Minor Car Accident

gcthompson

Hi,

I was involved in a minor accident with another car. I'd prefer not to involve the insurance companies as the damage was trivial and it'll be settled privately (it'll cost less to fix than the excess). Is there some sort of form that needs to be signed to stop the party not at fault from pursuing the claim once the damage has been paid for and we both agree that the damage has been rectified?

Cheers

Gordon

Quentin

You don't have to pay any excess when a third party claims against you and you were at fault. Though the eventual final cost may be more than just the "trivial" repair cost (eg car hire may be needed whilst car is getting fixed etc)

Much better to let your insurer deal with this, they will tie up any lose ends (third parties do change their story when they get advice after an incident where the other party is clearly to blame).

Then when the matter is concluded you can reimburse your insurer and get your NCD reinstated.

mikey72

Quentin wrote: »

.............Then when the matter is concluded you can reimburse your insurer and get your NCD reinstated.

Providing they agree you can do this, otherwise you won't get the ncd back, and your premium will be loaded for the accident.

JohnG

I doubt there are any official forms for such a situation, I would suggest formulating a letter for both parties to sign confirming acceptance of arrangement and the agreed cost/reimbursement.

McKneff

It doesnt matter what you decide to do, its in the terms and conditions of all insurers that you have to inform them of any incident involving the vehicle. Whether you are claiming or not.

If you dont you are breaking the contract you agreed to when you took the insurance out.
Remember, it may come back to bite you in the bum when you need to claim if they find out through the national database if the other party informs their insurance company 'for information only' They will then have your details on this data base. If you want to claim in future, up pops your details . Hey prest, your multi thousand claim is declined.

A signature on a bit of paper is not going to protect you.

Some insurances up the premiums slightly, some dont. Mine doesnt and I'm with the CIS

everlastingspirit

McKneff wrote: »

It doesnt matter what you decide to do, its in the terms and conditions of all insurers that you have to inform them of any incident involving the vehicle. Whether you are claiming or not.

If you dont you are breaking the contract you agreed to when you took the insurance out.
Remember, it may come back to bite you in the bum when you need to claim if they find out through the national database if the other party informs their insurance company 'for information only' They will then have your details on this data base. If you want to claim in future, up pops your details . Hey prest, your multi thousand claim is declined.

A signature on a bit of paper is not going to protect you.

Some insurances up the premiums slightly, some dont. Mine doesnt and I'm with the CIS

Spot on - its worth informing them. I was with Tesco and they also give you this option.

Ultimately you hear horror stories such as them refusing a future claim or where someone decides 2 years down the road to try it on with a personal injury claim.

Best thing is bite the bullet and just let your insurance company deal with it then re-imburse them if you want to.

Ben

gcthompson

Thanks for the advice, i've come to the conclusion that it's really not worth the hassle of not informing them "for information only" as they'll likely use any way to avoid paying out on a claim. It wouldn't be good if i needed to claim for something later on and they come back to me to tell me that my insurance is invalid...

fozzeh

You have to inform them if you have had a prang.

Tell them that you are sorting the matter privately, would not like to raise a claim and are putting it in as notification only. I would get confirmation from other party/their insurance party that it is closed their side (they'll probably do so ringing your company).

If not, insurance is invalid. Mckneff is correct.

JohnG

It's a very interesting subject - whether or not you should or shouldnt inform your insurer of a relatively minor accident. We had this issue with our son recently and because of various circumstances, including the fact the my son's car was on it's last MOT, we approached the other party, who we felt was at fault, for a nominal amount of compensation with the intention to make good the damage ourselves.
As it turned out we had to report it to my son's insurer as the other party said he wasnt going to accept liability - He did, however, once the insurers got involved!
Since then it's been long winded afair, my son had his car taken away for inspection and given a hire car to use. After a few days it turns out, because he's only Third Party Fire & Theft, he wasnt insured to drive it!! Don't know why I'm telling this but it just seemed a crazy situation - you'd have thought that they would have checked first or better still, that they would provide cover themselves?
He's now finally got his old car back in the same state as before as it was considered beyond being repaired (No surprise threre) and instead we await a promised amount of compensation that's significantly more than we were looking for in the beginning :T.
Providing this comes thru, it's proved to be a worthwhile exercise going thru the insurance after all apart from the problems with the courtesy car. However, we don't know if my son's insurance premiums will be affected in future?

Having said all of the above, I occasionally read the Telegraph's "Honest John" motoring section and a couple of cases he's responded to in recent weeks, he has advised that it's not always worth going thru the insurance for small knocks etc due to the higher costs and affect on future premiums.

It remains a bit of grey area as far as I'm concerned.

gcthompson

JohnG wrote: »

Having said all of the above, I occasionally read the Telegraph's "Honest John" motoring section and a couple of cases he's responded to in recent weeks, he has advised that it's not always worth going thru the insurance for small knocks etc due to the higher costs and affect on future premiums.

It remains a bit of grey area as far as I'm concerned.

Not going through the insurance is not the same as not reporting it to them as "information only" surely?

JohnG

gcthompson wrote: »

Not going through the insurance is not the same as not reporting it to them as "information only" surely?

I probably should have said "Not to inform your insurer" as I believe that's what he recommends for minor repairs.
For example "Do NOT inform your insurer" is part of a reply given to someone on his website who was pursuing a third party for a repair cost of £250.

Personally I would have my doubts on how many insurers would record the incident for information only anyway but maybe I'm just a cynic?