Trying to make a claim even though we agreed to deal privately??

hcw522

OK, so a few days ago I got into a minor accident with a driver. I bumped into the back of his car after coming round a bend and not knowing there was a jam. There was no visible damage to the back of his car or mine, although we exchanged information and he said he would contact me when he's taken it to a garage. He called me a day later saying that there was damage beneath his car and it would cost £360 to fix. I told him I would pay this myself and that there was no need to make a claim. He agreed and said he would get the garage to send an invoice and we would go from there.

Today I got an email from my insurance company saying he's making a claim against me. I called and they said that they had contacted him and he told them he wants them to deal with it. I've texted and called him but he refuses to answer. I don't understand why he's changed his mind. There's nothing he can gain going through insurance rather than settle it privately is there? I have the money right now and I've told him this, I can send it over as soon as he gives me his details, I don't understand why he's decided to do this.

Should I keep trying to contact him? I feel like I'm starting to harass him but I really want an explanation as to why he's changed his mind. Also, can I offer to pay the insurance company back to keep my no claims bonus? Thank you

HappyMJ

You will still lose your no claims bonus and your premium will increase as you've had an accident which is your fault.

rudekid48

If you rear ended him then someone's probably pointed out to him that he's got a sore neck....

OnanTheBarbarian

Just put the money you were going to pay him in your sock drawer, you'll need it for your premium increase at renewal.

Now the matter is common knowledge in insurance land, you need to disclose this matter for the next 3-5 year when renewing and your NCD may take a hit (depending on whether it is protected or not).

Your only other way to avoid your NCD taking a hit would be to reimburse your insurance company for their outlay at the end, but this still won't afford you the position of not needing to disclose the incident in the future. I would wager the outlay of your insurers will end up being more than £360 by the time repairs are completed and any engineers fees or hire car fees have been put on the tally.

Zelfer

Personally, I'd be grateful that he's put the claim in now, before you've paid the money to him for the repair, which runs the risk of "not being done properly" etc.
If you had, he could have still put in the claim for a sore neck for up to 3 years after the accident - and then you'd have lost your NCD anyway, so as others have said, put it in the sock drawer for your renewal fee.


This is from personal experience where a driver tried to pay to get something of mine fixed without going through insurance, but a locally recommended garage only identified & fixed half the damage, so following a second opinion, went back to him and said "still not fixed, need more cash" - so he refused. In the end I went to his insurance company to get it done to an acceptable standard. So he paid cash for the first half repair, then lost his NCD anyway.

Aretnap

hcw522 wrote: »

I don't understand why he's changed his mind. There's nothing he can gain going through insurance rather than settle it privately is there?

The things he gains by going through insurance include
(1) A like for like hire car while his is at the garage
(2) The confidence that things aren't going to get complicated if the garage discover when they start working that the car has more damage than they thought at first, and you then decide that the new repair bill
(3) Easier comeback if the garage make a mess of the repairs
(4) The chance to claim an extra couple of grand if he happens to develop a sore neck

Ultimately it's his choice - if he wants to go through insurance there's nothing you can do to force him to settle privately. Personally if I wasn't at fault for an accident I'd always insist on going through insurance for anything more than the most trivial scratch. Mainly for reasons (2) and (3) - the hassle of a cash settlement that goes wrong is worth more to me than the extra fiver that a no fault claim might add to my insurance premium.

As above you can offer to pay your insurer back to preserve your NCD, but be prepared for the possibility that the final bill will be significantly more than you would save.