Insurance scam????

[romft123]

So last year, I had a very slow impact accident where the front left hand side of my Forester, (just below the headlight) hit the top of the wheel arch of a Kuga. The impact was at about 2-5 mph. It made my bumper crease where it met the wing. It cost the insurer a total of £1500 to repair/replace. The Kuga's wheel arch just popped in and out. The plastic protection underneath popped out. That was all the other driver, me and her dad, (who was following behind) could see.

I have just had my insurance renewal and my insurance has gone from £150 to £325. I had the accident, I made the claim etc, so hey ho.

Then I read the proposal part of the renewal and under accident, it said TP claim £6319.

Nearly £4000 of that £6319 was parts, the rest was car hire for 5 weeks!!!!

The other car was a tatty 2014 Kuga. The claims dept for the other party said that they paid out as Glasses guide had a valuation of the Kuga at £8500.

Sounds a bit fishy to me but hey ho.

[boyse7en]

t won't be the driver/her dad making the claim, it will be their insurance company.
They will have just informed their insurer (as they ar obliged to do) and left it to them. Not their fault that the claims management company drags its heels to inflate the claim.

[Ken_Code]

My wife knocked another car when changing lanes in stationary traffic. Her speed was about 2mph.

There was no visible damage on the other car, and a slight mark in the paint on hers.

The other driver claimed he was unable to work afterwards because of the back injury she caused.

[romft123]

boyse7en said:

t won't be the driver/her dad making the claim, it will be their insurance company.
They will have just informed their insurer (as they ar obliged to do) and left it to them. Not their fault that the claims management company drags its heels to inflate the claim.

We didnt see any damage at all to the 3rd parties car, and we looked. The wheel arch had popped str8 back out , you could see in the dirt where the impact was. car hire was for 5 weeks!...............!The insurance company said that they had to repair/replace around the front bumper and headlight. damage costing £4000+ , to a 2014 Kuga!

[mcflurry]

romft123 said:

boyse7en said:

t won't be the driver/her dad making the claim, it will be their insurance company.
They will have just informed their insurer (as they ar obliged to do) and left it to them. Not their fault that the claims management company drags its heels to inflate the claim.

We didnt see any damage at all to the 3rd parties car, and we looked. The wheel arch had popped str8 back out , you could see in the dirt where the impact was. car hire was for 5 weeks!...............!The insurance company said that they had to repair/replace around the front bumper and headlight. damage costing £4000+ , to a 2014 Kuga!

over the last couple of years the car values were inflated and parts were on back order, so probably not that unreasonable at the time..

[romft123]

mcflurry said:

romft123 said:

boyse7en said:

t won't be the driver/her dad making the claim, it will be their insurance company.
They will have just informed their insurer (as they ar obliged to do) and left it to them. Not their fault that the claims management company drags its heels to inflate the claim.

We didnt see any damage at all to the 3rd parties car, and we looked. The wheel arch had popped str8 back out , you could see in the dirt where the impact was. car hire was for 5 weeks!...............!The insurance company said that they had to repair/replace around the front bumper and headlight. damage costing £4000+ , to a 2014 Kuga!

over the last couple of years the car values were inflated and parts were on back order, so probably not that unreasonable at the time..

the car was completely drivable, there was no damage. So why did they then remove whatever and then allow a hire car for 5 weeks

[numtumfutunch]

romft123 said:

the car was completely drivable, there was no damage. So why did they then remove whatever and then allow a hire car for 5 weeks

Ive been in this scenario

The issue is that if you have another knock it gets "complicated" with insurance liability

Both my own insurance and the third party both told me not to drive my car which had minor damage to the rear bumper after being hit at walking pace whilst stationary. As naturally did BMW because it then wasnt safe if I got rear ended again as vcrash structures had possibly deformed. Obviously

Id never thought of it that way before - kind of makes sense as did the urgency of each to get me into a contract hire car which I didnt fancy so settled for a bit of cash for taxis whilst it was fixed

Cheers

[98elise]

Ken_Code said:

My wife knocked another car when changing lanes in stationary traffic. Her speed was about 2mph.

There was no visible damage on the other car, and a slight mark in the paint on hers.

The other driver claimed he was unable to work afterwards because of the back injury she caused.

My daughter had her first accident a few months back. She lightly bumped the car in front at a roundabout but there was no visible damage. Totally her fault, however the other driver started on about his neck.

Fortunately a police car stopped to see what the hold up was, and the first thing they asked is was anyone injured. The other driver said no. I wish my daughter had asked what happened to his sore neck!

The driver later got in contact with my daughter wanting money for the "damage" to his car and not wanting to involve insurance. Without any evidence of damage he settled for £20 cash.

If nothing else it was a cheap lesson for her not to get so close to the car in front.

[Speed Badger]

Exactly the same with a friend of mine. He went into the back of a 2013 (I think) Hyundai i30 at low speed crawling traffic. The Hyundai had a cracked rear bumper and one of the little bumper reflectors had popped out. Car was eventually written off (value around £1200) and £4k worth of hire car charges. It's absolutely mental.

Only reason my friend found out the cost is that at insurance renewal time, some insurers wouldn't quote and when he asked why they said they have had a claim against them over the value of £6k or something like that. Dumbfounded, he said it was literally a new grille for his car and a ten year old Hyundai bumper, how could that possibly be over 8 grand?! Mostly hire car and writing the lower value car off.

[Hoofy]

numtumfutunch said:

so settled for a bit of cash for taxis whilst it was fixed

Do you mean they just gave you a cash settlement instead of a hire car?

[s55shh]

Mine is worse! My black BMW was nudged in traffic queue by blue BMW. Zero damage to mine (faint scratch polished out). Hers you can see has minute surface scratches on side of bumper. There was no other damage on hers.
My insurance paid out just short of £5k for her repairs and £2.5k for hire car. After going through the complaint procedure, my insurer states that they are quite happy with their commercial decision.
Thoughts on this one?

[numtumfutunch]

Hoofy said:

numtumfutunch said:

so settled for a bit of cash for taxis whilst it was fixed

Do you mean they just gave you a cash settlement instead of a hire car?

Yes, BMW bodyshop guy suggested it. I probably owe him a pint. Although the third parties insurance owe him more I suspect

[AWRacing]

s55shh said:

Mine is worse! My black BMW was nudged in traffic queue by blue BMW. Zero damage to mine (faint scratch polished out). Hers you can see has minute surface scratches on side of bumper. There was no other damage on hers.
My insurance paid out just short of £5k for her repairs and £2.5k for hire car. After going through the complaint procedure, my insurer states that they are quite happy with their commercial decision.
Thoughts on this one?

If she nudged you then why did your insurance company payout?

[Hoofy]

numtumfutunch said:

Hoofy said:

numtumfutunch said:

so settled for a bit of cash for taxis whilst it was fixed

Do you mean they just gave you a cash settlement instead of a hire car?

Yes, BMW bodyshop guy suggested it. I probably owe him a pint. Although the third parties insurance owe him more I suspect

I'll have to remember that seeing as I have a spare car!

[POIDH]

Meh. No change in circumstances at all for me and my family - yet one insurance has doubled...on a fekking Fabia.

[Sebring440]

romft123 said:

Insurance scam????

Where/what is the scam?

[Sheepshanks]

Speed Badger said:

Exactly the same with a friend of mine. He went into the back of a 2013 (I think) Hyundai i30 at low speed crawling traffic. The Hyundai had a cracked rear bumper and one of the little bumper reflectors had popped out. Car was eventually written off (value around £1200) and £4k worth of hire car charges. It's absolutely mental.

Only reason my friend found out the cost is that at insurance renewal time, some insurers wouldn't quote and when he asked why they said they have had a claim against them over the value of £6k or something like that. Dumbfounded, he said it was literally a new grille for his car and a ten year old Hyundai bumper, how could that possibly be over 8 grand?! Mostly hire car and writing the lower value car off.

Sounds like an accident management company got involved and dragged things out - when my daughter’s car was rear-ended and written off she claimed through her own insurer, they had a cheque in the post and were asking for the hire car back the same week as the accident.

[romft123]

Speed Badger said:

Exactly the same with a friend of mine. He went into the back of a 2013 (I think) Hyundai i30 at low speed crawling traffic. The Hyundai had a cracked rear bumper and one of the little bumper reflectors had popped out. Car was eventually written off (value around £1200) and £4k worth of hire car charges. It's absolutely mental.

Only reason my friend found out the cost is that at insurance renewal time, some insurers wouldn't quote and when he asked why they said they have had a claim against them over the value of £6k or something like that. Dumbfounded, he said it was literally a new grille for his car and a ten year old Hyundai bumper, how could that possibly be over 8 grand?! Mostly hire car and writing the lower value car off.

This is one thing I just still dont understand. The total cost of the repairs etc was £6319. For a tatty 2014 Kuga.....They said Glasses has a valuation of £8.5k. Why wasnt it just written off at that price/valuation.

[s55shh]

AWRacing said:

If she nudged you then why did your insurance company payout?

Good question. With no witness, they attributed 1% blame to me for crossing her path (gridlock junction I thought she was letting me cross to right lane which was clear but then she crept forward and nudged me). Apparently insurance company named something like "Geneva" have a policy to without prejudice settle in full to avoid inflation of costs!

[vikingaero]

s55shh said:

AWRacing said:

If she nudged you then why did your insurance company payout?

Good question. With no witness, they attributed 1% blame to me for crossing her path (gridlock junction I thought she was letting me cross to right lane which was clear but then she crept forward and nudged me). Apparently insurance company named something like "Geneva" have a policy to without prejudice settle in full to avoid inflation of costs!

Protect yourself with front & rear dashcams?