Car insurance claim advice please

herman2811

Does it matter how much time elapses before a claim is made?

My wife pranged another car today (100% her fault without any element of doubt!) and to cut a long story short, both parties would prefer to settle without making a claim. The other side will find out how much the repairs cost and get back to us, but if these costs turn out to be too high, then it may be better for us to go through the insurance. Just wondering if it matters when this happens as we obviously don't know when we'll hear back from the other side.

Also, any advice on this kind of situation would be appreciated as its our first time in this position.

Thanks

Quentin

You should inform your insurer about the incident asap.

Then it's up to the third party if they put in a claim.

Be careful about doing a deal as you will have other costs to pay on top of repairs eg. Car hire, whiplash, lost wages etc. And the third party has years to come back at you with more claims for further injury and damage.

If you are wanting to keep your NCD intact over this, then after this has been concluded you can reomburse your insurer (if cost effective), and get your NCD reinstated.

SuperHan

Be aware though that by even just notifying your insurance the accident will go on file and will be viewable by all future insurers (at least for a certain period of time).

You should still notify your insurer, however, as subsequent claims made by the other driver could sum to much more than just repair costs, as Quentin says.

herman2811

Quentin wrote: »

You should inform your insurer about the incident asap.

Then it's up to the third party if they put in a claim.

Be careful about doing a deal as you will have other costs to pay on top of repairs eg. Car hire, whiplash, lost wages etc. And the third party has years to come back at you with more claims for further injury and damage.

If you are wanting to keep your NCD intact over this, then after this has been concluded you can reomburse your insurer (if cost effective), and get your NCD reinstated.

SuperHan wrote: »

Be aware though that by even just notifying your insurance the accident will go on file and will be viewable by all future insurers (at least for a certain period of time).

You should still notify your insurer, however, as subsequent claims made by the other driver could sum to much more than just repair costs, as Quentin says.

Sorry, I should have given more details:

The other car was parked next to ours and was empty. My wife was exiting her parking space when she simply scraped the other car - so there shouldn't be any other costs involved other than the repair.

My question is: will it be a problem, for example, if we only told the insurers 2-3 days after the incident?

Also, for reference, what sort of ballpark figure will this cost to repair? The other car was dented and had paintwork damage. I know it'll depend on the size of the damage, which was probably the best part of a doors width.

Stupid question: if it did go through the insurers, are both sides making a claim and have to pay an excess? Or would it just be the other party as the damage was on their car. There was very minor damage on our car and it's old anyway so we're not worried about repairing it, so am I correct in saying that we wouldn't have to pay an excess or make a claim?

Am confused!

Quentin

There will be no excess for you to pay (assuming only the third party's car is repaired via your insurer). The third party would be making the only claim.

You can't be sure you won't be hit for any other costs eg. hire car costs (whilst the car is in for repair, and possibly whilst awaiting repair)

There should be no problem delaying by 2/3 days, though you breach your policy conditions by not complying with them, and reporting the incident.

herman2811

Quentin wrote: »

There will be no excess for you to pay (assuming only the third party's car is repaired via your insurer). The third party would be making the only claim.

So would we lose our no-claim discount if we're not claiming? As the incident was our fault, surely we would?!

Quentin

Yes. A claim against you will affect ncd.

See post #2 about how to reinstate it if it's economic to do so.

herman2811

Thanks for the replies.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the other side - does anyone know roughly how much this might cost to repair? The other car was dented and had paintwork damage. I know it'll depend on the size of the damage, which was probably the best part of a doors width.

Thanks

Quentin

This is another reason to leave this to the insurer who will check to ensure the third party is getting reasonable price and not making you pay for old damage.

nimbo

It depends on what colour the car is for example...

someone i used to work with had one of those lime green fords and insisted that a respray (prang in Morrisons car park) was done by Ford itself to ensure colour match this was seen as reasonable as it was an odd colour to match. this also meant that she needed a hire car for nearly two weeks, as they aren't quick...

However if they have an uncle who can do it for £xxx then it will work out less.

without knowing the extent of the damage, or the car colour or how particular the people are, or how busy local garages are we really can't guess how much for you, or weather the person needs it for work....

xxxxx

herman2811

Further to all the above:

So we notified our insurance of the incident (but are not claiming). We'll lose our no-claims but don't have to pay any excess.

But it turns out that my insurers called the 3rd party and they are now claiming on our insurance rather than their own??? Is this possible and correct??? Surely they would have to claim on their own insurance and then the 2 insurers contact each other to sort out?

Our insurers say we will not be affected (apart from losing the no-claims) but am confused and would appreciate some advice. Thanks.