Cancelling a Motor Insurance Claim

Erskine0812

Last night my neighbour drove out his drive and hit my parked car.  It damaged my rear bumper and slightly scuffed the paint above the bumper.  I notified my insurer as did he. His insurance has accepted liability.  My car is a 2008 Mondeo 2.0 and is in good condition. However I am beginning now to think that, although slight, the repair may still cost more than the car is valued by the insurer if they decide that it needs a new bumper. This would mean that it would be classed a write off and leave me either without a car, or having to try to negotiate a deal to buy back my car, etc, etc. I also understand that the car would need to be MOT'd before being accepted as fit to drive and insure. And that the eventual resale value would be zero.

All this leads me to think it is not worth pursuing with this claim and having the repair done privately. The insurer has contacted the repair assessment firm who have contacted a repairer to examine the car. I have not yet given approval for my car to be uplifted and examined.  The car hire firm have also been in touch with me to offer a replacement car, however, I have declined this at present as my car is drivable.

My question is this........ Can I cancel/withdraw my claim? If I can, what will be the implications for my accident record, no claims bonus, insurance, etc, etc.

daveyjp

A12 year old Mondeo 2.0 is already close to the bottom of resale value.  Any claim will be a write off situation.
Do as the Italians do, learn to love the bumps and drive the car until it dies.

Erskine0812

daveyjp said:

A12 year old Mondeo 2.0 is already close to the bottom of resale value.  Any claim will be a write off situation.
Do as the Italians do, learn to love the bumps and drive the car until it dies.

I am happy to do that and repair the car myself, but can I cancel the claim without any penalties?

AdrianC

Erskine0812 said:

My car is a 2008 Mondeo 2.0 and is in good condition. However I am beginning now to think that, although slight, the repair may still cost more than the car is valued by the insurer if they decide that it needs a new bumper.

Yes, very likely that a new bumper (at Ford dealer price) plus paint plus labour plus hire car will be more than the value. In fact, almost a certainty.

This would mean that it would be classed a write off

Correct...ish. There may be scope for them to make a payout in lieu of a write-off.

and leave me either without a car, or having to try to negotiate a deal to buy back my car, etc, etc.

Correct. But so long as the car's in your possession, the ball is in your court.

I also understand that the car would need to be MOT'd before being accepted as fit to drive and insure. And that the eventual resale value would be zero.

No. It's perfectly legal to continue to drive, so long as it's roadworthy. The MOT expires on the same date it did before. It still has value - but lower than it did before. How much lower? Well, not much, because it wasn't worth much already... A minor CatN write-off shouldn't affect the value much at all.

All this leads me to think it is not worth pursuing with this claim and having the repair done privately. The insurer has contacted the repair assessment firm who have contacted a repairer to examine the car. I have not yet given approval for my car to be uplifted and examined.

Don't let them take it. You'll never see it again. Let the assessor come to you. Talk to him.

The car hire firm have also been in touch with me to offer a replacement car, however, I have declined this at present as my car is drivable.

Good!

My question is this........ Can I cancel/withdraw my claim? If I can, what will be the implications for my accident record, no claims bonus, insurance, etc, etc.

Of course you can cancel the claim. No claim, no loss of NCB. But you can't deny the incident actually happened... That ship has sailed.

Erskine0812

AdrianC - thanks for the response. It is excellent and stands - hopefully - as a guide for others as well as my self.

The arrangements made by the insurer was that the car would be collected and taken to be assessed. This was one of the things that made me very uneasy about the arrangements. Once the car has left my possession, then they have control.

I spoke to my insurer this afternoon and cancelled the claim. A that point they stated that they had the car down as a 'total write off'. So they were starting from the presumption that it was uneconomical to repair. They did suggest that the repair firm could assess the damage and give an opinion of whether it could be repaired, but I was still not happy to do this.

This morning I spoke to a local body repair firm and they looked at the damage. The bumper has sprung from its mountings and there is slight damage to an air vent. He will fix and secure the bumper, repair the air vent damage and spray the bumper for £250. The guy has done work for me in the past and I was happy with that. In fact, I think he mentioned using the paint supplied for that job!

I was advised that the claim would be explained as a 'notification' and that in future insurance renewals I should mention this. They were a little unclear about the affect on my NCB saying that as I had protection it would not matter anyway. Well, it would should there be a further claim in the qualifying period! So, I am a bit unclear about that position!

I advised my neighbour who did the damage that the claim was withdrawn. Did he offer to pay.........? Nope!

AdrianC

Erskine0812 said:

I spoke to my insurer this afternoon and cancelled the claim. A that point they stated that they had the car down as a 'total write off'. So they were starting from the presumption that it was uneconomical to repair. They did suggest that the repair firm could assess the damage and give an opinion of whether it could be repaired, but I was still not happy to do this.

Not exactly a great surprise. It's a ~£1k car. It doesn't take much in the way of work plus hire car to reach that.

I was advised that the claim would be explained as a 'notification' and that in future insurance renewals I should mention this. They were a little unclear about the affect on my NCB saying that as I had protection it would not matter anyway. Well, it would should there be a further claim in the qualifying period! So, I am a bit unclear about that position!

Simples. You look for insurance quotes, they ask if you've ever been involved in a collision, whether there was a claim or not. You cannot lie about that now, because it's on the insurance databases. There's no hit on your NCB, because your insurer has not ended up out of pocket through having your business.

facade

Erskine0812 said:

I advised my neighbour who did the damage that the claim was withdrawn. Did he offer to pay.........? Nope!

Why would he? 

He was happy for you to claim off his insurance, because he thought it wouldn't cost him anything, doubly so if he is claiming for his own car as well.

Erskine0812

facade said:

Erskine0812 said:

I advised my neighbour who did the damage that the claim was withdrawn. Did he offer to pay.........? Nope!

Why would he? 

He was happy for you to claim off his insurance, because he thought it wouldn't cost him anything, doubly so if he is claiming for his own car as well.

Why? Because it is the right and decent thing to do. We are neighbours and have been for 20 years. He hit my car. I would and so would most other people. I still actually believe that most of us are decent enough to do that. Oh, and his car is 16 years old. he did not claim for his. Probably because he was more aware than I that it would be written off.

pinkshoes

Why? Because it is the right and decent thing to do. We are neighbours and have been for 20 years. He hit my car. I would and so would most other people. I still actually believe that most of us are decent enough to do that. Oh, and his car is 16 years old. he did not claim for his. Probably because he was more aware than I that it would be written off.

The right thing to do is pay through insurance. You can't just expect someone to pay privately. His excess might have only been £50, but you are expecting him to pay 5x this...

The_Rainmaker

Once the insurer has been notified the cat is out the bag.  Your mistake was going straight to your and he his insurer.

He has (through his insurer) offered to pay and you have rejected that out come.  He will no doubt be paying increased premiums fort the next 3-5 years.

I wouldn't be paying you either.

Aylesbury_Duck

Erskine0812 said:

facade said:

Erskine0812 said:

I advised my neighbour who did the damage that the claim was withdrawn. Did he offer to pay.........? Nope!

Why would he? 

He was happy for you to claim off his insurance, because he thought it wouldn't cost him anything, doubly so if he is claiming for his own car as well.

Why? Because it is the right and decent thing to do. We are neighbours and have been for 20 years. He hit my car. I would and so would most other people. I still actually believe that most of us are decent enough to do that. Oh, and his car is 16 years old. he did not claim for his. Probably because he was more aware than I that it would be written off.

But he's happy for you to claim on his insurance and take the hit for doing so.  He pays premiums for insurance to cover his mistakes, so if you elect not to use that route, that's your choice.  That doesn't place an obligation on him, legally or morally.