Car insurance and RTA

mrsmsport

Firstly please do not start jumping on this post and lecturing me. I need some advice and I need it explained clearly and honestly. If you don’t know the answers to some of the questions please don’t answer.
My son had a car fully comp insured. He changed the wheels and put a loud back box on it. He has now written it off and no other vehicle was involved. However he did take out a sign and part of the wall. He’s decided not to claim. He has paid the recovery costs and paid the company to scrap the car. He has suffered broken ribs and punctured lung so is feeling the wrath. However I have read that you legally need to tell your insurance company. What will happen? Will they go along and see the car with different wheels on and then say he’s not insured and not cover the cost of replacing the sign for the council? Or I may be lucky enough that the car has been scrapped. Or do you think the insurance company would cover the third-party costs which would be the sign. I am aware of his misdemeanours and we don’t need any more lectures because stress levels are high. I’d appreciate some kind words of wisdom. Thank you

mrsmsport

Corrected typos

SergeantBaker

In all likelihood they'll just pay out. On the other hand if he's got comprehensive insurance they may find it odd he's not claimed. Has he informed them?

DullGreyGuy

mrsmsport said:

Firstly please do not start jumping on this post and lecturing me. I need some advice and I need it explained clearly and honestly. If you don’t know the answers to some of the questions please don’t answer.
My son had a car fully comp insured. He changed the wheels and put a loud back box on it. He has now written it off and no other vehicle was involved. However he did take out a sign and part of the wall. He’s decided not to claim. He has paid the recovery costs and paid the company to scrap the car. He has suffered broken ribs and punctured lung so is feeling the wrath. However I have read that you legally need to tell your insurance company. What will happen? Will they go along and see the car with different wheels on and then say he’s not insured and not cover the cost of replacing the sign for the council? Or I may be lucky enough that the car has been scrapped. Or do you think the insurance company would cover the third-party costs which would be the sign. I am aware of his misdemeanours and we don’t need any more lectures because stress levels are high. I’d appreciate some kind words of wisdom. Thank you

If he reports it for information purposes only they arent going to ask to see his vehicle, even if you report it as a third party only claim they are unlikely to want to see his vehicle unless there was a dispute about the amount of damage sustained  or they had suspicions of non-disclosure. 

Who owns the wall? By sign you presumably mean a formal street sign (so council or highways agency) rather than local shop or such?

EssexExile

I've not had many accidents over the years but for the few I have had, no one has ever come out to check that the car was not modified.

Mutton_Geoff

mrsmsport said:
I need some advice and I need it explained clearly

There is a cog top right of the bar with the date & time on it. Click the cog and you can edit your posts.

On the main issue, it might be easier, since your son is old enough to drive, he's old enough to be connected to the internet with his own device. It's always a lot easier to hear directly from the person involved rather than a third party who may be, as you've already admitted, be stressed about the subject.

I experienced similar issues early in my driving years (we were called "tearaways" and "boy racers" back in the 70's). What I did learn was to face up to the responsibly for my actions, admit my own wrongs and pay the penalty. You can help your son in this way rather than working out whether you might be "lucky enough" that his crushed car disguises him failing to inform his insurers of material changes to his car.

Surely if the car is scrapped, he needs to speak to his insurers to stop cover? The car will also be listed as scrapped on DVLA records by the waste firm so he can't say he sold it or has taken it off the road.

I wish you luck and hope my comments encourage you to get him to "man up" rather than you have to suffer because of it and turn to a bunch of internet strangers for advice.

mrsmsport

I didn’t ask for any lectures thanks. You don’t know the situation. But thanks 

MattMattMattUK

EssexExile said:

I've not had many accidents over the years but for the few I have had, no one has ever come out to check that the car was not modified.

I know someone who has their insurance refuse to pay out due to modifications, but the police were involved and they stated that the modifications likely contributed to the accident (dropped suspension, change of wheels, non-standard tyres, turbo fitted etc.). I also know someone else who had their insurance refuse to cover their own car (although not the third-party damage) because they were over the limit when they crashed the car, but again the police were involved.

Flight3287462

How is he going to pay for the third party damage?

This could get nasty if he doesn't report it and there were witnesses.

MattMattMattUK

mrsmsport said:

I didn’t ask for any lectures thanks. You don’t know the situation. But thanks 

That is the nature of an open forum, everything is someone's opinion and you do not get to pick and choose who replies.

mrsmsport said:

However I have read that you legally need to tell your insurance company. What will happen?

He should have already told them of any modifications, they can then decide if the modifications count for changing the policy, wheels to a different type, but approved for that car make no difference, wheels that are oversized for the vehicle change handling and so will make a difference. An example there would be that VW have three different sizes of wheels approved for a Golf, but if once installed wheels that were bigger than the largest size that would change the car for insurance purposes, but changing from one of the three standard sizes would likely not.

Changing the exhaust muffler may not have impacted the insurance directly, but may mean it was an MOT fail (non-approved exhaust for the vehicle) which may impact insurance. It could also well breach regulations due to noise as well as being anti-social, but now he has written off the car that is probably not an issue.

He also needs to legally tell the insurance company he has had an accident, the declarations require people to state when they have had an accident, not just when they have made a claim and insurance companies are very good at finding different bits of data to find out if someone has tried to hide an accident.

Were the police involved and/or are they likely to be involved, especially as he destroyed road furniture (the technical name for signs etc.). If they are then that also might have an implication. 

mrsmsport said:

Or do you think the insurance company would cover the third-party costs which would be the sign.

They would, as part of the claim. He should be aware that if he does not own up there are a remarkable amount of cameras around these days so better to be upfront and go via the insurance than risk a knock on the door from the police for refusing to declare an accident. 

mrsmsport said:

I am aware of his misdemeanours and we don’t need any more lectures because stress levels are high.

They key factor here will be that the insurance company will be aware of his misdemeanours and so his future insurance costs will reflect that. Any attempt to try and hide the accident from the insurance company will at best result in considerable worry about getting caught but ultimately could result in any future policy being deemed to have been taken out dishonestly/frequently if he claims he has had no accidents and they subsequently discover that he wrote the car off. 

43k_in_43m

Flight3287462 said:

How is he going to pay for the third party damage?

This could get nasty if he doesn't report it and there were witnesses.

Simplest solution to avoid this would be for OP's son to own up and pay for the damage

Irrespective of whether the insurance company end up getting involved if the accident wasn't reported to the damaged property owners the situation could start escalating quite quickly