Third party insurer taking ages / refusing to respond

AdrianC

BiarritzBlau said:

Also thanks for mentioning that I need insurance to park my new vehicle on the road. I currently only pay its road tax and I assumed that was enough to park it legally on the road (I don't use the car though). But now, I stand corrected. So I'll have to leave it in my driveway then. 

If it's taxed it MUST be insured. Even if it's off the road.

If it's off the road, then it can be SORNed if it's uninsured, rather than taxed.
If it's on the road - even just parked - it has to be insured and taxed.

Sandtree

BiarritzBlau said:

Also Sandtree, I know you mentioned that after about 6 months, insurers usually close the case, if the TP doesn't cooperate. 

I wrote an email a week back to ask Hastings what was going on. And this is what they said:

"The third party do have up to 6 years to make this claim, so until they confirm they aren’t looking to hold us liable or if we don’t hear anything from them in a 6 month period we will be unable to close the matter, furthermore if this matter does go to court, this process can take up to a year or longer before we will be able to close it.

This is the correct process we are following, as if we were to just close and ignore the third party, they will issue to court against yourself and be successful in obtaining a county court judgement, this is something we can’t allow".

The law of limitations gives them 6 years for physical damage or 3 years for injury to issue proceedings after which its statute barred. If proceedings are issued within the timescales then it can take several months to several years beyond that depending on the complexity of the case and the availability of the courts.

What most insurers do is close their file after 6 months and reopen them again in the future should an approach occur. The issue with keeping dead files open is that you have to hold a reserve against them, they'll be used in staffing projections etc etc all of which adds cost and noise. Hence most close then and manage the potential future reopening via the IBNR/IBNER reserving done.

Insurers are free to deviate from the norm just surprised they want a baseline of 100,000 claims with a £5k reserve against each for which they will never touch for the next 3 years. 

As to cars not in use, when the continuous insurance law came in the legal requirement is that if the car is not SORNed it must have third party insurance on it even if its not on a public highway... the only way to avoid the need for insurance is to SORN the vehicle (at which point it cannot be on a public highway)

wazza99

Similar issue here, accident 1st May 2021, hit and run, dash cam footage, Police confirmed driver etc, so far the 3rd party hasn't even responded to my insurance company Aviva, i agree its so frustrating, appears no one really cares tbh.