Old outstanding insurance claim causing renewal issues

stormCat99

Hi,

Back in Jan this year, we slipped on the ice at less than 5mph when trying to apply brakes, and touched another car. I do mean just touched, as we sustained no damage and I could see no damage to the other car either at the time. It was the most minor of incidents.

So we didn't expect anything to come of it. 2 months later we received docs from our insurer advising a claim was being made - quite what for I cannot imagine as there was no visible damage, and not any internal damage likely. We duly filled the form in and sent it off and heard nothing further.

We've never had to make an insurance claim before or deal with a claim against us, so when we heard nothing further, we just assumed the person making the claim had decided it wasn't worth continuing with.

Our renewal has now come through with 5 years' NCB removed :eek:

Initially rang insurance company, they said a claim had been made for under £1k and so we had had our NCB reduced to just 2 years (should have been 7). We were shocked as didn't realise a claim could be finalised without us knowing

On ringing again, we are now told that although they did receive the claim, they never heard again from the other party, so an official claim has not been made. And that the £1k amount was rubbish as nothing has been finalised.

So they have just reduced NCB regardless without keeping us informed, and now I cannot shop around for my renewal as we're in limbo :mad:

Our insurer have said they will go back to the other party and give them 14 days to decide whether to claim or not. This sadly takes us over our renewal date, so we are kind of being forced to renew with our insurer at the reduced NCB.

So my questions really are:

1. can the other party really make a claim after all this time? How do we know he hasn't banged his car somewhere since and isn't now getting us to pay for it? Esp given there really was no visible damage at the time.

2. can we make our insurer deal with this before our renewal date comes around? As otherwise we are being unfairly penalised by their inability to have dealt with the claim properly in the the first place (they've already had 9 months to sort it out!!)

Thanks for your help.

Lum

1) Yes they have up to 3 years to claim I think

2) Here are some methods of dealing with it, in ascending order of dubiousness:

Aa) Get quotes for the lower level of NCB, and before taking out a policy, speak to the insurer and advise them that you have an outstanding claim that is likely to be settled in your favour. Ask if once it is settled in your favour if the new insurer will revise your premium to include the new higher rate of NCB

Renew with your current insurer, make sure they do sort this out within 14 days. Cancel within the 14 day cooling off period and go insure with someone else at the higher rate of NCB

C) Renew with a new insurer at the higher rate of NCB as you believe this accident was in your favour. Delay for 2 weeks before sending in the proof of NCB as you will get this if the claim is settled in your favour. If the claim is not settled in your favour, call them and explain that you have become aware of a fault claim against you that you didn't know about and you need to amend your NCB and claim history accordingly.

Note that C) is probably illegal if you don't genuinely believe that this incident will not be settled in your favour.

My personal choice would be

rev_henry

Another option. Let your existing policy lapse, don't renew, and take out temporary insurance for the 14 days. They don't usually need to know about NCB or anything like that IIRC so you should be fine.

vaio

I thought they had 6 years to make a damage claim, 3 years for personal injury and your NCB should only reduce by two years if the claim goes against you.

As others have said, renew having first got agreement that premium and NCB adjustment will be made when the claim is sorted. The only trouble is that the best value if the claim goes against you might not be with the same company as the best value if the claim gets dropped.

Having been treated like that by your current insurers I’d be inclined to go elsewhere if possible.

stormCat99

Thank for all the advice. Had already considered temp insurance, but have checked the 3 main places Martin recommends and it's around £26 per day, so for just 10 days it would cost around the same as my normal annual policy (based on 7 years' NCB).

So that option is out really.

I am truly shocked that someone has such a large window of time in which to claim. Surely as time goes on it becomes more and more dubious that any damage really was caused by the original incident?

vaio - that is exactly my dilemma. I normally go through the whole MSE process of checking all insurers, Quidco etc which takes ages but is worth it. But I can't face doing that for both sets of NCB values, and in all likelihood a different insurer will be cheapest for 2 years' NCB than for 6 years' NCB.

Although I do definitely want to move insurer, I think A&L have proved they are hopeless. If I ever needed their help I wouldn't feel able to rely on them.

I think I will just have to get best quotes for 2 years' NCB, go with cheapest, but check they will amend NCB if I get this sorted out and get back to 7 years' NCB.

reduceditem

tempcover.com

stormCat99

reduceditem wrote: »

tempcover.com

Thanks but this is one of the ones I tried. They are charging £28 per day, so even if I just needed 10 days of cover, that is £280. My annual policy usually costs around that!

So I think cost-wise, the only viable option is to get a new policy based on the 2 years' NCB, and then amend it once I have confirmation from my insurer. This whole thing has really annoyed me, if A&L had done their job properly this wouldn't have been left hanging and caused us these problems.

We have learnt one thing though...if this ever happened again, just because we didn't hear back that a claim had been made, doesn't mean that is the end of the story. We would know to chase and chase next time until a conclusion had been made one way or another.

stormCat99

Just to add, that price is for the fully comp option - we wouldn't be happy with just the 3rd party which I guess is a fair bit cheaper.

Total price for 28 days on tempcover is £260. I have to assume it'll be more than 3 or 4 days extra as A&L have been poor so far, so no point hoping they will suddenly up their game and be quick and sorting this out

Lum

Like I said earlier. Buy your new insurance with 2 years NCB and then if another insurer is cheaper with 7 then cancel within the 14 days.

Also who are you with currently? I want to avoid any insurer that deducts 5 years NCB for a single claim. 2 years is normal.

stormCat99

That does sound a good idea, I'm just being dubious (based on their poor performance so far!) that the 14 day cooling off period for a new policy would be long enough for my current insurer to come to a conclusion.

The insurer I'm with is A&L. First time I've been with them, and I think it will be the last based on this. Just goes to show you don't know who is good or bad until you need their services, and by then it is too late.

vaio

If you go down the cancel within 14 days route don’t forget that although they have to refund premium (assuming no claims) they can still charge a cancellation admin fee of up to £50 plus any broker fees.

I think if I was you I’d search on the basis of full NCB and a no claim accident and go with them as long as the increase for reduced NCB & a fault claim isn’t ridiculous.

If your insurance is £200 ish then I guess you are “mature” and have a reasonable record. That being the case a single incident isn’t going to make a huge difference.

We’re both 50+ and my OH has two claims (one fault, one non fault) on her record and adding her as a named driver to my policy still reduced it rather than increasing it.