Car insurance claim changed after 11 months

dezthome

Back in June 2019 I was involved in an accident where a car drove into the side of my car and then drove off leaving my car with £600 worth of damage.  I have dashcam footage and submitted it to both the police and my insurance company.  Originally I was not going to claim until I was told by my insurer that it was a third party fault so would not have to pay anything.  I then changed my claim to damages due to this information.  I have now received a phonecall yesterday from my insurer stating that the car was cloned, and was sold in April prior to the accident and had photo proof of the car on the forecourt.  I have also been told I will be losing my no claims bonus down to 3 years as well as they can't recover the costs from the other party insurer due to this.

Does this sound like the sort of thing that happens a lot?  It has taken the insurance 11 months to be told the car was cloned last year.  I am also questioning the validity of the photo of the car on the forecourt in June last year when the accident took place.  Has anyone out there got any advice on what I can do to not have my no claims discount reduced because of this?  I have lodged a complaint with their complaints team, and even offered to re-imburse them and then close the claim as information only but they don't seem willing to accept it.

Any advice would be greatful.
Derek

neilmcl

It's pretty standard practise. Unless your insurer has the TP insurer to recover costs from then it will always revert back to an at fault claim and hence the loss of NCD.

AdrianC

If your insurer ends up out of pocket, it goes on your record as "at fault". That's the way it works.

Look at it from the insurer's point of view... Having your business cost them money.

frayedknot

I think the Insurance Co. would have known (or been told)  the car was cloned within a few weeks of you reporting the accident.  I am also unsure on how a picture of a car proves that it wasn't involved in an accident.