Car Insurance Investigation!!!!!!!!

dnlmend

High Guys,

I occasionally drive my grandma's car and recently had a smallish accident in it. The car is in my grandma's name and i am the named driver on her insurance, so everything has been done properley.

HOWEVER, since this small accident, after which both my nan's car and the other passengers need some light work done, i have received a letter from a company called "QuestGates". They basically want to interview/investigate me and my grandma about the usage and ownership of the car and i am absolutely "!!!!ting" myself as to what they are trying to find out!!

Can anyone tell me what i might expect, and do i have anything to worry about interms of my claim? THANKS!!

Hunnymonster

They're probably trying to establish if the car is being used by you as primary driver (young person) whilst paying your grandma's ('old' person) insurance premium.

maclean2

Hi - what they are looking into is confirmation that you do only use the car occasionally.If you were in fact a frequent or major user of the car they might be within their rights to turn down the claim.As you know the premiums for young drivers are a great deal more than for the rivers of 50/60 or older.I don't know whether you sometimes use the car to get to college/work but if you do be prepared to explain how often this is and the weekly mileage involved.If your granny is still working does she go to work by car and is this a full time job ? If your daily trip to college/work is normally by bus or driving someone elses car or a lift with a friend then say so.Are there any other drivers on your granny's policy ? If so explain how often and for what mileages they use the car.Do you have your own car or the use of a parent's car as if you do this would help back up that you only need granny's car occasionally.

If your usage is one or two days a week and the mileage is up to say 15% of the total then you can probably say that your use is occasional but each insurance company will have their own thoughts on this.

You will probably be asked the purpose of the trip you were making at the time of the accident and how often you make similar trips.

They may ask if the car is always kept at your granny's house overnight and for confirmation that she always pays for the servicing and upkeep.If she bought the car recently they may ask her if she paid the whole purchase price.If she keeps any records of expenditure on petrol tyres etc it could be useful to have those handy.

I know you must be rather afraid of what the interview will involve but if your use is occasional and you can back it up as above then you should have not too much to worry about.Listen carefully to the question and just answer that question.QuestGates are certainly a well established and reputable firm of loss adjusters and have their own website if you want to know more about
them.

You may be asked to sign a written statement prepared from the discussion but don't be pressured into signing at the end of the interview unless you are totally happy with what has been said in it.

I can't predict every point that might be raised but I hope what I've said is of some help.

Alasdair

MarkyMarkD

Well explained, maclean2. I'm not at all surprised they would want to do this - not many people (I would imagine) are insured on their grandmother's insurance policy or share use of the same car, so it would be a classic way of reducing a young person's premium. Indeed, one might imagine some people whose grandmothers don't even drive (any more) might choose this as a device!

I'm sure you have nothing to worry about as long as you are only a minor user and can demonstrate that she pays most of the costs and does most of the mileage.

If something else is, in fact, the case, I would worry!

dnlmend

Hi maclean2,

Thanks for your post above, your advice is very much appreciated. I do only use the car occasionally, so hopefully there will be no problem when it comes to the interview. Im just nervous that they are attempting to catch me out on some technicality and then stop the claim going through. The "interview" takes place tomorrow so i will post up how it went, hopefully it will save someone getting too stressed out about going throught the same thing. Ill go through the stress for you!!! Cheers for the other 2 posts two guys.

d