Insurance renewal following recent non-fault crash

alb1

Hi

I'm hoping someone else may have had a similar experience they could share.

I was recently involved in a crash. Essentially car 1 pulled out of a layby and hit car 2 which spun into our car (while it was parked). "Our" car isn't actually ours and was being driven under 3rd party cover on our policy. Our insurers have no issue with this.

The car has been sat in a recovery centre for almost a month without being even looked at because things are made complicated by the fact that the car which hit us (car 2) wasn't driven by the person that caused the accident (car 1). We're expecting it to be written off. Meanwhile car 1 had only minor scratches and car 2 had £5k of damage but is being repaired as his claim is simply against car 1's insurer.

In the meantime, we're now due to renew the insurance on our car. Our insurer is insisting that they are temporarily reducing the 6 years no claims discount to 3 until the claim is resolved. The claim currently has no end in sight as the insurers haven't done a thing.

How do we stand? We can't use the full no claims if we can't get the certificate from the insurer, but there is no question that the accident wasn't our fault. Without the full certificate we can't go elsewhere.

Are we going to have to go with our current insurer as they've said that they'll refund us the difference once the claim is resolved? We feel like we're being held to ransom at the moment. How has anyone else found renewing while a claim is ongoing?

Thanks.

alb1

Oops, thought I was posting in insurance. Got the wrong tab.

Sorry

forgotmyname

This is the problem when you let someone else drive your car under 3rd party cover.

Their insurance wont pay for your car and they dont really care what happens if they are not paying out. Nothing in it for them.

As you were not driving will your insurer do anything other than withhold your no claims?

Quentin

You can still change insurer, initially using your 3 years NCD.

Explain the circs to your chosen insurer and ask that they will amend you premium when the matter is concluded and your NCD reinstated.

Get them to agree in writing that they will refund any excess premium back to the start of your policy.

Lum

Hang on a minute... your car was insured 3rd party and no-one is making a claim against you? You shouldn't be losing any NCB for that as your insurance are not paying out to anybody.

Who is actually handling the repair of your car? Your own insurer, some kind of claim management company? someone else?

redux

Ordinarily, it could happen that the no claims bonus is temporarily reduced at renewal until they resolve the claim and recover the funds from the other party insurer(s).

But as Lum points out, if you only have 3rd party cover anyway - which is true of all driving other cars cover - then in effect your insurer would not be paying out to you for your damage.

So perhaps this means they are treating this as pending just in case one of the others claims against you, and you and your insurer would then rebut this.

Personally I would feel that your insurer should already be confident that that is not going to happen, and I would try discussion on that basis, or at least to make sure that is their reasoning or perhaps someone has forgotten that as an oversight.

And perhaps you do need to persuade them to work a bit harder with presenting the case to the other insurers. I'm hoping you also have legal fees add-on cover.

Gloomendoom

I had a situation like this some years ago. My insurance company wasn't interested as there was no claim against me so I ended up having to sue the driver of car that hit me for compensation. It took a solicitor to sort it all out and it dragged on for several months.

Luckily, I had paid an extra fiver for legal protection cover.

Edit: OP When you say 'your' car was parked, were you actually in it at the time of the accident?

forgotmyname

I think i got it backwards.

Original Poster was driving someone elses car, Their own policy which provided 3rd party cover only.

So there is a chance of a claim being made against them. Thats why the insurance are witholding the no claims until its settled.

As gloom said this could be a long drawn out process.

jonahinoz

Hi,

"Your" car was parked? Were you in the driving seat? If not, the insurance reverts back to the owner of "your" car, who I presume is insured Fully Comp. They should claim from their insurers to have their car repaired, and ask their insurers to recover the cost from the car that hit them. The other three insurers can sort it out amongst themselves. Agreed, in the meantime, the owners of "your " car will lose some of their NCB, but shpould eventually get it back (My wife was side-swiped by a curtain sider on the M4, which didn't stop. It took 2 years to settle in court, but everything was refinded).

But worse..... if you are involved in a claim, even if it is not your fault, your insurers will ad 15% to your premium for maybe 5 years. THEY WILL DENY THIS. So, any claim against another driver should include sufficient to compensate your friend for that increased premium. If you were sitting in the car at the time of the collision, you should tell YOUR insurers, and claim for YOUR increased premium, too. If you don't tell your insurers, and they find out (which they will) they can refuse to pay out for any furure claims you might make.

Insurance? licence to print money. ;-)

Does your friend have LEGAL PROTECTION cover? I wouldn't be without it, as I don't want to pay for a barrister when the other bloke gets his for free. I also regard PROTECTED NCB as a worthwhile investment, as I assume, you do too .... now.

I will be sending you a PM.

JW

arcon5

I wouldn't be looking to invoke your friends policy... Not really fair after they was kind enough to lend you their car

Quentin

arcon5 wrote: »

I wouldn't be looking to invoke your friends policy... Not really fair after they was kind enough to lend you their car

The own vehicle damage element of the friend's policy policy wasn't in force when this incident took place, the car was only covered by a third party only DOC extension so it cannot be invoked!

The person parking the car was the person in charge of it for insurance purposes.