Do I need to notify insurance?

searchlight123

my partners car was parked outside our house one morning mid feb when a large john lewis delivery van scraped her car and a neighbours car when turning around (we live in a cul de sac). driver stopped etc, apologised and said they would be in touch.
they were, and within a week had collected both minor damaged cars and had them repaired at their approved repairer locally and returned to us (they also provided a courtesy car) so no complaints over the service - well done john lewis.
as this was all handled by them and they have never asked for our details would i need to inform our insurance company of this as i don't want to risk upping our premiums?
many thanks.

gilbert_and_sullivan

I would, you can guarantee your reg number is sitting on the insurers system, a search in the event of claim would bring that up, non disclosure.

As clear cut as this is should make no difference whatsoever to your premium, you weren't even driving at the time.

Agreed, well done John Lewis for behaving impeccably, though most of us would have expected exactly this from that fine company.

fivetide

I had the same thing with a wagon from Threshers. Had to track them down but they sorted it all out no problem.

I informed the insurance as a non-fault incident just because a computer somewhere has your name/registration number recorded with a claim on it.

Best to be transparent because if you really need your insurance, you don't want to be fighting over this.

InsideInsurance

Read your policy book/ questions on the quote system and answer honestly.

Your own insurers you almost certainly have a contractual obligation of informing them. Future insurers will typically ask about "any claims or incidents".

Of cause you could lie and pretend it never happened but then you have the risk that someone has put the data onto CUE and your insurer finds out thus voids your policy for non-disclosure/ fraud and you then have life long problems getting any form of insurance again.

searchlight123

Ok. Thanks for replies. It would seem the sensible thing to do is to inform our insurers. Just hope our premiums don't go up as a result? Do you think there are any issues that we have only done this now when the incident occurred on the 14th of Feb?

Building_Surveyor

My insurance told me that they have a legal obligation to inform the other parties involved insurers even if the third party hasn't reported it. No doubt this was handled by john Lewis's insurers so there will probably be a claim with your details somewhere.

InsideInsurance

tonygold wrote: »

Just hope our premiums don't go up as a result? Do you think there are any issues that we have only done this now when the incident occurred on the 14th of Feb?

Some insurers will, some insurers wont if it is your only one. All varies I'm affraid.

You may have a lecture from your insurers, mainly as you deprived them of the opportunity to sell your details to an accident management company, but wont be anything more serious than that unless your policy has renewed in the meantime.

Building_Surveyor wrote: »

My insurance told me that they have a legal obligation to inform the other parties involved insurers

Your insurers werent telling you the truth.

datostar

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

I would, you can guarantee your reg number is sitting on the insurers system, a search in the event of claim would bring that up, non disclosure.

As clear cut as this is should make no difference whatsoever to your premium, you weren't even driving at the time.

Agreed, well done John Lewis for behaving impeccably, though most of us would have expected exactly this from that fine company.

Very true, but some insurers use incidents like this as an excuse to load premiums (leaving NCB alone) on the grounds that you are more of a risk for living where you do or parking your car on the road etc. etc.

datostar

Building_Surveyor wrote: »

My insurance told me that they have a legal obligation to inform the other parties involved insurers even if the third party hasn't reported it. No doubt this was handled by john Lewis's insurers so there will probably be a claim with your details somewhere.

It's possible that John Lewis, being such a large organisation, use the Certificate of Deposit Scheme, effectively self-insurance by placing £500,000 with the Supreme Court.

InsideInsurance

datostar wrote: »

It's possible that John Lewis, being such a large organisation, use the Certificate of Deposit Scheme, effectively self-insurance by placing £500,000 with the Supreme Court.

It is unlikely, it is unusual for corporates to do this.

The deposit simply means you dont need to hold insurance but doesnt stop you being liable for any claims. So if your at fault for causing a school bus to crash causing major spinal/ head injuries to a dozen school kids your company still has to pay out the £120m in injury claims with the first £0.5m coming from the deposit.

For most corporates its simply not worth the risk of causing a major financial problem to avoid paying motor premiums.

Of cause they may well have a captive insurer with a Risk Management policy with an insurer and then reinsure through an excess casualty policy with a high attachment point or a stop loss treaty to massively reduce the premiums and avoid IPT.

Its unlikely to be economical to have the infrastructure to deal with major TP claims well hence having a cheap RM policy in place. Even easier if the RM provider is also your lead reinsurer for your captive.