Car insurance claim improperly handled

Wkempson

Hi
I had a very minor accident in my workplace private car park where we both thought we had enough room but unfortunately didn’t, our cars touched briefly causing no damage to my car however the other party claimed I caused a scuff/dent on his.
As I’m a first year driver I wanted to settle this outside of insurance no matter who was at fault, the “damage” to his car was no more than £100 to my eyes (I work with cars all day).
When I got home I rang my insurer to let them know something had happened and if it was okay to settle it ourselves, they said yes that’s fine. After that I was contacted by neither insurance or the other party so I assumed he had just left it as it was such a minor thing.
5 months later I receive my renuwal quote and it has gone up to a ridiculous £4100 and says I don’t have a years no claims discount. During the course of a couple of calls to my insurer i find out the other party did claim, for £1680 which is more than twice the value of his car and at no point from the initial call to then did anyone bother to contact me to give a statement, giving the other party free reign to claim such a ridiculous amount. My insurance have fully admitted all they’re failings, from doing no investigation to collecting no evidence and not contacting me once and offered me £150 compensation and said I could buy his claim and my insurance would go back down! Obviously that’s not going to cut it.
If you were in my shoes what would be your next move here? I’m going to contact the financial ombudsman but what relistaically do you think could come of this?
Thanks

glentoran99

what evidence did they need to collect from you? You already phoned and told them what happened

Wkempson

All I said on the phone was something had happened, they established no blame and had no idea of the damage to either Car. The call was only to check if we could both settle outside of insurance (which we agreed at the time)

Wkempson

There were security cameras on site, I could have got the recordings which would have shown the accident plus if he already had damage on his car, as I knew no claim was going ahead this didn’t happen. Pretty sure any claim needs an statement from me also

forgotmyname

So they offered you a fair bit of compensation and offered to let you settle the claim so it will be an incident instead of a claim and your still not happy?

What do you think the ombudsman will do that your insurer have not already offered?

Wkempson

The claim is still there and I’m down as fully responsible, £150 compensation is nothing compared to the increase in renewal for this year and the years to come. If all the procedures had been followed there’s no way he would have been able to make a claim, especially one so big to write off his car twice where as the extent of my damage was wiping a scuff mark off with my thumb. This is all things they have admitted they have done wrong, with the last person I spoke to basically telling me it’s in my best interest to go to the ombudsman

glentoran99

Wkempson wrote: »

The claim is still there and I’m down as fully responsible, £150 compensation is nothing compared to the increase in renewal for this year and the years to come. If all the procedures had been followed there’s no way he would have been able to make a claim, especially one so big to write off his car twice where as the extent of my damage was wiping a scuff mark off with my thumb. This is all things they have admitted they have done wrong, with the last person I spoke to basically telling me it’s in my best interest to go to the ombudsman

but they have told you if you buy the claim that will come down, You admitted responsibility by saying you would pay for it out of your insurance.


If procedures has been followed you would have took it through your insurance instead of trying to deal with it privately and getting shafted,


You say that damage was only £100, I just got my car repaired after a wee argument with a post, cost £800 ( I went through insurance) I was driving no more than a couple of mph.


What outcome are you expecting from the ombudsman? (as they will ask)

Wkempson

The claim was settled months ago, this is my point. They settled it without even speaking to me and have admitted their error, someone put me down as fully responsible by mistake. As the claim has already been settled it can’t be changed and will be on my record and will need to be declared in any new quote, along with how much the other party claimed, sending my quotes through the roof

glentoran99

heres one which could be viewed as similar to your own


http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/viewPDF.aspx?FileID=161314

glentoran99

Wkempson wrote: »

The claim was settled months ago, this is my point. They settled it without even speaking to me and have admitted their error, someone put me down as fully responsible by mistake. As the claim has already been settled it can’t be changed and will be on my record and will need to be declared in any new quote, along with how much the other party claimed, sending my quotes through the roof

you said in your op

I could buy his claim and my insurance would go back down!

Wkempson

The insurer has agreed with me that I’m not responsible, saying you would BOTH rather deal with it outside of the insurer is not an admission of guilt, if you were a first year driver would you not rather leave the insurance out of it? I’m hoping to get better compensation than £150 and being told to pay them for his claim.