Proving a hit and run wasn't my fault

marc58

Hi all,

My car was hit while I was at work and because of the age and damage has been written off. I park on a residential street close to my office and when I returned to my car at 5 I noticed a huge dent affecting the rear bumper and wheel arch, the vehicle was actually undrivable because the metal was touching the wheel. No note was left and the only witness 'heard' the crash around 1:30 but just saw a large black car drive off without catching their registration.

My insurance company (Hastings) gave me a total loss settlement figure I was happy with so am now looking to buy a new car. The problem is my 11 years NCB stands for nothing as this accident is being deemed as my fault and means I must step back to just 4 years NCB. Looking at insuring a similar spec car to my old one this is now pushing up my premium by around £400.

Is there any way I can prove that I wasn't in the vehicle at the time? I work in IT so even an audit to say I was in the office at the time of the accident or something? I know it sounds petty but I feel totally baffled and angry for having to pay all this extra money and losing my car to something I wasn't even involved with

Many thanks

[Deleted User]

It's not a question of proving you weren't in the car. If they cannot hold anyone accountable for the incident, it means you're making a claim from your insurance.

ariba10

A negative can be very difficult to prove I am sorry to say.

You have my sympathies.

Aretnap

It's a no claim bonus, not a no blame bonus. If you make a claim it will be reduced. The only exception is where your insurer manages to recover all of its costs from the third party - which makes it essentially a claim against the third party's insurance rather than your own. Obviously that's impossible if you have no idea who the third party is.

Insurers classify claims as "fault" or "no-fault" on the same basis - whether or not they recovered their outlay from the other party. Arguably using the term "fault" is a misleading piece of jargon and it would be better if they used another term, but the principle of classifying claims that way has a certain logic to it. It is at least entirely fact based and objective - unlike classifying them according to "blame" which is rather nebulous and subjective concept, where two people can have very different views over who was to blame for the same accident.

Similarly if your car is stolen, or if a tree falls onto it, those things aren't your fault either, but they still have an impact on your no claims bonus, and be recorded as fault claims.

Unlucky and frustrating, but I'm afraid there's not a lot you can do about it.

Quentin

Your increase isn't solely down to losing some Ncd.

You now also have a fault claim in your history which means a premium loading.

You can do dummy quotes online with no claims in your history to see the difference between 4 and 11 years Ncd makes - won't be anything like £400

Peter333

marc58 wrote: »

Hi all,

My car was hit while I was at work and because of the age and damage has been written off. I park on a residential street close to my office and when I returned to my car at 5 I noticed a huge dent affecting the rear bumper and wheel arch, the vehicle was actually undrivable because the metal was touching the wheel. No note was left and the only witness 'heard' the crash around 1:30 but just saw a large black car drive off without catching their registration.

My insurance company (Hastings) gave me a total loss settlement figure I was happy with so am now looking to buy a new car. The problem is my 11 years NCB stands for nothing as this accident is being deemed as my fault and means I must step back to just 4 years NCB. Looking at insuring a similar spec car to my old one this is now pushing up my premium by around £400.

Is there any way I can prove that I wasn't in the vehicle at the time? I work in IT so even an audit to say I was in the office at the time of the accident or something? I know it sounds petty but I feel totally baffled and angry for having to pay all this extra money and losing my car to something I wasn't even involved with

Many thanks

It's too bad that your NCB accounts for nothing, but I'm afraid this is the risk you take putting your car in a residential street all day, every day, whilst you're at work. It could actually have been someone who was sick of you making it hard to manoeuvre around their own street, who rammed into it deliberately.

Even though it's perfectly legal to leave your car parked outside someone's house all day, every day, in a residential area, whilst you spend the day at work; it can be extremely annoying for the people who live there, to have cars parked up and down the road, that belong to people who don't live anywhere near the road, let alone in it.

Now you've got your new car, it may be a good idea to look for alternative parking, or an alternative way of getting to work. Because it's quite possible this may happen again. I mean, it does sound a bit suspicious that your car got pranged so badly whilst parked in a residential street.

teddysmum

Peter333 wrote: »

I mean, it does sound a bit suspicious that your car got pranged so badly whilst parked in a residential street.

Why ?


A few weeks ago one of my sons' partner's car was written off outside her house in the middle of the night (CCTV evidence) and some years ago, my other son had his parked car written off by a car being chased, through a housing estate,by police.

marleyboy

Originally Posted by Peter333

I mean, it does sound a bit suspicious that your car got pranged so badly whilst parked in a residential street.

Nothing suspicious about that. In fact its quite common.

Maybe your just not streetwise enough to know it happens.

marc58

Peter333 wrote: »

It's too bad that your NCB accounts for nothing, but I'm afraid this is the risk you take putting your car in a residential street all day, every day, whilst you're at work. It could actually have been someone who was sick of you making it hard to manoeuvre around their own street, who rammed into it deliberately.

I have been parking in the same spot in the same road for over 8 years and have never had a problem or complaint from anyone so I highly doubt it was deliberate.

payandisplay

I always have a protected no claims bonus policy. I have had a couple of claims similar to yours and have had no premium increase whatsoever.

marc58

Just a little update, I have managed to get a quote from Aviva (not on comparison sites) that is about £200 cheaper. They went into more detail about previous claims and you can actually state that your parked vehicle was hit by an unknown 3rd party, so although it goes down as a fault claim I guess they base the premium on the nature of the incident.