Any insurance savvy bods out there - advice please...

country_girl_4

My 18 1/2 year old son was on his way home from work last night, hit a patch of black ice and put his classic mini in a ditch. Thankfully both he and his girlfriend walked away with just bruises and shock. The police and an ambulance were called and they were both taken to the local hospital.

He had purchased a Berlingo van last month to enable him to transport his mountain bike (the mini just couldn't accommodate a big enough rack!) but as teenagers go hadn't looked into it properly and really couldn't get any managable insurance until he was 19 so it was sitting on the drive.

My question is - now the mini is probably a write off (was covered 3rd party fire and theft) when obtaining new quotes for another car (luckily think he'll be able to borrow a car till the end of June as he works for a small garage) will he have to declare the accident with the mini and if so does it have any knock on effect?
No other car was involved
He hasn't contacted his insurance company
He hasn't been asked to take his documents to the local police station

Cheers

alanrowell

Yes he will have to declare it to both his existing & new insurer.

Failure to do so could result in any subsequent claim being denied as the insurance was illegally obtained and he could end up going to court on a charge of driving without insurance

03022242

i wouldnt, no damage to himself, others, or others property occurred, so what has it got to do with insurance companies?

if you scraped your car whilst reversing in to the garage would you tell your insurance? no you wouldn't just get it repaired! is there any difference between this and the mini case?

brazilianwax

03022242 wrote: »

i wouldnt, no damage to himself, others, or others property occurred, so what has it got to do with insurance companies?

if you scraped your car whilst reversing in to the garage would you tell your insurance? no you wouldn't just get it repaired! is there any difference between this and the mini case?

This is wrong. You do have to tell them, end of.

It was an accident, and a pretty major one at that.

03022242

ok, thats your point, isnt the garage an example of an "accident"?

ben500

03022242 wrote: »

ok, thats your point, isnt the garage an example of an "accident"?

It's not so much a point as a contractual obligation, when you take out an insurance policy you sign and agree to a declaration that you have supplied all material information relevant to the issuing of the policy, ie any accidents, the fact that no claim has been made does not make it any less of an accident or obligation. Not only could an omission render your policy invalid but your insurance company would have the right to require you to repay all monies paid out in claims for the entire duration of the policy or since the accident date.

brazilianwax

03022242 wrote: »

ok, thats your point, isnt the garage an example of an "accident"?

depends. being a good driver I've never hit my garage.

i wouldn't tell the insurers if someone opened their door onto me in a carpark. a driving accident where a car was written off is about driving ability and should be disclosed.

03022242

"i wouldn't tell the insurers if someone opened their door onto me in a carpark"

why not, surely thats an accident as well? so what if hypothetically of course, you reversed in to the lamp post (!), surely thats driving ability again? or is that a misjudgment? isnt skidding and crashing a misjudgement as well?

to be honest we could be here for days to-ing and fro-ing, but it depends on the driver, would i want to pay an extra few hundred pounds a year? there are MANY people who "hit and run" (as in the supermarket example) do they then tell their insurance companies about it? i doubt it

brazilianwax

03022242 wrote: »

"i wouldn't tell the insurers if someone opened their door onto me in a carpark"

why not, surely thats an accident as well? so what if hypothetically of course, you reversed in to the lamp post (!), surely thats driving ability again? or is that a misjudgment? isnt skidding and crashing a misjudgement as well?

to be honest we could be here for days to-ing and fro-ing, but it depends on the driver, would i want to pay an extra few hundred pounds a year? there are MANY people who "hit and run" (as in the supermarket example) do they then tell their insurance companies about it? i doubt it

Ben500 is right. End of.

Lakeuk

ben500 wrote: »

It's not so much a point as a contractual obligation, when you take out an insurance policy you sign and agree to a declaration that you have supplied all material information relevant to the issuing of the policy, ie any accidents, the fact that no claim has been made does not make it any less of an accident or obligation. Not only could an omission render your policy invalid but your insurance company would have the right to require you to repay all monies paid out in claims for the entire duration of the policy or since the accident date.

It depends on the T&C's of the policy you've signed up to, reading the T&C's on my policy I only need to notify my insurer if there has been an accident in which I've made a claim or which I believe I may make a claim against at some point in the future.

If you had to report every accident, then think of all the woman drivers, insurers would have to put up their premiums to cope with the extra paper work

03022242

indeedy, why make things difficult!