Question about car insurance and reporting every incident

mehii

Are you legally required to report an incident to your car insurers? Even if the incident is minor and does not involve any other vehicle, person or public/private property?

The reason I ask this is that late last year I was driving in a very windy place in Scotland. I stopped the car, opened the door and because the wind was so strong it broke the door – the door didn’t come off – one of the hinges broke and it made a slight dent on the outside of the door.

I reported this to my car insurer a few days later, wanting to find out about claiming. I then decided that I wouldn’t claim as the cost of repairs was quite small and I didn’t want to affect my NCB.

However, on renewing I’ve discovered that even though my insurers said they would close the claim if they didn’t hear back from me, it turns out they kept it open. This meant I had lost my NCB and caused my premium to rise by £200.

I have since sorted it out – the claim has been closed, my NCB was kept in place and the incident was recorded as no fault.

But I am still paying about £60 more than I should have been paying if I hadn’t notified my insurers about this. I know this is because of this incident because when I got an online quote from this insurer I didn't add these details about this incident - didn't think I needed to. However, when it came to paying I got a message saying I needed to contact the insurer and they then asked me about this incident and my quote went up.

I understand it has made insurers view me as higher risk, which I think is really unfair – but that’s the whole car insurance industry for you.

What I want to know is it my legal obligation to report incidents such as these, or can I keep quiet and just fix it myself??

Quentin

As you didn't keep quiet, but informed your insurer, then it has (correctly) gone on your record and must be disclosed to any future insurer you approach for a quote (over the next 3-5 years).

You are bound by the policy conditions to report losses (not just claims), and a breach of those conditions enables an insurer to void your policy if they subsequently discover the truth.

Most people would find out the cost of repairing the door themselves, and only inform their insurer as part of a claim, if that was the way they wanted to get it fixed.

forgotmyname

All accidents or incidents even if no claim has or will be made is normally the wording.

Its on your record now so if you fail to declare it in the future then they could use that to cancel your policy and refuse any claims you make.

mehii

Thanks for the info.