hit and run, so to speak....admiral probs

kingjude

I am not sure if I totally understand how car insurance works but perhaps my fellow experts can advise me on what to do or enlighten me on how this all works....

Here is the story,

On Friday (06/07/2012) during the school run I was in my car parked up and someone hit the back of my car, pulling up behind. It was raining and the sound of the rain, radio and two kids screaming masked the sound of the bump. I wasn't hit really hard. When I got out of the car I saw the the car behind me was parked up really close to my car at which point the lady in the car got out and took her child to school (the same school my son goes to) really quickly, which I took as a sign of guilt.

When I got out of the car, her front bumper was pushed into my rear bumper. So I got back into my car and drove forward to see the damage to my car and also to get the pushchair out of the boot. There were no dents but there was chips and scratches to my paint work. I took pictures of her car (license plate so I could claim) and pictures of the damage to my car.

I took my son quickly to school hoping to find her but I couldn't find her but I saw her car sped away.

Now I called my insurers (Admiral) and I told them what had happened and they said that if I make a claim it will affect my no claims bonus. Even though it was not my fault and I know who did it and I took pictures of the party's vehicle and the damage caused. So they tell me that if I claim then it will affect my no claims bonus, now am I missing something? Do I need to contact the other party's insurance company even though I do not know who it is or should I call the police about this or what should I do or can someone explain to me why I would get affected even though the fault is not mine?

phill99

kingjude wrote: »

at which point the lady in the car got out and took her child to school (the same school my son goes to) really quickly, which I took as a sign of guilt.

Or you could take it as a sign that she wanted to get out of the rain.

Why not talk to her when you are dropping your child off at school. She's bound to be dropping her child off too. Unless she has removed him from school which could be seen as a sign of guilt.

kingjude

I doubt that would help. She obviously knew what she did. He wants to admit they hit a car? No one does and the days of leaving a note and claiming responsibility are gone. I want to know where I stand as I feel that I have been shafted by Admiral and the lady.

Even if it wasn't my fault I been told by Admiral I can't do anything to keep my premium down.

forgotmyname

You will need to prove she did actually cause damage to your car. Which from your 1st post you can not be 100% sure she did or not.

Personally i would have just got it sorted myself.

But now you have reported it to youre insurers as an incident, You need to declare it for 5 years. Even if you dont actually claim.

So premiums are likely to rise even if you have your full no claims intact.

Things like these happen and they suck. Its happened. Just move on and forget about it really.

Until your renewal comes where you do need to declare it as it will probably be on the database as an incident.

paulhorwitz

At 8.38pm on Monday, 14th January 2013 I was in my bedroom and heard a loud bang. I went to the window, saw a car driving past and then discovered that my daughters car had sustained serious damage due to my neighbour's car being shunted on to hers. This was a 'hit & run' incident and despite a few people hearing the bang and one neighbour seeing the car that drove off, none of us were able to get the driver or licence plate information.

As a result of the accident, my daughter's car has sustained about £1500 of damage and my neighbour's car is a write off.

A few of my neighbours came out and between us visited quite a number of the properties up our street to see if any of them had had a visitor who'd left them or knew who this car might belong to but unfortunately nobody knew anything.

My neighbour said straight away that he took full responsibility as it was his car that hit my daughter's and said he'd contact his insurance company to tell them that this was the case.

I rang Admiral claims department and told them that I was simply informing them of an accident for 'informational purposes only' as my neighbour was taking full responsibility for the accident.



Admiral took the details, then told us our neigbour also insured with them which will make the claim much easier and that they will speak with them and get back to me with arrangements to have the car fixed.



Admiral rang me back to say that because neither driver was in their car at the time of the collision, that we could not claim on our neighbour's insurance even though it was his car that hit our daughter's. They said that it was not his fault but that of the unknown driver and therefore each of us had to claim independently thus making both of us have a strike on our insurance history.

I then asked what would happen IF we chose to pay for the damage ourselves and was told that their underwriters said that we would now be facing higher premiums as a result and that the incident was 'noted on their system' EVEN if they do not pay out.



I then asked if the premiums would be loaded in future even though my daughter was not there and this clearly had nothing to do with her or any negligence and again they said yes - it would have a negative impact.

So the upshot of all of this is that by simply being the victim of a hit and having our a car smashed through no fault of our own, and doing the 'rigth thing' notifying Admiral, this has been turned on us and as a result Admiral will now charge more by way of 'loaded due to higher risk' - the renewal premiums for the next 5 years for an accident that had nothing to do with us AND will not allow the claim through the my neighbour's policy (he accepts full responsibility) - surely this is completely unfair and unacceptable - I am shocked by this news.

I was wondering if anyone reading this has any experience with this type of claim as I wish to know if this decision can be challenged.

I was always under the impression that in the event one's car is hit by another vehicle, then the owner of the other vehicle is responsible - especially in a clear cut situation like this, but Admiral seem to have created a legal opt out which, as you will appreciate, makes this experience so much worse for us.



Plus, as mentioned above, if that wasn't bad enough, Admiral will now be charging us more by way of premiums for the next 5 years for nothing other than being a victim of circumstance.

kingjude wrote: »

I am not sure if I totally understand how car insurance works but perhaps my fellow experts can advise me on what to do or enlighten me on how this all works....

Here is the story,

On Friday (06/07/2012) during the school run I was in my car parked up and someone hit the back of my car, pulling up behind. It was raining and the sound of the rain, radio and two kids screaming masked the sound of the bump. I wasn't hit really hard. When I got out of the car I saw the the car behind me was parked up really close to my car at which point the lady in the car got out and took her child to school (the same school my son goes to) really quickly, which I took as a sign of guilt.

When I got out of the car, her front bumper was pushed into my rear bumper. So I got back into my car and drove forward to see the damage to my car and also to get the pushchair out of the boot. There were no dents but there was chips and scratches to my paint work. I took pictures of her car (license plate so I could claim) and pictures of the damage to my car.

I took my son quickly to school hoping to find her but I couldn't find her but I saw her car sped away.

Now I called my insurers (Admiral) and I told them what had happened and they said that if I make a claim it will affect my no claims bonus. Even though it was not my fault and I know who did it and I took pictures of the party's vehicle and the damage caused. So they tell me that if I claim then it will affect my no claims bonus, now am I missing something? Do I need to contact the other party's insurance company even though I do not know who it is or should I call the police about this or what should I do or can someone explain to me why I would get affected even though the fault is not mine?

dacouch

Your post is not that clear, are you saying that a neighboor who is also insured with Admiral has admitted they hit your car.

If the above is correct, the person at Admiral is advising you incorrectly.

Can you clarify and also if there were any independent witnesses

notanewuser

It's no CLAIM bonus, not no BLAME bonus.

If you make a claim on your OWN policy, then your NCB is affected (unless protected).

Regardless of whether you claim from your insurance or somebody else's, you will have to declare that for 3/5 years (depending on insurer) and it is used as a rating factor so most insurers will load the premium for it. But shop around.

I have 3 cars covered with Admiral. A neighbour hit my (newish) car last year (so I made a £2000 non fault claim against her insurance). At renewal they wanted an extra £400 across the 3 policies when compared to last years premium. I did a new multicar quote, declared the claim, which came in at £700+ less than the renewal (and £300+ less than the previous year). Admiral matched the price on my existing policy and all was good.

At least you have fully comp cover. If you'd scrimped with third party, fire and theft you'd be paying out of your own pocket.

notanewuser

dacouch wrote: »

Your post is not that clear, are you saying that a neighboor who is also insured with Admiral has admitted they hit your car.

If the above is correct, the person at Admiral is advising you incorrectly.

Can you clarify and also if there were any independent witnesses

A third party hit the neighbour's (unattended) car which in turn hit the daughter's (unattended) car. The daughter can't claim from the neighbour because they weren't negligent - the third party was. But they don't know who that is.

Quentin

Don't take any notice of your neighbour's "My neighbour said straight away that he took full responsibility".

This won't carry any weight.

Your insurer's advice regarding this is correct - you cannot claim off the neighbour, and as you have reported this loss, and it has correctly been put on your record, you will need to disclose this (even if you do not pursue a claim) to any new insurer you approach for quotes in the future (most ask for your history over the previous 3/5 years).

You say that admiral referred to you getting a "strike" if you make a claim - do you have protected NCD, and they mean one of your lives will be lost?

If so, then your future premium will still get your full NCD knocked off.

Do some dummy quotes now online with this in your history and see what difference a £1500 claim makes to the premiums to help decide whether a claim is cost effective (you would have to pay your excess).

If you manage to identify the hit and run car then the MIB untraced driver scheme may help - though you need to report this to the police now to be able to make use of that in the future, should you get the vehicle id.

BertTheRaccoon

You need to report this incident to the police within 5 days of the incident otherwise the MIB will not deal with the claim under the Untraced Driver Agreement.

A £300 excess applies to MIB claims for property damage

forgotmyname

Your neighbour assumed wrongly that because his car hit yours he was liable.

He is not.

Either claim from your policy or the MIB or just notify your insurer of the incident and repair it yourself.

You can probably repair it a lot cheaper.