Any insurance savvy bods out there - advice please...

[country girl]

My 18 1/2 year old son was on his way home from work last night, hit a patch of black ice and put his classic mini in a ditch. Thankfully both he and his girlfriend walked away with just bruises and shock. The police and an ambulance were called and they were both taken to the local hospital.

He had purchased a Berlingo van last month to enable him to transport his mountain bike (the mini just couldn't accommodate a big enough rack!) but as teenagers go hadn't looked into it properly and really couldn't get any managable insurance until he was 19 so it was sitting on the drive.

My question is - now the mini is probably a write off (was covered 3rd party fire and theft) when obtaining new quotes for another car (luckily think he'll be able to borrow a car till the end of June as he works for a small garage) will he have to declare the accident with the mini and if so does it have any knock on effect?
No other car was involved
He hasn't contacted his insurance company
He hasn't been asked to take his documents to the local police station

Cheers

[alanrowell]

Yes he will have to declare it to both his existing & new insurer.

Failure to do so could result in any subsequent claim being denied as the insurance was illegally obtained and he could end up going to court on a charge of driving without insurance

[03022242]

i wouldnt, no damage to himself, others, or others property occurred, so what has it got to do with insurance companies?

if you scraped your car whilst reversing in to the garage would you tell your insurance? no you wouldn't just get it repaired! is there any difference between this and the mini case?

[brazilianwax]

i wouldnt, no damage to himself, others, or others property occurred, so what has it got to do with insurance companies?

if you scraped your car whilst reversing in to the garage would you tell your insurance? no you wouldn't just get it repaired! is there any difference between this and the mini case?

This is wrong. You do have to tell them, end of.

It was an accident, and a pretty major one at that.

[03022242]

ok, thats your point, isnt the garage an example of an "accident"?

[ben500]

ok, thats your point, isnt the garage an example of an "accident"?

It's not so much a point as a contractual obligation, when you take out an insurance policy you sign and agree to a declaration that you have supplied all material information relevant to the issuing of the policy, ie any accidents, the fact that no claim has been made does not make it any less of an accident or obligation. Not only could an omission render your policy invalid but your insurance company would have the right to require you to repay all monies paid out in claims for the entire duration of the policy or since the accident date.

[brazilianwax]

ok, thats your point, isnt the garage an example of an "accident"?

depends. being a good driver I've never hit my garage.

i wouldn't tell the insurers if someone opened their door onto me in a carpark. a driving accident where a car was written off is about driving ability and should be disclosed.

[03022242]

"i wouldn't tell the insurers if someone opened their door onto me in a carpark"

why not, surely thats an accident as well? so what if hypothetically of course, you reversed in to the lamp post (!), surely thats driving ability again? or is that a misjudgment? isnt skidding and crashing a misjudgement as well?

to be honest we could be here for days to-ing and fro-ing, but it depends on the driver, would i want to pay an extra few hundred pounds a year? there are MANY people who "hit and run" (as in the supermarket example) do they then tell their insurance companies about it? i doubt it

[brazilianwax]

"i wouldn't tell the insurers if someone opened their door onto me in a carpark"

why not, surely thats an accident as well? so what if hypothetically of course, you reversed in to the lamp post (!), surely thats driving ability again? or is that a misjudgment? isnt skidding and crashing a misjudgement as well?

to be honest we could be here for days to-ing and fro-ing, but it depends on the driver, would i want to pay an extra few hundred pounds a year? there are MANY people who "hit and run" (as in the supermarket example) do they then tell their insurance companies about it? i doubt it

Ben500 is right. End of.

[Lakeuk]

It's not so much a point as a contractual obligation, when you take out an insurance policy you sign and agree to a declaration that you have supplied all material information relevant to the issuing of the policy, ie any accidents, the fact that no claim has been made does not make it any less of an accident or obligation. Not only could an omission render your policy invalid but your insurance company would have the right to require you to repay all monies paid out in claims for the entire duration of the policy or since the accident date.

It depends on the T&C's of the policy you've signed up to, reading the T&C's on my policy I only need to notify my insurer if there has been an accident in which I've made a claim or which I believe I may make a claim against at some point in the future.

If you had to report every accident, then think of all the woman drivers, insurers would have to put up their premiums to cope with the extra paper work

;) ;) ;)

[03022242]

indeedy, why make things difficult!

[country girl]

thanks for all your comments. My main concern is if my son reports the accident but obviously can't claim will he be penalised anyway when the renewal/new policy is taken out. Does anyone know if he'll then be classed as a bad risk?

It seems very unfair that the police (and witnesses) have agreed there was nothing he could do, he wasn't speeding, been drinking etc and has been absolved of any blame if he then has his policy hiked up. One of the policemen attending the scene told my husband they'd already been to several other accidents that night due to ice.

I feel that insurance companies have you over a barrel. I know young drivers get bad press but my son has done everything he can to reduce his insurance liablility.

Good point about the t&c's - I will check though.

[bartman]

The last time I renewed my insurance, I noticed that some companies asked whether I had made a claim within the past "X" years, others asked whether I had had any accidents. Thankfully I was able to answer "no" in either case, but there is a difference. I cannot see any reason why in this case you couldn't truthfully answer "no" to the question of whether any claims had been made.

[brazilianwax]

thanks for all your comments. My main concern is if my son reports the accident but obviously can't claim will he be penalised anyway when the renewal/new policy is taken out. Does anyone know if he'll then be classed as a bad risk?

It seems very unfair that the police (and witnesses) have agreed there was nothing he could do, he wasn't speeding, been drinking etc and has been absolved of any blame if he then has his policy hiked up. One of the policemen attending the scene told my husband they'd already been to several other accidents that night due to ice.

I feel that insurance companies have you over a barrel. I know young drivers get bad press but my son has done everything he can to reduce his insurance liablility.

Good point about the t&c's - I will check though.

He has a maximum of 1.5 years driving experience and was unable to cope with the conditions he was driving in. He has to take some blame for that. If he was driving slowly enough (and if it was icy he shouldn't have been anywhere near the speed limit) the accident might not have happened.

I agree though that it's the question asked by the insurers that should determine your reply and the resulting premium.

Edited to say - if he's a young male who works in anything to do with the motor trade, his premiums will be high anyway. This is high risk before you add anything else.

[beefster]

Hypothetically of course......
If someone was not to disclose in this scenario how would the insurers check? Would they start chasing the authorities for histories of reported incidents with no one else involved..... I suppose it would depend on the next claim value. For a windscreen No...... if its a mass pile up with lots of money at stake they will try and find anything to save the pay out.
Police records?? Hospital records?? Have they access to these???

He will probably, if this happens in future, not get the authorities involved. He will call a mate to tow him out and save a fortune in the long run. Very sad but true state of affairs that the industry has pushed people into. Cant see a way around it myself.

Must say IMO a lot of people would not declare it...... at his age I would prob have been one of them!

[movilogo]

When you claim (or other party claims because of yours fault), your claim info goes to Motor Insurance Claim database (which all insurance cos. have access to).

If no other cars were involved, insurance co. has no way to know that you had an accident!

So, why risk a higher premium by declaring an accident to insurer? You're not giving any false info when you declare that you had not claimed anything in last X years.