False claim by third party still open 5 months later on AXA login

Moconnell

Back in April my insurer contacted me to tell me that someone had claimed our car had been involved in a car crash somewhere near Manchester. We denied this as we've never been near Manchester (we are near Nottingham) and we have not been in a crash at all recently.

AXAs claims dept then gotr in contact and quizzed me about our location etc. where we've been in the car etc. and then we sent the pictures we have of the car showing no crash damage.

Some things that concern me about this are:

- They have not told us who the third party is, or the details of the crash alledged.

- When I login to my account I see an open 'Claim' listed (kind of make it seem like I am raising it)

- Its still not resolved 5 months later. They have just told us that they have told the third party we are dening involvement, but we've not have updates.

Is it normal for such as obviously false claim scenario to be dealt with in this way?

My renewal is up now and I want to move away from AXA due to the handling of this issue and I don't know whether I have to include this open false claim in my 'claims history' I assume not since its still open?

Many Thanks

Matt

AdrianC

If your car had been hit by somebody, and they said "Nope, wasn't me", would you be happy if all the insurers involved simply took that at face value?

Would you be happy if your details were passed on to the people denying involvement...?

Right now, it still is an open claim. Until the insurer trying to claim against your insurer accepts that you were not involved, it's going to stay like that.

Aretnap

It sounds fairly normal tbh. Ultimately the ball is in the third party's court - if they still think that you were responsible they can launch legal proceedings against you, in theory up to six years after the alleged incident. In practice in the absence of a clear indication from the other side that they're no longer pursuing this, your insurer will treat the claim as open for as long as there's a reasonable chance that a formal court claim might appear - the policy will vary between insurers but I believe 6 months is reasonably standard.

They won't give you the details of the third party, and there's unlikely to be anything useful that you could (legally) do with the details, even if you did have them. 

In the meantime you do have an open claim that you will have to declare to insurers as part of your claims history. Most will treat an unresolved claim in much the same way as a fault claim - it will affect your premium and reduce your NCB. If/when it is ultimately resolved your current insurer should restore your NCD and refund any difference in premium which you've paid as a result. If you change insurers you should check beforehand that they'll do this, and be prepared to do some legwork yourself in terms of chasing the old insurer and passing details on to the new one, because they won't automatically keep each other updated.

It's a pain, but it's how these things work - slowly. Is it's any consolation the most likely scenario is a simple error - someone has misread a numberplate and come up with yours - rather than an outright fraudulent claim. 

Moconnell

@AdrianC there is that but I think 5 months seems reasonable to get an updated status. I've emailed today so hopefully something progress update next week.

@Aretnap OK will probably let it auto renew to save hassle. Could be simple error ofc these days I immediately imagine the worst

Sandtree

With these types of things they, in my day at least, were often registered as a claim based on a letter received from the third party insurer that has very little detail in it.

Next step is to speak to our insured and see what they say. If like you they state it wasnt them then a repudiation is sent giving the grounds and saying if they maintain the allegations then to provide extra information/evidence.

Unfortunately sometimes thats the last that is ever heard... they go back to their insured, they point out it was a D not a B in the reg plate so they correct and approach the next identified insurer and dont both looping back to tell your insurers they're off the hook.

Typically these things get diaried on 3-6 months and the claim then closed if no further approaches are made.