Help... DH just crashed my car.

Kira000

Ok, so i REALLY dont want to be writing this, but here i am!

DH just got back home and has confessed that he has just had an accident in my car, and i'm not sure what the situation (other than not good!) is.

Basically, he is a named driver on my fully comp policy, and also has his own fully comp on his car (i'm not insured on it).
He borrowed mine tonight while his is at the garage. On his way home, he ran into the back of a stationary car at some lights. He thinks the damage to the other car is knackered bumper and some impact damage but not wrecked. Totally admits its his fault.
Mine however is apparently worse (cant bring myself to look). Bumper is knacked, and there was a grating sound as he went over bumps, and the door doesnt seem to close as well as it did. My car is 14 months old and on lease purchase, with gap insurance.

In terms of the other car, he gave the driver my reg, and his name and ctc details. With regards to the other driver claiming, am i right that they will claim from my policy as its my car, rather than my DH's policy?
Its not looking great.. there were 5 people in the other car, all of whom are likely to claim whiplash (one claimed it at the scene), given they were stationary and shunted from the back. Being about to go on maternity leave with FA money, i could really do without this right now!

Should DH report the accident to the police as well, given that they said one of them was injured? (but refused ambulance).


Any advice?

scheming_gypsy

as he was driving on your insurance it will be your details, and you don't need to report it to the police.

Bangton

Not to be the bearer of bad news but if it's your car and your policy the claim would go against your policy. Effectively you would lose a portion of your no claims discount entitlement (if you have any/or its not protected) which would mean an increase in your policy premiums from your renewal date. Likewise you would have to pay your excess if your needing to have your own car fixed. In terms of whiplash claims insurance companies are getting wise and will conduct their own investigations into whether the speed and impact is likely to cause bodily injury.Things such as refusing an ambulance wont particularly support the third parties claims.
To be honest personal injury claims can become long and drawn out but it's something you do need to report to the insurance company. From there they will advise if they want you to notify the police however its highly unlikely they will given the fact both parties have now left the scene.
Claims are never nice and I am sorry this is happened to you but really try not to panic. Insurance companies are here to look after repairs and all that for you.

Kira000

Thanks.. on the upside, i already had no no claims due to having one previous accident myself, and also having my car stolen. on the downside, this takes me to 3 claims since 2009, so i'm not looking good for insurance on renewal when they ask how many claims in 3/5 years.

silvercar

The pain is that you have to declare it as a claim on your insurance and he declares it on renewal as having had an accident, so both policies suffer. If he had done it in his car, your policy renewal wouldn't have been effected as much.

NCISROCKS

D.I.V.O.R.C.E by Billy Connelly?...smiley/grin emoticon?

Kira000

silvercar wrote: »

The pain is that you have to declare it as a claim on your insurance and he declares it on renewal as having had an accident, so both policies suffer. If he had done it in his car, your policy renewal wouldn't have been effected as much.

Well, he will suffer more long term.. his car is a high performance jobby, which was expensive enough (1.5k) to insure this year without any claims- chances are he wont be able to afford to insure it at all next year with this accident, so looks like he will be selling and downsizing...

Kira000

NCISROCKS wrote: »

D.I.V.O.R.C.E by Billy Connelly?...smiley/grin emoticon?

Umm. yeah.... me being 8 months pregnant may just have saved him from blood shed, i'm attempting to remain calm for the sake of the bean. And to be fair, he is mortified.

Parking_Trouble

Bangton wrote: »

Not to be the bearer of bad news but if it's your car and your policy the claim would go against your policy. Effectively you would lose a portion of your no claims discount entitlement (if you have any/or its not protected) which would mean an increase in your policy premiums from your renewal date. Likewise you would have to pay your excess if your needing to have your own car fixed. In terms of whiplash claims insurance companies are getting wise and will conduct their own investigations into whether the speed and impact is likely to cause bodily injury.Things such as refusing an ambulance wont particularly support the third parties claims.
To be honest personal injury claims can become long and drawn out but it's something you do need to report to the insurance company. From there they will advise if they want you to notify the police however its highly unlikely they will given the fact both parties have now left the scene.
Claims are never nice and I am sorry this is happened to you but really try not to panic. Insurance companies are here to look after repairs and all that for you.

I very much doubt it. There is likely to be a pre-medical offer from OP's insurer to keep costs down. Chance of lucrative referral fees for the TP insurer. Likely to add up to £30k+ pretty quickly.

Crazy_Jamie

Bangton wrote: »

In terms of whiplash claims insurance companies are getting wise and will conduct their own investigations into whether the speed and impact is likely to cause bodily injury.

From the description of the damage, I doubt that such an investigation will take place. Low Velocity Impact (LVI) arguments are put forward following an accident that caused little or no damage. The description of the respective bumpers being 'knackered' heavily suggests that this is not an LVI case.

The nature of the claim made by the person at the scene regarding injury is potentially a point to be looked at, as whiplash symptoms rarely develop immediately following an accident. Then again we don't know exactly what was said. There isn't necessarily anything in the fact that the person refused an ambulance. There seems to be this misconception that if you suffer an injury in a car accident it must be serious enough for an ambulance to be called. That is not necessarily the case, and indeed whiplash symptoms tend to worsen in the days immediately following the accident. As such it may well be that if the person was feeling some immediate after effects from the accident, they simply didn't consider the pain to be sufficient to call an ambulance.

Parking_Trouble wrote:

I very much doubt it. There is likely to be a pre-medical offer from OP's insurer to keep costs down. Chance of lucrative referral fees for the TP insurer. Likely to add up to £30k+ pretty quickly.

Whilst pre medical offers do exist, with respect I don't think you know enough either about this case specifically or individual insurers' policies on that generally to state that such an offer is 'likely' to be made. Equally, I'm not sure where your figure of £30k+ comes from, or what that refers to (referral fees, general damages, costs etc), but it does seem to be something of an arbitrary figure.

sharpy2010

Kira000 wrote: »

Well, he will suffer more long term.. his car is a high performance jobby, which was expensive enough (1.5k) to insure this year without any claims- chances are he wont be able to afford to insure it at all next year with this accident, so looks like he will be selling and downsizing...

Its going to affect your insurance price, not his!