no claims bonus lost for just reporting it?

Quentin

chanz4 wrote: »

be cheaper not to claim

Unless you know the costs involved, how can you say this??

Aretnap

Home insurance doesn't always cover damage to fences. The neighbour's policy documents will say whether it does or not. If it does, there's no reason why any claim on the home insurance would be turned down. The home insurer would then reclaim the cost of the claim from your mum's car insurer. If the neighbour's home insurance doesn't cover fences, his only option will be to go direct to your mum's car insurer (or to take a handful of cash from your mum and get it fixed himself if he and your mum would both prefer to do it like that).

If your mum's car insurance does end up paying for the fence she can usually retain her NCB by paying her insurer whatever the repairs end up costing. Whether this is worthwhile would depend on the size of the claim, and how much her NCB is saving her. She'd still have to declare the accident in any event, and that might affect her premium in spite of the NCB.

If her insurers do end up paying for the fence she might as well use them to repair the car as well - a claim is a claim, and adding on a little extra for her own repairs will generally make little or no difference to her future premiums.

chanz4

Quentin wrote: »

Unless you know the costs involved, how can you say this??

experience in this type of claim.

fartington

she has phoned and they said she had to pay the extra amount, just for reporting the incident - as her 'claims story had changed' they want it upfront, as she had renewed a couple of days before the incident and she reported it a few days after renewal.

I still cannot understand why reporting something, just in case you need to claim should mean paying extra. If she does not claim, does she get the money back?

also excess is quite high, so assuming it is just 1 excess for both car and garden claim.

Quentin

If her new policy didn't start till a date after the incident, then they are correct in telling her that her history had changed between paying her renewal and the new policy starting.

Irrespective if whether or not this ends up as a claim it does now have to be reported when she gets quotes as part of her claims/losses history.

If they are taking into account her reduced NCD, then if no claim is made she should get that reinstated, and should ask for her premium be adjusted for the whole year which will hopefully result in some premium refund.

There will be no excess to pay for the "garden claim"

Aretnap

The increase in the premium will likely be made up of two parts: (a) an increase in the base premium due to the fact of having had an accident and (b) a reduction in the no claims discount due to having an unresolved (potential) claim.

Part (b) should be refunded if/when it turns out than no claim is going to be made over the incident and her no claims is reinstated, but part (a) is likely to stand - in spite of the lack of an actual claim, the insurer may still consider her to be a less safe driver on account of the fact that she drove into a fence.

fartington

update- the home insurance is paying for the fence, no quibbles.

just the car to sort out now.

TSx

I would be very, very surprised if they didn't look to reclaim this from your mums insurance - impact (driving into something) claims are probably the easiest claims to deal with from a recovery point of view (the insurer getting it's money back), as there is clearly someone liable, and an insurer to foot the bill. They may go directly to your mums insurer as they can get the details from MID or they may send her a letter first.

Of course, there's a chance they won't pursue the recovery, but I can't see any reason why not.

fartington

no there is no notification that home insur is claiming from the car insurance.

one last question, she did not claim from car insurance for the car in the end as she got the damage fixed herself. but the insurance charged her an extra £175 eg. an extra 40%!!!! as the renewal was just before she reported the incident. Her NCB is affected too apparently - why should she pay extra and lose NCB if no claim in the end??? I get the report makes her a riskier bet, but this is ridiculous....

Quentin

As previously posted, she is liable for the damage done to the fence, hence the loss of ncd and the premium increase.

She can get her ncd reinstated if its cost effictive by reimbursing her insurer their outlay after the claim is concluded.