Lost my no claims - is this correct?

patmelia

We had a lorry hit our front wall a few months ago. We saw it happen, got the registration number etc. A claim was put in to our insurance company, the wall was fixed and we paid our £100 excess. The lorry company did try to deny that they had hit the wall, but our insurance company was trying to get them to admit liability.
A few weeks ago our renewal came through saying that we had an outstanding claim and therefore we had lost our ncd and our premium had risen by over £100. Fair enough we though as the claim had not been settled.
A week later we received a letter saying that we had been found to be 'not at fault' and our excess was returned to us. Great we thought.
However when we rang the company abour our NCD and to try to get our premium reduced we were told that there was a claim outstanding, it was for 'supplier feess' that they had been unable to claim back from the third party who hit our wall. As they couldn't claim it back from them, they are penalising us even though they know that it wasn't our fault. Is that right? it seem very unfair that we have lost our NCD and our premium has risen when we were found 'not at fault'.
Any advice would be welcomed.
Pat

property.advert

Why didn't you simply get the guilty party or their insurers to pay for it ?

patmelia

Our insurance company say that they are unable to claim it back from them - no reason why!

hcb42

Doesnt make a lot of sense. what specifically could they not claim back from your claim?

patmelia

They canot claim back 'supplier fees'. Thats the only explanation we have been given.

olly300

patmelia wrote: »

They canot claim back 'supplier fees'. Thats the only explanation we have been given.

You will lose your "No claims discount" (NCD) as you have claimed. Regardless of whether you are at fault or not as you have claimed then you have lost this on your policy.

In regards to your insurance policy increase which wasn't suppose to happen you need to kick up a fuss.

First thing to do is phone them up and say you want to submit a complaint. Ask to to talk to a manager.

If you get no joy on the phone then you need to put in your complaint in to them in writing. In your policy booklet there is an address where you can send all complaints to, so find that address.

Then write a letter which concisely states all the information you have put here with dates and who you have spoken too. Most importantly on the letter make sure you put the title "Formal Complaint". Then send the letter to the complaints address by recorded signed for post.

If you don't put the title "Formal Complaint" on the letter it won't be treated as a complaint.

If you don't send it by recorded signed for post they may deny receiving it.

The insurance company have 8 weeks in which to reply to your complaint before you can take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

If the insurance company comes back to you without a good or what you think is a fair explanation on why they won't pay you back then immediately submit a claim to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The Ombudsman takes a while and as submitting a claim to them which is investigated costs the insurance company money, you may receive at some point money back from the insurance company.

patmelia

Thanks for the advice, The thing is they are saying because we have lost our ncd, thats why our premium has risen - We would understand this if he claim was our fault. We don't see why we have lost our NCD in the first place - the accident has been proven to not be our fault.

keith1950

Hi, I see the point you are making however from past experience , where full costs are not recovered it often gets recorded as a ' own fault claim '.
So if it has cost your insurance company for these 'supplier fees ' then full costs have not been recovered from the other party.

Linton

I am afraid NCD's are No Claims Discounts, not No Fault Discounts. There are sensible reasons for this. For example it could be that the layout of the road makes it more likely than average that lorries could hit the wall.

This possibility would not have been included by the insurance companies assessment of the risk in providing you with insurance. Now that the accident has happened it needs to be.

vaio

Yep, but traditionally where the costs are recovered from an at fault third party then excess is returned & NCB is reinstated.

OP.....I'm guessing that your NCB is lost because your insurance haven't recovered all their costs (yet?) from the third party (supplier costs = costs of handling the claim?) you need to confirm what these costs are and ask your insurance company why they haven't recovered them.

I feel that as an innocent victim you shouldn't be out of pocket at all and any consequential costs can be recovered from the at fault party