£650 worth of damage, worth claiming?

George_Michael

neilmcl wrote: »

No, but it does tell you to inform them of any accidents that may result in a claim. As no third party was involved, then no claim is likely to occur, therefore there's no need to report it.

Unless the post that the car hit belonged to the OP then there may well be damage to the property of a third party, hence the possibility of a claim.

Jamie_Carter

George_Michael wrote: »

Unless the post that the car hit belonged to the OP then there may well be damage to the property of a third party, hence the possibility of a claim.

I agree, but from what we have been told by the OP, this isn't the case.

smashingyour...

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

I agree, but from what we have been told by the OP, this isn't the case.

Really?

Greentrafficcone wrote: »

Hi All,

My wife recently managed to hit a post and do some damage to the side of the car. I've just got a quote for getting it repaired (assuming I replace the door myself) and it works out around £650. That's if I'm paying for it anyway, I know it can be more if the insurance are involved. I was wondering if it's even worth calling my insurance. We have full comp with a protected no claims and it works out at around £400 per year. I'm worried that it'll shoot up if I claim, or even if I ask them about it. Any advice on what I should do?

Many thanks
G.

Or do you just assume that?

Do we know who owns the post?

George_Michael

The OP makes no mention of what happened to the post one way or the other so it's just as likely that it was damaged as not damaged.

Quentin

smashingyour... wrote: »

Do we know who owns the post?

Of course if the op doesn't own the post then this opens another can as it should have been reported to the police, assuming the post got damaged too.

smashingyour...

Quentin wrote: »

Of course if the op doesn't own the post then this opens another can as it should have been reported to the police, assuming the post got damaged too.

But only if he didn't exchange details with the owner.;)

No doubt Jamie Carter will either have an opinion about it or make more assumptions.

Jamie_Carter

Quentin wrote: »

Of course if the op doesn't own the post then this opens another can as it should have been reported to the police, assuming the post got damaged too.

All we can do is wait for the OP to come back to us on this. For all we know it could be a post at the end of their own drive.

So all we can do is go by the facts that we have been given.

shaun_from_Africa

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Not at all. If you have a slight knock that doesn't involve a third party, and break lets say an indicator lens. Then there is no reason at all why you can't just replace it yourself.
You can replace it yourself, but your insurance agreement may well state that you have to inform the insurers.
Your car is your property, and not the insurance company's. It is your car but the insurance company are covering the risk in you driving that car.
The only reason they want you to report it is so they have an excuse to put your premium up.
If someone drove into a post then the insurance company have a reason to increase the future premium as the driver concerned may pose more of a risk to them.

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

It doesn't matter what it says in the policy document.
Of course it matters, unless you think that contracts aren't binding on all parties.
Unless you find a law which says you must inform your insurance company for any little scratch, then you don't have to.
It's called contract law. If you have signed a legal agreement stating that you will do something, then the law states you must do so.
It is your car, not the insurance company's
and as already mentioned, the insurance company have a risk in how that car is driven and base their premium on the information given to them.

I'm not saying that I would inform my insurers if something similar happened to me but the fact remains that when I took out my policy I agreed that I would advise them of any
"claim, incident or loss"

Jamie_Carter

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

I'm not saying that I would inform my insurers if something similar happened to me but the fact remains that when I took out my policy I agreed that I would advise them of any
"claim, incident or loss"

It would depend on the exact wording of your contract, as was mentioned in an earlier post.

If there was no loss to a third party, and the repair can be carried out to a high enough standard, then there is no reason why you should inform your insurance company.

We all know that insurance companies will use whatever they can to bump up our premiums. In fact they will even do it for non fault claims. So there is no way I would inform them about any minor damage (with no third party loss), that can be easily repaired. Otherwise where do you draw the line??? A small scratch from a supermarket trolley??

Daz2009

I keep reading this on here 'you must inform your insurance company even if you're not making a claim'

Let me tell you a little story.
My car was parked at the side of the road and it was hit by another car who's driver had lost control.
I got a quote from a main dealer (even though I'm in the body repair business).
I gave this to the other driver and he passed it on to his insurance company.
For weeks/months they pestered me for my insurance details.I refused on the basis that their insured was 100% at fault and I was claiming off them.
I was getting nowhere until I threatened them with legal action.
They paid up immediately.
At no point did I inform my insurance company.At no point did his insurance company say I had a legal obligation to inform my insurance company.
Now this happened probably 20 years ago but unless the law has changed I would do exactly the same thing again,I wouldn't involve my insurance company unless I was at least partially at fault and even then only if the other party wanted to claim against me.