Advice! Third party car insurance want their fee after 5 years 25 May 2022 at 10:11AM edited 25 May 2022 at 10:16AM in Insurance & life assurance 16 replies 312 views

Sam3007

Deleted_User said:

Sam3007 said:

Deleted_User said:

You'll probably run into issues though given you said you didn't notify your insurer at the time

what kind of issues please? 

Your insurance terms and conditions require you to tell them about any incident (exactly what is based on the wording of each policy). You had a bump resulting in damage to your car which was disputed. By not informing the insurer you have in effect committed fraud by enjoying cheaper premiums for 3-5 years as a result of not declaring the incident and insurers can void your insurance if they find out. The danger here will be that the old insurer deals with the claim and then comes after you for the money as you breached the terms. At the very least even if you win, showing your footage, they may come after you for more money, though it's probably unlikely your current insurer will do anything given the incident was more than 3-4 years ago which is what they typically ask about.

Am I legally required to respond to letters from third party insurance ?

I am split between ignoring them till my car insurance company gets in touch with me or to inform my insurance company but I am worried the second will affect my renewal that is due in a couple of months. 

Any suggestions please ?

user1977

Sam3007 said:

Deleted_User said:

Sam3007 said:

Deleted_User said:

You'll probably run into issues though given you said you didn't notify your insurer at the time

what kind of issues please? 

Your insurance terms and conditions require you to tell them about any incident (exactly what is based on the wording of each policy). You had a bump resulting in damage to your car which was disputed. By not informing the insurer you have in effect committed fraud by enjoying cheaper premiums for 3-5 years as a result of not declaring the incident and insurers can void your insurance if they find out. The danger here will be that the old insurer deals with the claim and then comes after you for the money as you breached the terms. At the very least even if you win, showing your footage, they may come after you for more money, though it's probably unlikely your current insurer will do anything given the incident was more than 3-4 years ago which is what they typically ask about.

Am I legally required to respond to letters from third party insurance ?

No, but you risk them starting court action if you fail to respond - and the longer you leave it without notifying your insurer, the less likely they are to indemnify you against any losses. I'm not sure why you think it would be to your advantage to ignore the letter.

[Deleted User]

Sam3007 said:

Deleted_User said:

Sam3007 said:

Deleted_User said:

You'll probably run into issues though given you said you didn't notify your insurer at the time

what kind of issues please? 

Your insurance terms and conditions require you to tell them about any incident (exactly what is based on the wording of each policy). You had a bump resulting in damage to your car which was disputed. By not informing the insurer you have in effect committed fraud by enjoying cheaper premiums for 3-5 years as a result of not declaring the incident and insurers can void your insurance if they find out. The danger here will be that the old insurer deals with the claim and then comes after you for the money as you breached the terms. At the very least even if you win, showing your footage, they may come after you for more money, though it's probably unlikely your current insurer will do anything given the incident was more than 3-4 years ago which is what they typically ask about.

Am I legally required to respond to letters from third party insurance ?

I am split between ignoring them till my car insurance company gets in touch with me or to inform my insurance company but I am worried the second will affect my renewal that is due in a couple of months. 

Any suggestions please ?

They will take you to court, it's a lot better you have your insurance company paying the bills (especially with the dash cam footage). You may need to fudge it a bit and say you don't remember if you told them or not as there was a lot of confusion about the claim and stress of the downtime etc rather than straight up admit you didn't tell them and thus breaching your terms and conditions but I would wait for better advice from people on here.

Sam3007

Deleted_User said:

They will take you to court, it's a lot better you have your insurance company paying the bills (especially with the dash cam footage). You may need to fudge it a bit and say you don't remember if you told them or not as there was a lot of confusion about the claim and stress of the downtime etc rather than straight up admit you didn't tell them and thus breaching your terms and conditions but I would wait for better advice from people on here.

Thanks. 
One last question please, is it legally acceptable for a driver to inform his car insurance company about an accident but opt to open the repair claim itself with another claims management company? 

lisyloo

Sam3007 said:

Deleted_User said:

They will take you to court, it's a lot better you have your insurance company paying the bills (especially with the dash cam footage). You may need to fudge it a bit and say you don't remember if you told them or not as there was a lot of confusion about the claim and stress of the downtime etc rather than straight up admit you didn't tell them and thus breaching your terms and conditions but I would wait for better advice from people on here.

Thanks. 
One last question please, is it legally acceptable for a driver to inform his car insurance company about an accident but opt to open the repair claim itself with another claims management company? 

Yes, you can certainly decide not to make a claim on your insurance.

Sandtree

Sam3007 said:

Deleted_User said:

They will take you to court, it's a lot better you have your insurance company paying the bills (especially with the dash cam footage). You may need to fudge it a bit and say you don't remember if you told them or not as there was a lot of confusion about the claim and stress of the downtime etc rather than straight up admit you didn't tell them and thus breaching your terms and conditions but I would wait for better advice from people on here.

Thanks. 
One last question please, is it legally acceptable for a driver to inform his car insurance company about an accident but opt to open the repair claim itself with another claims management company? 

Legal certainly however the use of a claims management company would suggest that you are the innocent party. Your insurers have the right to deal with the claim as they see fit, if its known the claim has a dispute on liability then most claims management companies wont touch it. 

You may run into an issue if you inform your insurers and they say they think you're at fault. You then go to a claims management company saying you are the innocent party and when the claims company goes to claim off of the Third Party Insurers they advise your insurers have already admitted full liability and settled their claim.  In this scenario you may end up paying the inflated rates of the accident management company.