Car written off by recovery company.

Aretnap

lopsyfa said:

I don't think you should have to declare but my opinion or that of any other does not matter. Only your current insurer can answer that question 100%. What you don't want is not to declare it as at fault and then later have issues in the future for not declaring a claim.

I will put a formal question to your insurer in writing and if they fail to answer, raise a formal complaint and escalate it accordingly. You will find it gets to someone who can provide an answer and keep this safe in case you need it in the future.

His current insurer can only tell him 100% whether he has to declare it to them. This is a rather academic question in any event as he has already told them about it.

What his current insurer cannot do is tell him whether he needs to declare it to some future insurer. They don't know what questions the future insurer will ask the OP, or how they will expect them to be answered.

At a push the OP could ask the current insurer whether they've recorded it as an accident, which would give him some indication of how likely a future insurer would be to find out were he not to declare it. But whether he should declare it is a different question to whether he's get caught if he didn't declare it.

Personally I'd be inclined to get quotes with the incident not declared, then phone or webchat some of the insurers who offer competitive quotes, explain the incident and ask if they consider it to be declarable before actually buying.

Korkyb

I've actually been with my current insurer for about 6 years now (3 cars covered on a multicar policy) & after the usual premium price hike every year a quick phone call to them results in the renewal premium being lowered to compete with the best quotes that I've generated.


I've just actually had another check into the insurance paperwork (insurance was renewed around 3 weeks after the "incident").

I've found the incident on the Motor Proposal Confirmation as a no claim incident.

 The reason that I didn't spot it initially is because they have put the no claim incident against my name (I was a named driver) as opposed to my wife's name (the registered keeper / main driver).


Although they have put it down as an incident against my name on the insurance for my wife's car they haven't marked it as an incident against my name in the insurance for my own car (multicar policy).

I'm not even sure if the incident should be marked against my name as I'm not the keeper / main driver and wasn't driving at the time of the incident (no one was).

I guess they put it against my name because I was the one who informed them.


I'll give them a call this morning.

Hope this doesn't get messy :-/

Korkyb

Called our insurance company and ended up being passed to 4 people but worth it in the end.


After double checking the final advisor (in claims department) told me:


- the note against my name as having had a no claim incident had been added in error and would be removed.

- as the damage occurred on the back of a recovery vehicle that it was not classed as an incident on our / the wife's insurance.

- If the car had been repairable (& not written off) we wouldn't have even been required to notify them about the incident at all.

- When seeking quotes for renewal we do not have to declare the incident.


She explained that the above is because motor industry insurance is different / separate from bog standard car insurance and dealt with in a different way.

I have of course requested confirmation of the above advice by email.......... just in case.... 

Every day's a school day !!