if not report within 24 hours. I think it changed in 2017 or something.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

I'm not aware for any legal obligation to report non injury accidents to the police at all. Happy to be corrected

[robsco]

poo at Paul's said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

No.

I think it says if yiu don’t get other parties details you need to report it within 24 hours.
So what info did the OP get?
He says the other party have not reported it to their insurance yet, so does he know this as he’s contacted the other party, or has his insurance company told him that?

If the other party refused to give details at the time, he needs to report it to the police i think.

Btw, I’m pretty sure back before a few years ago, you did need to do as I suggested, ie call police if injured and if not report within 24 hours. I think it changed in 2017 or something.

They are both insured with Admiral, so it was the insurers had informed her that it had taken him a week to declare the accident to them. I had always been of the opinion that if one party didn’t declare the accident within a certain timeframe, then they were deemed liable by default. If this isn’t the case, that’s no problem, it will just drag out the process a little.

[BertBert]

It's not the case as everyone has said

[Cat]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I'm not aware for any legal obligation to report non injury accidents to the police at all. Happy to be corrected

If the required details are exchanged at the scene there is no legal obligation to report any accident to the police, even those involving injury.

Cat

[Sheepshanks]

robsco said:

They are both insured with Admiral,

That strikes me as unfortunate.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Cat said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I'm not aware for any legal obligation to report non injury accidents to the police at all. Happy to be corrected

If the required details are exchanged at the scene there is no legal obligation to report any accident to the police, even those involving injury.

Cat

If there is no injury, and details are not provided by one of the parties, is there any legal obligation to involve the police? You might want to, but if the other party won't give details, and you can't be arsed with the aggro, surely you can choose to do nothing.

[Jonny Wishbone]

No idea of the legal position at all, but when I was hit by a van driver who subsequently failed to stop but who was also identifiable via my dashcam, my insurer insisted I must report it to the cops. The police unsurprisingly didn’t care.

[Dingu]

Sheepshanks said:

robsco said:

They are both insured with Admiral,

That strikes me as unfortunate.

Imagine the inconvenience of having a quicker easier journey not relying on two companies needing to liaise

Edited by Dingu on Saturday 5th March 13:31

[Pica-Pica]

Sheepshanks said:

robsco said:

They are both insured with Admiral,

That strikes me as unfortunate.

Yes. They’ll say ‘50:50’

[jondude]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I'm not aware for any legal obligation to report non injury accidents to the police at all. Happy to be corrected

I seem to recall if you hit and run someone (say hit a parked car) you have 24 hours to report it or should it be proven you were involved, the book is thrown at you?

[Dingu]

Pica-Pica said:

Sheepshanks said:

robsco said:

They are both insured with Admiral,

That strikes me as unfortunate.

Yes. They’ll say ‘50:50’

I hope you’re trolling?

Edited by Dingu on Saturday 5th March 14:32

[Pica-Pica]

Dingu said:

Pica-Pica said:

Sheepshanks said:

robsco said:

They are both insured with Admiral,

That strikes me as unfortunate.

Yes. They’ll say ‘50:50’

I hope you’re trolling?

You have a low threshold for classing as ‘trolling’ statements. In effect it does not matter to Admiral whether it’s 50:50, 100:0, or 75:25, they will pay out whatever they decide needs paying out. Hopefully it will speed things up, but probably not.

[Dingu]

Pica-Pica said:

Dingu said:

Pica-Pica said:

Sheepshanks said:

robsco said:

They are both insured with Admiral,

That strikes me as unfortunate.

Yes. They’ll say ‘50:50’

I hope you’re trolling?

You have a low threshold for classing as ‘trolling’ statements. In effect it does not matter to Admiral whether it’s 50:50, 100:0, or 75:25, they will pay out whatever they decide needs paying out. Hopefully it will speed things up, but probably not.

It will be easier with just one company. But the split will be decided as normal. A lot of posters like to spread a theory about it just being 50:50 cause “it helps renewal premiums”.

It’s not true.

We have just seen the FCA pricing remedies because a relatively small proportion of customers didn’t shop around and paid more as a result. If there was routine fixing of payout decisions a tonne of regulatory bricks would come down

Edited by Dingu on Saturday 5th March 14:31

Edited by Dingu on Saturday 5th March 14:32