Wrong details given in a motor insurance claim.

paulocd

Hi there,

My wife had an accident in July 2004 and it was the other driver's fault.

They exchanged contacts, telephone numbers, addresses, the lot!
We immediately reported the incident to our insurer Direct Line and got the car repaired.

Till today, Direct Line did not manage to trace the other driver and it appears that the other driver gave false information. This means that we are not going to get our excess back and this might affect our no claims bonuses as well, which is extremely unfair.

I wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this and what are the lessons to learn.

Also, even if the other driver is found, he might not claim liability and this can go on forever. So, what can be done to prevent fraud in this type of situations?

Direct Line tells us now that they cannot do anything about it since they cannot find the other driver anywhere. The police does not want to get involved because this is a small case and there is nothing else we can do.
DVLA has confirmed that the address and the driver's details are correct so it appears that the driver has moved out of that address and not updated DVLA.
By now, he might have even sold the car.

THere must be something we can do but Direct Line says they cannot help any further.

Anyone has experience similar cases?

Thanks

ohreally

paulocd wrote:

. The police does not want to get involved

A criminal offence has been commited, go back and ask for a meeting with the duty Inspector and let him know of your dissapointment in the way his officers have responded to this. Do you think his officers would have reacted in this way if it was their Chief Constables car that was hit ?

MarkyMarkD

The police's attitude in these cases can be pathetic.

My wife's had an incident with a fraudulent, uninsured, driver quite a few years ago. She had genuine name and address details (we think) but bogus insurance details because he was not insured.

Our insurers paid up, but made out we would lose NCD. The police did nothing at all to follow up the crime of driving uninsured.

For some reason (which I've never got to grips with) our uninsured loss recovery insurance people decided it was a dead loss to pursue it, but then reinstated our NCD. So we didn't actually lose out.

paulocd

Thanks Mark,

We also did not lose our NCB (because we had a protected NCB) but, unfortunately, we had to pay the excess which was £250.

It is rather unfortunate that we could not recover the excess.

Also, one will never know (even you will not know) if that affected your future premiums once you renew your policy with the same company. What goes in their computers is the secret of the Gods...

In my opinion, there should be a way to make sure fraudulent drivers are marked in their DVLA records, but according to Direct Line, the insurance companies do not have the power to ask that to DVLA. That is what I find ridiculous. The police won't do anything and the DVLA will not do anything also unless instructed by the police, so, in conclusion, the system does not work. It is a total fraud and that is why there are so many people driving uninsured. The system is on their side and they will continue doing so.

I would advise anyone having an accident to call the police. Do not trust the other driver. Call the police and ask them to take notice of the incident. This might still not guarantee you will get your money back but at least, there will be a record somewhere with the Police...

Paulo.

MarkyMarkD

For some even more inexplicable reason, we even got our excess refunded. Unless I'm being forgetful and that is the period of time when my wife's policy didn't have any excess (which may be the case, actually).

andy88_2

I think Direct Line look a bit lazy here. It should be possible to discover if the other party is insured just from the registration. Last year a policeman got my details online and emailed me details from the other (foreign) party.

dougk_2

Are you sure the driver is not still living at that address and just ignoring any letters sent?

Check the electoral register etc. Although a small expense send a resgistered letter to the property (you can even send a blank sheet of paper) and see if it is signed for and accepted.

This way you should be able to prove that the driver does in fact live there.... if the address is not too far away I would even call round and see if you can recognise the person concerned. (Take a big mate with you if concerned about your safety!)

If the person does not live there perhaps the current owner can tell you where they went!

andy88_2

Direct Line do not pursue these claims with the vigour of some other insurers. From the beginning they opted out of so-called knock-for-knock agreements with others. I know 3 people who stopped insuring with them for similar reasons.

surfcat

all should get a handy £5 disposable camera for their glovebox, to take photos of number plates and car occupents, and damage to their (and your) car in event of an accident.....although if the other driver looked a bit nasty i may not want to risk taking their photo!

savvy

I had the exact same thing happen to me a few years ago. Some dopey mare drove into my car in a car park, she was obviously going to do a runner, but caught sight of me returning to the car with my jaw dropped!

She couldn't remember her details but gave me her name, number and registration plate. I duly paid the £100 excess on the car to get it fixed (would've been a darn sight cheaper to have it fixed myself!). Then my insurance company were given the run around by this woman, apparently she had just moved out of marital home, moved in with father, and then all of a sudden he didn't know where she was!!!!!

Eventually I got a £50 cheque from her, as that was what SHE felt she should pay and that my car wasn't worth it!!! My insurance company informed me that they weren't going to pursue this is it was uneconomically viable!!! So I lost out £50 because some stupid cow couldn't park her car properly :mad: I had protected no claims bonus so don't think that was affected, I think I was with Frizzell at the time.

Paul_Varjak

If you have legal expenses insurance then make use of that. Failing that, you may be able to make a claim to the MIB. They can pay part of your losses where the other driver is uninsured or cannot be traced:

https://www.mib.org.uk/MIB/en/Claims/Default.htm

They do have an excess though and cannot cover for your loss of no claims bonus.

In my case, I kept pestering my insurance company and the Police and, in the end, my insurance company recorded it as a no-fault claim with full recovery and my no-claims bonus was re-instated.