road sign hit my car

Richard53

timor wrote: »

So parking your car outside your house makes you the "sort of driver that parks in places where signs blow into your car"

Is this statement serious?

I'm sure it is. The inscos aren't very much interested in fault or blame here. If things happen to you, then you are a bigger risk to their business model than someone who doesn't have these things happen to them. They don't really care if you were aware of it, were to blame for it, could anticipate it, or whatever. It happened; it demonstrates increased risk. Higher premium, please.

I'm not saying it's right, but that's how it is.

(I'm reminded of the old Tommy Cooper joke: My Granny has been driving for fifty years and never had an accident. She's seen thousands, mind ...)

timor_2

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

would you inform insurers of a 1inch deep scratch and the rest could possibly be cutting paste compound buffed?

i understand the clause in the terms of policy's.

the OP would have to inform their insurers, this is when its logged.

if the OP call thames, and thames only informs the area manager of a customer incident, (im going by my experience with the company i worked for wich is not thames) the area manager then assesses the customer incident then decides on the whether it would be best to let the customer go through their insurers, untill that stage nothing is logged as a claim anaywhere.

it was our in house company policy to let managers assess damages to customer property first so the manager can 1.see if there is a true claim (as many were claiming for new gate steps and gates due to fitting in a new stop tap or the fitters scattered car with dust and chips with the disc cutter) and many were try ons for e.g workman leaned against my wall and loosen 20 bricks 2.assess the scale of damage. 3 do basic customer relations and help assist the customer to claim from their insurers by providing then name number and calling the insurers and informing that the claim was geuin and been assessed by him/her and gave rundown of type of damage and also photo'd the damage to e-mail them over, untill the manager decided what course of action was taken it was never recoreded as a claim on any system untill the manager said so.

i wouldnt risk paying 1.my excess £150 (initially to warrant a repair to the garage) 2.increase of x amount for 3/5 years over a £70-100 repair.

the water company would not risk paying £1000 excess on a fault claim over a £100 repair claim.

in my experience these type of things were privatly handled with agreement from the affected party.

i agree that yes your duty bound by your terms and cons and should inform of ever trolly dent you recieve to you car, but in real world what would you do?

I agree, how many people log every tiny scratch and scuff to their vehicle, let's be real. Insurers could not care less as long as you are not claiming or making modifications to the vehicle that would impact the insurance policy.


The excess is high since everyone prefers to pay a lower premium, and people prefer to pay than risk increased premiums (that is for the party responsible).


What I wrote was that I'm looking to reach to a settlement without involving insurance as you pointed out. If they unwisely refuse then we will have to go down the claim route and involve insurance.

I am risking forking out more money in the future for repairing rust and have already lost resale value because of the damage due to another party's stupid actions. Also people's comments overlooked the manufacturer's anti-perforation warranty. This could be invalidated if the repair is not done properly and carry more costs down the line if rust occurs. I hear about increased premiums but the quote received from the garage is already £500 upwards!

If my premium increases because of the cheapskate contractor then so be it, not the end of the world. I will look for better quotes on renewal rather than end up paying over my excess to fix the car. I have no accidents/claims over the years and intact NCD record.

Insurance is just a big con as you may well agree. A service that you must pay for but should never use.

vaio

timor wrote: »

So parking your car outside your house makes you the "sort of driver that parks in places where signs blow into your car".......

err yep, or you wouldn't have stated the thread.

I'm not saying it's fair or reasonable but it is the way lots of insurers will treat it.

Claim from Thames and, because you can't be sure they won't deal with it via their insurer (who'll put it on CUE), you will need to declare it to your insurer and likely suffer a loaded premium for the next 3/5 years.

If you don't you could find yourself with a policy cancelled for non disclosure, very bad news indeed which will haunt you forever.

Quentin

timor wrote: »

I agree, how many people log every tiny scratch and scuff to their vehicle, let's be real. Insurers could not care less as long as you are not claiming or making modifications to the vehicle that would impact the insurance policy.......

You are correct, the insurers don't want to know about wear/tear scuffs etc.

However you are not talking a "scratch/scuff". You want to make a claim for the repair of your car. (Initially from the third party, though you now say you will make your own claim if this fails).

All losses that could result in a claim do have to be reported ASAP.

Once you put in a claim to the third party it's out of your hands as to whether or not they pass it on to their insurer, the incident going on the database, and your call whether or not you want to risk the consequences of not reporting this to your own insurer as per your policy conditions.

timor_2

Quentin wrote: »

You are correct, the insurers don't want to know about wear/tear scuffs etc.

However you are not talking a "scratch/scuff". You want to make a claim for the repair of your car. (Initially from the third party, though you now say you will make your own claim if this fails).

All losses that could result in a claim do have to be reported ASAP.

Once you put in a claim to the third party it's out of your hands as to whether or not they pass it on to their insurer, the incident going on the database, and your call whether or not you want to risk the consequences of not reporting this to your own insurer as per your policy conditions.

I already understand all this. Can you propose solution/course of action please?

p.s I am not sure what you mean by "own claim"

Tilt

First of all contact the owners of the sign ang provide them with an estimate and ask them who they would like to deal with it. If they wish it to be dealt with by insurance, you will need their details anyway to pass on to yours. BTW, what cover do you have? Assuming fully comp, and contractors want to deal with outside insurance route, then you simply advise your insurance 'for information purposes only'. Personally I would check my policy to see if you do have to report minor damage.