do i/dont i claim for a daughters write off

bellatrix7

My daughter has written off her car and skidded into a lampost .Luckily nobody else was involved. As she has only been driving just over a year im worried about insurance getting even higher. As the excess is so high it would be more economical to just buy a new car for her but i am unsure if there are any legal implications to this when reinsuring if ihave to declare the accident i may as well use the insurance? I would also have to pay for the lampost and have no clue how much that could be? Luckily iv never been in this situation before really dont know what to do!

cte1111

I don't think you've got much option but to claim and then leave your daughter off your insurance in the future. As you say, you will need to pay for the lamp post anyhow and will need to tell your insurer about the accident, so it will affect your insurance price anyhow.

Might as well get the benefit of the insurance payout now, rather than worrying about the possible extra on the insurance in the future.

Quentin

She needs to inform her insurer straight away whatever the decision on claiming for the car, (paying for the lamp-post herself could be far more than any future premium increases, but if it does turn out to be cost effective, she can reimburse her insurer - which would mean she keeps her NCD.

The write off and the lampost will both count as a single claim.

She can find out a rough idea on the impact on her premium by doing dummy quotes online with and without this claim (and with and without any NCD she would have at renewal).

Also check the wording on her policy about what happens after a write off - some policies end after a write off, (though the full premium for policy year must be paid), and this may impact the decision on whether to claim or not.

The above advice regarding your insurance being affected by this is not necessarily true - only if your daughter is a named driver on your policy will this need to be reported to them (check your policy wording), but this may not be necessary till renewal, and you can do dummy quotes to see what impact having this claim on her record will do to your premium, then decide whether or not to keep her on your policy.

If you decide not to keep her on cover, you don't need to inform your insurer at all. (Assuming her own car is covered by her own insurance)

bellatrix7

Im new to this and wasnt very clear it is her car and she is the policy holder and as she has no no claims at the moment it looks like it will have to be a claim Thanks

forgotmyname

Wait for the bill for the lampost.. It maybe eye watering.

I know someone that knocked over a small concrete post. The bill was well over £1000.

They also tried to claim he failed to report it. But luckily he had reported to the firms transport department. Who had made a phone call to the local police station.

dacouch

Lamposts are normally upwards of £1000...

thenudeone

dacouch wrote: »

Lamposts are normally upwards of £1000...

Funny That.

I used to work in a factory that made them and we only charged a fraction of that.

Yes. I know .... .overheads .... installation .... profit margin .... management ... . administration.....

forgotmyname

It costs them £13,000 to paint the white lines on a roundabout with 4 entrances. And they redid them 7 times.
You would think that the person designing it would have looked at the road and traffic before making stupid ideas. Dual carriage way in and out on all sides.
Why would you make one lane left or right turn only? When probably only 2% of the traffic actually used it.