Insurance - will I get screwed? I imagine it's a 'yes'
Insurance - will I get screwed? I imagine it's a 'yes'
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Discussion

liller

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

198 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
So, my girlfriend 'rolled' into someone in slow moving traffic in central London. They in turn, rolled into someone else.

other than a cracked number plate on my car there is no other damage and the car in front also had no other damage - this was agreed at the scene. The car in front of the car in front (which was packed with agro girls which scared my girlfriend off!) is claiming for £800 of damage to her bumper and, no surpises here, whiplash!!

My premium is already really high and so i'm now worried my premium is going to shoot up again to cover the damage, whiplash and no doubt a hire car.

How badly do you reckon i'm going to be screwed?

Nick M

3,632 posts

252 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
liller said:
How badly do you reckon i'm going to be screwed?
Maybe better than usual, assuming she's feeling suitably guilty... wink

percymk4

387 posts

215 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Don't think it takes much force to cause an expensive amount of damage to modern cars (what kind of cars were they?), although £800 does seem steep considering you said "rolled". Any pics?

"Whiplash"? Well I'm sure most on here have the same opinion as me when it comes to these claims. The word "chancer" comes to mind.

Mikeyplum

1,646 posts

198 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Surely you can prove in the speed in which your gf's car hit the middle vehicle, although unknow, would not be significant to cause whiplash to even the middle car, let alone the car at the front that it hit?

Codswallop

5,258 posts

223 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Your premium will increase for a claim, but if the accident occured as you said in your OP, you should bring to the insurer's attention the possibility of a spurious claim by the last car that was hit. I can't imagine a accident causing so little damage (going by what you wrote), causing whiplash to occupants of the third car in the chain.

Then again, I can't imagine a minor bump that caused so little damage to push one car all the way into another, but that's a different matter all together...

V6GTA

2,014 posts

226 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Complain to your insurance company that the whiplash is rubbish.

liller

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

198 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
here is the other wounder: her battery was dead on her phone so could not take a picture. She also doesn't know what type of car it was. The car she directly hit happened to be driven by a nice, sensible woman who agreed there was no damage - her car was a focus, about 10 years old I think.

Even if she had taken a picture it would not a make a difference as there is an engineers report stating the damage.

My biggest fear is the injury and hire car claim as that will make the claim triple.

liller

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

198 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Codswallop said:
Your premium will increase for a claim, but if the accident occured as you said in your OP, you should bring to the insurer's attention the possibility of a spurious claim by the last car that was hit. I can't imagine a accident causing so little damage (going by what you wrote), causing whiplash to occupants of the third car in the chain.

Then again, I can't imagine a minor bump that caused so little damage to push one car all the way into another, but that's a different matter all together...
I agree, but sadly I was not in the car! All the people involved where women hence the vague details, lack of pictures and lack of info about the other cars involved.

I can see how easily it happens in tight traffic though, I figured that you can easily move a car by hand when it does not have a handbrake on so if you 'nudge' the car in front and they don't have a handbrake on then they would easily roll forward.

tsubodai

40 posts

172 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
if a claim is made off your insurance does it really matter if it was for a pound or a million pounds? all i have ever been asked is have you had any accidents or claims in last 3 years, not the value of any claims.

as soon as the claim is made your renewal will go up.

obviously i am ignoring the moral issue of fake injury claims, but i doubt it will affect your premium any more than just the damage

liller

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

198 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
tsubodai said:
if a claim is made off your insurance does it really matter if it was for a pound or a million pounds? all i have ever been asked is have you had any accidents or claims in last 3 years, not the value of any claims.

as soon as the claim is made your renewal will go up.

obviously i am ignoring the moral issue of fake injury claims, but i doubt it will affect your premium any more than just the damage
I may be wrong, but I thought it did make a difference? A lot of the price comparison sites ask for the value of the claim.

aj84

29 posts

169 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Finally decided to join PH after years of being a lurker!

Now correct me if I'm wrong but if you were car 1, in front = car 2 and in front of car 2 is car 3, then it's car 2's fault for not having enough distance/having brakes/handbrake on that he/she went into car 3?

Might be way off here but I'm almost 90% sure I was told this during my driving test 10 odd years back

Or am I wrong?

Funk

27,652 posts

238 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Yes, I thought that too. The car in front of the car in front should claim off the middle car.

frosted

3,549 posts

206 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Some really bad thinking on this thread, op I can guarantee that you will get fked over for around 1500 on each individual, 800 for the bumper and 1w000 for the hire car and possibly 2000 in other fees for solicitors. I took about half an inch of a q7 paintwork, didn't even go past the primer with the owner outside the car in petrol station with cctv yet he claimed for whiplash and a new front end. Total claim about 8k, insurance company didn't want to know


ZOLLAR

19,920 posts

202 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Funk said:
Yes, I thought that too. The car in front of the car in front should claim off the middle car.
Generally they need to establish how many impacts the person in the front car felt.
There would likely be split liability for the front car shared across the insurers of the middle car and the rear car.

Boydie88

3,283 posts

178 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
aj84 said:
Finally decided to join PH after years of being a lurker!

Now correct me if I'm wrong but if you were car 1, in front = car 2 and in front of car 2 is car 3, then it's car 2's fault for not having enough distance/having brakes/handbrake on that he/she went into car 3?

Might be way off here but I'm almost 90% sure I was told this during my driving test 10 odd years back

Or am I wrong?
Isn't this utter bks? Acceptable distance is visible tarmac, so a few feet. If someone hits you from behind, it won't take much to send you into the person in front. I only thought the middle person got screwed over if the person who hit them claimed they hit them because they hit the car in front first.

Either way, another case of some absolute scum bag thieving tossers that insurance companies really do need to start clamping down on.

liller

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

198 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
I guess it's out of my hands now - I can scream 'they are chancers' down the line for hours but it won't make a difference.

My insurer is Bell by the way.

Usually insurers will do anything to bot have to pay out so maybe, just maybe they will fight my corner.

Interesting point though about it perhaps being the middle cars fault as well seeing as they can't have had their handbrake on.

tsubodai

40 posts

172 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
i dont see how car 2 would have any liability considering they got punted in to the car in front?

liller

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

198 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
tsubodai said:
i dont see how car 2 would have any liability considering they got punted in to the car in front?
yeah, I'm not sure that they will take this view either!

Art0ir

9,423 posts

199 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Easier to pay out for whiplash than counter it in court.. that's how they look at it.

If my moral standards weren't so high I'd suggest a "passenger" in your girlfriend's car putting a claim for a whiplash to cover your increased premium. But that would be theft and theft is wrong.

liller

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

198 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
quotequote all
Art0ir said:
Easier to pay out for whiplash than counter it in court.. that's how they look at it.

If my moral standards weren't so high I'd suggest a "passenger" in your girlfriend's car putting a claim for a whiplash to cover your increased premium. But that would be theft and theft is wrong.
no passengers! and I wouldn't have done this anyway as it only adds to the overall problem with this industry.