Insurance claim advice please

nlamont

My wife was in an accident where, waiting at the lights, she was hit from behind by Driver A, who was in turn hit from behind by Driver B. Driver B scarpered immediately and nobody got his registration. Driver A gave my wife his contact details and insurance details.

Our insurer, Tesco, told my wife we'd have to pay our excess for any repair and that we'd also lose part of our no claims discount.
When she took the car for an estimate, the estimate was high, but the repair shop said we shouldn't lose out and should dispute it with the liability department. We haven't done this yet, but this morning I received a call from a solicitor, given our number by the repair shop, saying they could deal with it all and get the repair done without excess or affecting our no claims discount. He said they'd do this by getting 'the other driver' (by which I take it they mean Driver A to admit liability and claim it all from his insurer. It seems unlikely that Driver A's going to admit liability, when it clearly wasn't his fault!

Can anyone advise me on what to expect here?

Quentin

If you make a claim off your own insurer then you do have to pay your excess (as shown in your policy). You will lose some NCD until your insurer gets full reimbursement from the third party, so you may as well just pursue the third party from the outset, meaning that you will have no excess to pay, all your other uninsured losses will be reimbursed, and your NCD will be unaffected.

nlamont

Since I posted that this morning we've just had another letter from Tesco. Our annual renewal came up in the middle of all this so I thought it wouldn't be a good time to switch insurer. Now they say that since we've 'made a claim' (their words) we have to pay another £189 on the premium, more than half as much again! So I can see it will certainly pay not to make a claim!

foggytown

nlamont wrote: »

Since I posted that this morning we've just had another letter from Tesco. Our annual renewal came up in the middle of all this so I thought it wouldn't be a good time to switch insurer. Now they say that since we've 'made a claim' (their words) we have to pay another £189 on the premium, more than half as much again! So I can see it will certainly pay not to make a claim!

Even if you don't collect anything from your policy, your premium may still be affected because Tesco has now been advised of an "incident".

And why wasn't the accident A's fault. You said he hit your wife from behind and then B hit A from behind. Did your wife feel two impacts or only one? (i.e. did A strike her from behind [first impact] and then B strike A from behind pushing A into your wife again [second impact]). It would be very difficult to determine whether B's impact caused any more damage to your car than A's impact already had. If A's impact was more forceful than B's then you could probably chase A for all of the damage.

nlamont

Sorry, looks like my explanation is at fault. A was waiting at the lights behind my wife. B came up to the lights too fast to stop and hit A, pushing him into my wife's car, then fled immediately. Neither the drivers nor the police have any idea who B is.

foggytown

nlamont wrote: »

Sorry, looks like my explanation is at fault. A was waiting at the lights behind my wife. B came up to the lights too fast to stop and hit A, pushing him into my wife's car, then fled immediately. Neither the drivers nor the police have any idea who B is.

Ah! That makes more sense. Don't see as there's anything you can do, friend. Sorry.

adamc260

Edited mine also, middle person wasnt at fault either because of the person at the back... think your a bit !!!!!!ed to be fair

McKneff

bit of a hijack, sorry. I wasnt in my car when it was hit by a tractor.
I have pursued a claim my self (through an accident management service)
people at the garage say that my insurance doesnt need to know, now someone else says I should report it anyway to my insurance, i am hesitant to do this because they could load my premiums, Now I am told by someone else that this claim will go on a national database and i could getinto trouble because my insurance will get to know if I ever claim and my claim will be rejected because i hadnt informed them of this incident.
Dont know what to do but i dont want to be driving around with invalid insurance. Anyone any ideasplease.

adamc260

McKneff wrote: »

bit of a hijack, sorry. I wasnt in my car when it was hit by a tractor.
I have pursued a claim my self (through an accident management service)
people at the garage say that my insurance doesnt need to know, now someone else says I should report it anyway to my insurance, i am hesitant to do this because they could load my premiums, Now I am told by someone else that this claim will go on a national database and i could getinto trouble because my insurance will get to know if I ever claim and my claim will be rejected because i hadnt informed them of this incident.
Dont know what to do but i dont want to be driving around with invalid insurance. Anyone any ideasplease.

It's called CUE (Claims underwriting exchange) and yes it will be shared. Insurance companies also search these databases and if they find you haven't been honest with info will flag you on there and cancel your policy (possibly) which you then also have to declare to other insurance companies! It's a viscous circle!

Probably best to just report it for info only and let the axx management company deal with it, won't have to worry then!

Quentin

McKneff wrote: »

Dont know what to do but i dont want to be driving around with invalid insurance. Anyone any ideasplease.

If you read your policy conditions you will see the answer to this.

You agreed to the conditions when you took out the policy, and they include informing your insurer of all incidents, whether or not they lead to you making a claim.

Not to do so is a breach of the conditions which does leave you exposed to the possibility they will use this to not pay out on a future claim.