Fraudulent claim on my insurance raising the premium

spamarooni

Hi

Before Christmas I received a letter from my car insurance saying that they had been notified of an incident involving my car, alleging I’d run into the back of somebody

This never happened.

The name on the letter of my supposed driver is a name I have never heard of, I looked at my photos on my phone of the day of the alleged incident and my brother and family had come to visit us and we spent the day in the garden having a barbecue and playing with the kids.
After speaking to my insurance company, although they didn’t say where the incident occurred they said that it was 100 miles away from where I live, so even if I’d have nipped out to the shops I certainly wouldn’t have driven 100 miles!
So I left it with them and heard nothing about it

My car insurance has come up for renewal and it has increased by 45% and when looking at it this incident is on there as a TBC
I spoke to the insurance company and they have said that they are “…awaiting confirmation that the third party has redirected their claim to the correct insurer”, and that they can’t close the claim until they have heard from the third party

They have said to pay the insurance, and then check with the insurance broker whether they will issue a refund for the increased premium if the claim is closed as non-fault after the date of renewal.

Well I’m not prepared to pay for, and don’t have the money to pay for something that essentially boils down to a scam, so where do I stand if I cancel the insurance and go with someone else
Do I have to disclose the claim? Because as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t exist

Any guidance would be v appreciated


Cheers
Andy

mgfvvc

spamarooni wrote: »

Well I’m not prepared to pay for, and don’t have the money to pay for something that essentially boils down to a scam, so where do I stand if I cancel the insurance and go with someone else
Do I have to disclose the claim? Because as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t exist

The claim will be on the shared database used to detect fraud. If you don't disclose it, you risk having your new insurance cancelled and that would make it even harder to get insurance and hike your premiums massively. Unfortunately you may have to suck it up.

If you are with a proper insurance broker, talk to them and see what they can suggest.

debtdebt

Yes you have to disclose the potential claim against you and have to continue doing so until it has settled one way or another.

There's nothing much you can do other than push your insurer at the time of the alleged incident to continue to deny the claim.

Aretnap

spamarooni wrote: »

Well I’m not prepared to pay for, and don’t have the money to pay for something that essentially boils down to a scam, so where do I stand if I cancel the insurance and go with someone else
Do I have to disclose the claim? Because as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t exist.

It is unlikely to be a scam or fraudulent. By and large people don't invent wholly spurious accidents to blame on random strangers hundreds of miles away. It's much more likely to be a simple mistake, such as someone writing down the wrong registration number after a genuine accident involving a car with a similar registration number to yours.

Unfortunately the claim does exist whether you like it or not, and you will have to declare it as an unresolved claim when you apply for quotes, or risk having your insurance voided. Shopping around is not a bad idea and you may well get a cheaper quote than your renewal quote - the cheapest insurer for someone who is claim free isn't necessarily the cheapest one for the same person with a claim or two. You should check with the new insurer whether they will refund part of your premium and restore your NCB if/when the claim is settled in your favour. And be prepared to do some legwork in terms of chasing up your old insurer and passing paperwork onto your new one when the time comes as your old insurer won't automatically tell your new one when the claim is settled.

Unfortunately this makes the process of renewing with an unresolved claim a bit of a pain, but that's how it is - life is a bit of a pain at times.

spiro

As I found out in the past insurance is in the dark ages when it comes to them communicating with eacvh other. If my company sends a claim to another company that company has 90 days to acknowledge the claim and by that they don't mean settle it, it just means they have to write back to say they have received the claim.

spamarooni

Thanks for the advice, I thought that might be the case

It's just extremely annoying that I have to bear the brunt of someone else's mistake that has nothing to do with me but I have to take the financial hit

Surely as it's still 'TBC' on the insurance, and I have contested it and the information is blatantly not my information that I shouldn't have to have this affect my renewal cost until it's been substantiated, so much for insurance protecting you!


Cheers
Andy