Can Admiral Car Insurance do this??

rambojones

Son involved in collision on roundabout with Next Plc truck. Not his fault; truck moved into his lane, hit front of son's car, slight paint damage only.

My son calls Admiral to inform them. Gives other drivers details. Next day, after sleeping on it, son decides due to large 'excess' on policy and little paint job needed to car, to phone Admiral and tell them he did not wish to pursue a claim against other driver. Admiral said okay, but obviously if they heard from other driver, they would contact my son - fair enough!

2 days later he gets a phone call from Admiral demanding other drivers details (he'd done that already!!) and telling him Admiral HAD to contact other driver/their insurance company to ASK them if they were going ahead with a claim AGAINST my son, BEFORE Admiral could 'close' the 'claim'?? I spent 2 hours on phone this pm, trying to get to the bottom of this. Was told we'd been give WRONG advice by their rep. saying they would 'close' claim unless other party contacted them!! Was told that in case Admiral was hit by a claim in future they needed to know NOW whether a claim would be brought (and I quote) so that Admiral Insurance would not be 'massively under-resourced' in view of a 'massive' claim from the other party (up to 31/12/2011 Admiral's reported 'cash at bank' of £4,151,000, 'liabilities' worth £14,409,000, 'net worth' of £51,132,000 and 'assets' worth £39,634,000); it's doubtful that a 'claim' will 'massively under-resource' Admiral Insurers is it not?). I am aware of Statute of Limitations: 3 years injury & 6 years financial losses.

Please, does anyone know if Admiral can do this?? Why contact the other party's insurer if my son does not wish to proceed with a claim?? Why NOT wait until / if / when the 3rd party gets in touch with them? I think they are trying to 'stir-up' trouble and are looking to make a claim. One person I spoke to said these types of claims are usually treated as 50/50 Fault Claims ANYWAY (no witnesses). Why are they doing this? I have sent a written complaint and am contacting FSA about this. Any Advice as I know Admiral are guilty of 'sharp' practices having read this forum. THANK YOU!!

tasticz

they are contacting third party to save their a** down the line incase they get a counter claim from third party. they need to sort out the liability issue now because the third parties version of story might be completely different to what your son is saying.

dacouch

When Insurers are notified of a claim they "reserve" the amount of money they feel they may need to pay out. By doing this they can ensure they always remain solvent.

Google Independent Insurance who were the last big Insurer to go bankrupt, this was due to them purposely under "reserving" claims to make their balance sheet (Temporarily) look better. The result of their collapse brought in far stricter regulation to try and prevent a repeat.

There's nothing stopping you contacting the transport company that deal with Next's deliveries and attempting to claim your son's losses directly from them

Aretnap

If the accident was not your son's fault (assuming he can prove it) his excess doesn't come into it - he can claim the full cost of repair from the other party. But if it's only a few scratches that he's not too bothered about, ho hum, never mind. If it's anything like my car, at least now it's symmetrical.

No insurer is going to go out of its way to encourage someone to claim against them - that wouldn't be sharp practice, it would just be plain stupid. However it may well be that they want to find out if a claim is going to be made so that if there is they can try sort it out with the other driver directly rather than waiting for him to get a claims management company involved, sending the costs through the roof.

rambojones

"One person I spoke to said these types of claims are usually treated as 50/50 Fault Claims ANYWAY (no witnesses)."

Like I said in my post, no witnesses, and Admiral said this type of claim is usually 50/50 as whose to say, who is at fault. He could say my son 'rammed' him, or he was in the inside lane, not my son (although damage is to the passenger side of my son's car). On a 50/50 outcome there is NO advantage to my son to make a claim. It is going to go against him. I cannot see that contacting their insurers will have a different outcome; 50/50!!

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Said 'son' has only recently been behaving in terms of his car driving and had just and I mean, just, got some no claims bonus together!! 1st August in fact. Don't know if perhaps this will make a difference??

forgotmyname

There is usually 2 versions of most accidents.

Your son says the lorry moved over into him, The lorry driver will say he was taking both lanes and your son overtook with not enough space.

I had a similar issue some years back, Straddling 2 lanes behind a bus waiting for the lights.
Lights changed and as i pulled forward crunch.. !!!!!! i thought. Checked mirrors, Nothing visible.
I got out and looked at the near side to see a little sportscar wedged between me and the kerb.

Seems he pulled out of the driveway to my nearside and found himself wedged against the kerb. A bar on my lorry ripped through his rear wing as i pulled forward.

He claimed i moved over into him, Then he changed his story to say i was a couple of feet over the line in his lane.
So i am a couple of feet over the line on an 8ft road and you expect to squeeze your 6ft car up the inside.

Glad i had my camera phone, I took pictures of the damage to his wheels that be did on the kerb trying to squeeze past.

Your son needs to learn to give lorries a very wide berth. Whether he is in the right or the wrong. The lorry driver probably wont care.

Hand in the accident form and forget about it.

rambojones

"Glad i had my camera phone, I took pictures of the damage to his wheels that be did on the kerb trying to squeeze past."

My son got pictures of truck and his own 'scratch'. Truck driver tried to take a picture of my son's car but could not get his phone to work (I can't work mine either lol, so always keep a 'throw-away' camera handy in glove box).

"Your son needs to learn to give lorries a very wide berth. Whether he is in the right or the wrong. The lorry driver probably wont care."

Agree entirely, and have had this conversation with him already. But unlike your accident it happened with 3 lanes, at a large roundabout, leading to a dual carriageway, so more room than you had. Pictures on Google maps are excellent of this exact area. However, Admiral have already told us, unless there are witnesses it will be treated as 50/50. Not fair as the truck driver did not stop when my son honked at him and he had to follow him to the next roundabout honking to get him to finally stop. Truck driver was quite angry with my son and sat in his cab for a good 10 minutes on the phone and refusing to talk to my son. Could have been sorted out; wish people would talk to each other.

"Hand in the accident form and forget about it."

I'm amazed to hear it; not sure Next Plc. won't care about its insurance premiums going up, must cost a fortune?? Do they really not care about their drivers costing them money?? Doubt that but what do I know?

dacouch

rambojones wrote: »

"Glad i had my camera phone, I took pictures of the damage to his wheels that be did on the kerb trying to squeeze past."

My son got pictures of truck and his own 'scratch'. Truck driver tried to take a picture of my son's car but could not get his phone to work (I can't work mine either lol, so always keep a 'throw-away' camera handy in glove box).

"Your son needs to learn to give lorries a very wide berth. Whether he is in the right or the wrong. The lorry driver probably wont care."

Agree entirely, and have had this conversation with him already. But unlike your accident it happened with 3 lanes, at a large roundabout, leading to a dual carriageway, so more room than you had. Pictures on Google maps are excellent of this exact area. However, Admiral have already told us, unless there are witnesses it will be treated as 50/50. Not fair as the truck driver did not stop when my son honked at him and he had to follow him to the next roundabout honking to get him to finally stop. Truck driver was quite angry with my son and sat in his cab for a good 10 minutes on the phone and refusing to talk to my son. Could have been sorted out; wish people would talk to each other.

"Hand in the accident form and forget about it."

I'm amazed to hear it; not sure Next Plc. won't care about its insurance premiums going up, must cost a fortune?? Do they really not care about their drivers costing them money?? Doubt that but what do I know?

If it happened on a roundabout it will probably go 50/50 eg the lorry drivers insurance (they may self insure) pays 50% of his losses and can claim 50% from Admiral. Your son can do the same in reverse.

Due to the above Admiral will be wanting to satisfy themselves there will be no claim from the transport company

On roundabouts and turns lorries do tend to drift into the next lane and should be given space.

The lorry driver was probably not aware there had been a collision

rambojones

dacouch wrote: »

If it happened on a roundabout it will probably go 50/50 eg the lorry drivers insurance (they may self insure) pays 50% of his losses and can claim 50% from Admiral. Your son can do the same in reverse.

Due to the above Admiral will be wanting to satisfy themselves there will be no claim from the transport company

On roundabouts and turns lorries do tend to drift into the next lane and should be given space.

The lorry driver was probably not aware there had been a collision

Thanks! Not sure how to advise my son; should he go ahead and claim then (Has a quote for £96 to paint his car) or just pay for it? Not sure what to advise him. Just hate insurance companies and don't trust them at all. If they are involved, they will make a mountain out of a mole hill. I wish my son had just let this driver go and not stopped him!! Wish Admiral had informed him immediately that they would need to contact the other party. Why have we had to find out like this, 5 days after the event?? NOT FAIR.

Dimey

From what you've said about the accident I'd have dealt direct with the Next distributor direct rather than going through my insurance company.

However now it's been done and your son has had second thoughts .... Can you phone the Next Distributor and ask them to confirm to Admiral that they will settle the claim direct with your son and confirm they won't be making a counter claim?

If they agree to do that and tell Admiral so, then surely Admiral can drop their crusade and just note on your son's record that an incident took place but no claim was made.

I would expect the Next Distributor would be reasonable. Its a decent company who will be experienced about such matters. They will be glad to be done with the case. Your choice whether you decide to push Next for your son's car repairs - or just tell Next you'll drop the claim if they agree to tell Admiral they have no claim against your son.

I take it your son got the driver's reg no, & name as well as the photos?

CKhalvashi

dacouch wrote: »

On roundabouts and turns lorries do tend to drift into the next lane and should be given space.

Driving tip of the week!

I had a lorry attempt to swing a corner the other week, which would have taken out part of the back of my car (and as my rear lights are nearly £600 a pop and replacing the back panel would be going into 4 figures due to stupid design, I really didn't want him to)

Quick beep, he waited, however the general rule is to keep clear of anywhere they will reasonably go on corners.

Back to the claim, a 50/50 split, unless their are witnesses, will probably be the only way to settle. Unfair, but that's life.

CK