Unfair Insurance!

chriscoll

In November 2012 a car crashed head-on into my car. It seems the driver was operating a scam and isn't insured but my Insurance company, Ageas, have recorded this as a fault against me on the insurance database as they cannot claim back their costs for the repairs to my car. The knock on affect is that I am being charged more for my car to be insured. Surely this can't be fair? I paid out my insurance, it is the scumbag who crashed into me who didn't!

Nodding_Donkey

That's why it is called a no CLAIM discount not a no BLAME discount

PeacefulWaters

Sue the scumbag.

His fault. Not the insurer.

FreddieFrugal

Understand your frustration. Might be worth investing in an earth-to-scum missile system for your car.

Retrogamer

Can't your insurance company recover it's loses by sueing the driver at fault?

You can still claim for uninsured drivers as well as far as i remember via MIB

http://www.mib.org.uk/Home/en/default.htm

Aretnap

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Sue the scumbag.

His fault. Not the insurer.

If he's claimed on his own policy he can't sue the scumbag as he's already been compensated by his insurer, and his claim is now subrogated to his insurance company. His insurer can sue the scumbag to recover their outlay - but they won't spend money doing this unless they think there's enough prospect of getting their money back to make it worth their while. You agree to let your insurer make this judgement as part of your contract with them - and if he's a standard uninsured scumbag with no job and no assets they'll judge that sing him would just be throwing good money after bad.

Aretnap

Retrogamer wrote: »

You can still claim for uninsured drivers as well as far as i remember via MIB

http://www.mib.org.uk/Home/en/default.htm

The MIB won't deal with subrogated claims, ie ones which his own insurer has already paid out on. He could have chosen to claim directly from the MIB at the time of the accident (a route which has it's own disadvantages - it's a slow and frustrating process). However if you claim on your own policy instead your insurer can't subsequently claim their payout back from the MIB - your insurance company are big boys, paying claims is what they do for a living, and they don't need an insurer of last resort like the MIB to refund their payouts for them.

Aretnap

To the OP - unfortunately it"s the way things are. "Fault" in the insurance world doesn't refer to blameworthiness - it refers to whether or not your insurer can recover it's outlay from someone else. There are a lot of situations where they can"t, even though you're not to blame. Being hit by an uninsured driver is one, having your car stolen is another, having your car crushed by a falling tree in a storm is a third. All of those would generally result in you having to pay your excess and losing some of your no claims bonus. If that's a galling thought there are things you can do to protect yourself from them, like protecting our no claims bonus, choosing a policy with a low excess, or using an insurer like Direct Line who promise to protect your excess and NCB if you're hit by an uninsured driver (though read the small print - the promise is not always as unconditional as you might think). Unfortunately it's a bit late for that now.

chriscoll

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Sue the scumbag.

His fault. Not the insurer.

I would if he could be traced! Seems he has also given a false address!!!

chriscoll

IanRi wrote: »

Understand your frustration. Might be worth investing in an earth-to-scum missile system for your car.

Sounds like a good plan!

mrcow

If you're ever in an accident again (hopefuly won't be!) and you have a smart phone, you can ceck on thte spot whether the other party is insured:

http://ownvehicle.askmid.com/

It's supposed to be for your own vehicle and there is a link on the page for someone else's vehicle, although that looks like a bit of a palava.

If they are not insured, call the police on them then and there before they get to drive off.