Insurance claim

pekwah1

Now i know that i should know this, but i had an accident in my car and haven't called the insurance yet. Problem is that i think that i may have forgotten to declare a previous claim, i'm not really sure though.

Basically what's the worst that can happen if i start a claim for this accident and it turns out i haven't declared the other one?

Don't want to end up getting in even more trouble than losing the car!

Regards

huckster

Sorry, are you saying you are not really sure whether you have forgotten to declare a previous claim. All you need to do is check your policy documents and see what information has been declared. The Insurers when sending a new policy will include the information that has been used to issue the policy. If the claim was made with a previous Insurer, if you still have the policy number, you could call them to see what date the claim was made. Perhaps it was made years ago and did not need to be disclosed you new Insurers, as it prior to the relevant period that needed to be declared.

What is the worst that can happen. The claim could be declined and the policy made void. You could then have difficulty in arranging a policy and may have to go to a company that specialises in providing cover for people who have had policies cancelled or voided.

Astaroth

You must inform them of the incident irrespective of if you intend to claim or not.

As huckster says, its easy for you to check if you did or didnt declare everything.

You are perfectly entitled to settle the claim privately if there is a third party involved and you believe you are liable for the incident. This lessens the chance of an issue (you still must tell them and subsequent insurers) but doesnt remove it.

Oscar_The_Grouch

huckster wrote: »

What is the worst that can happen. The claim could be declined and the policy made void. You could then have difficulty in arranging a policy and may have to go to a company that specialises in providing cover for people who have had policies cancelled or voided.

For this to happen, the insurance company will have to show that had they known about your prevoius claim, they would not have offered insurance. The Financial Ombudsman Service will not let them declare a policy void.

The worst that will actually happen is you phone your insurers and say "I'm sorry" and they say "Not a problem, but if you had told us about the claim at the start of your policy your premium would have been £x more. We're going to charge you that additional amount". Have your debit card handy when you phone them, pay up and then get on with the claim if you want to. Remember that you will have then made 2 claims and need to declare them both in the future.

pekwah1

Thanks for the info guys, it's only because i can't find my policy documents that i'm unsure of whether i declared the previous claim. I will give them a call and see what happens.

Thanks again!