Just had a fake claim against me...

[Sim75]

Hopefully just a case of mistaken identity, but another mess I could really do without.

Insurance company could only tell me the name of the driver, who i've never heard of and the name of the person I supposedly hit, in her Land Rover.
They wouldn't tell me where it happened, only when.

Need to supply pictures of my car to show that it is still in mint condition.

Why do these things always land just before xmas aaaarrrrrrgggghhhh!!
And why don't the insurance companies do any checks before they send this stuff out?

[Olivergt]

Personally I wouldn't be responding.

Can they provide pictures to show your car is damaged?

I would certainly be demanding anything they want to be in writing, an email would not suffice as it's easy to spoof a from address.

Of course I would be polite about it, but I don't think I would be comfortable sending photos of my car to anyone without a good reason.

If you haven't done anything wrong then you have nothing to worry about.

[Blackpuddin]

You might want to check the status of your reg number before you do anything else, sounds like somebody's nicked it.

[swisstoni]

Who has made contact; your insurance company or ‘their’ insurance company?

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

Olivergt said:

Personally I wouldn't be responding.

Can they provide pictures to show your car is damaged?

I would certainly be demanding anything they want to be in writing, an email would not suffice as it's easy to spoof a from address.

Of course I would be polite about it, but I don't think I would be comfortable sending photos of my car to anyone without a good reason.

If you haven't done anything wrong then you have nothing to worry about.

Not sure why you would be so against helping your insurers defend a claim, someone has made an allegation, and the insurers have asked for images to show no damage so that they can reject the claim.

Your comment of having nothing to worry about if youve done nothing wrong is incorrect, if the op refuses to assist his insurers, and the other party can supply sufficient evidence, then the op's insurers will settle the claim.

As long as its your insurers op that have contacted you, then I would just send them the images, if your concerned, then send them to the email address on the website, with the claims reference.

[Sim75]

I rang my insurance company directly and gave them the claim reference number that was emailed through (yes, I initially thought scam too)
It is a genuine claim, but they immedietly said it was probably mistaken identity and a very common mistake. The names made no sense to them either.

They just said the photos are a very quick and easy way to prove the error.

I think i've found the (elderly) person claiming against me on FB, she looks perfectly genuine tbh.

Problem is, some people will just write down a numberplate and vehicle brand, meaning stuff like this is easily to mess up if you get one digit wrong.
That said, knowing what the insurance companies are like, it probably wasn't even the same car brand!

Whereas I wouldn't leave a scene unless I had the make, model, colour, VIN, alloy size, BHP, and several hundred photos

[Sim75]

Blackpuddin said:

You might want to check the status of your reg number before you do anything else, sounds like somebody's nicked it.

How do you do that mate?

[Panamax]

I'll be staggered if your insurance policy, which is a contract between you and your insurer, doesn't say specifically that you must cooperate.

Any why wouldn't you? If the alleged incident didn't happen then it didn't happen.

[Sim75]

Panamax said:

I'll be staggered if your insurance policy, which is a contract between you and your insurer, doesn't say specifically that you must cooperate.

Any why wouldn't you? If the alleged incident didn't happen then it didn't happen.

I wish it were that simple.

I've experienced first hand how sh!t insurance companies can be.
If I don't defend myself then they might just settle on my behalf.

Which makes it my problem and a much harder one to sort.

I've got no problem in cooperating as it didn't happen. They just need to know that.

[donkmeister]

Sim75 said:

Problem is, some people will just write down a numberplate and vehicle brand, meaning stuff like this is easily to mess up if you get one digit wrong.
That said, knowing what the insurance companies are like, it probably wasn't even the same car brand!

Whereas I wouldn't leave a scene unless I had the make, model, colour, VIN, alloy size, BHP, and several hundred photos

It's also not unknown for people to not take it down at the scene, spot a similar car parked up round the corner and assume it was that one which hit them.

I also know a lorry driver who had a claim against him, which when reviewing the footage from his lorry cams, turned out to be a near miss of the claimants own creation.

[cheesejunkie]

Sim75 said:

Panamax said:

I'll be staggered if your insurance policy, which is a contract between you and your insurer, doesn't say specifically that you must cooperate.

Any why wouldn't you? If the alleged incident didn't happen then it didn't happen.

I wish it were that simple.

I've experienced first hand how sh!t insurance companies can be.
If I don't defend myself then they might just settle on my behalf.

Which makes it my problem and a much harder one to sort.

I've got no problem in cooperating as it didn't happen. They just need to know that.

Good luck with it. Obviously I thought scam. I’ll admit I’m a bit surprised the burden’s on you as I’d be tempted to say where to go. Every day’s a school day, I know insurance companies don’t really represent you but I’d have thought they’d not stand for obvious scams either.

[Sim75]

On another note, surely BMW must know that the car hasn't been involved in an accident - aestheics aside, no airbags deployed etc...

Annoyingly, my CCTV camera history only goes back 30 days as that would have shown both vehicles on the drive all day.

[Alex Z]

Sim75 said:

And why don't the insurance companies do any checks before they send this stuff out?

What checks do you propose they do, other than contact the policyholder and say that they’ve received a claim?

[Doofus]

Why is 'just before Christmas' an issue? It's two weeks away.

[Davie_GLA]

Isn't this easily sorted by just providing photos as asked? Especially if it's been confirmed that a claim exists and that it's (probably) a mix up? THere's no need to drag this out as far as i understand it?

[Dingu]

Sim75 said:

And why don't the insurance companies do any checks before they send this stuff out?

They are checking, with you. Why would they go round the houses doing loads of work if you can spend 2 minutes taking a picture?

[Sim75]

Doofus said:

Why is 'just before Christmas' an issue? It's two weeks away.

Christmas started in September didn't it?

Let's just say I have enough st to sort out without this bullsh!t.

Boiler will probably blow up tomorrow.

[Sim75]

Davie_GLA said:

Isn't this easily sorted by just providing photos as asked? Especially if it's been confirmed that a claim exists and that it's (probably) a mix up? THere's no need to drag this out as far as i understand it?

Yup, hopefully that will sort it mate.

But as I get older and grumpier I like to arm the cannons and prepare for war

[SimonTheSailor]

Doofus said:

Why is 'just before Christmas' an issue? It's two weeks away.

Because it won't get sorted out very quickly so will drag on up to/ beyond Christmas ?

[Doofus]

SimonTheSailor said:

Doofus said:

Why is 'just before Christmas' an issue? It's two weeks away.

Because it won't get sorted out very quickly so will drag on up to/ beyond Christmas ?

I don't understand why that matters. His car's not damaged, he wasn't in an accident. Return the requested information, move on.