Am I stuck with my insurance provider at renewal?

77588p

Last August my wife had a bumb in our car. Basically she was driving down a main road and someone pulled out of a junction and hit us side on.

The third party is disputing liability which our insurers cannot believe. The photos show where she hit us on the passenger front door and then the damage went right down the whole side of the car.

Our insurers are shocked that they are not accepting liability and have instructed a solicitor with a view of taking it to court.

This seems to have left us a bit stuck at renewal time. Our premiums have doubled and i tried to shop around. The problem we have is that our claim is technically open and therefore our insurer said we need to disclose the claim as a fault claim until its gone to court and proven othetwise. If we shop around and put a fault claim down then they want info like costs etc but my insurer doesnt have this as they are disputing any liability. The third party have replied saying they are willing to go 50/50 and my insurance told them where to go and suggest they look at the photos again.

I feel like its impossible to shop around!

Any suggestions?

DullGreyGuy

What are the third party's allegations? There are circumstances where liability is shared in T junction collisions 

You should ask your insurers for their outlay and their reserve. Add these two together and thats what you stick in the claims cost when getting quotes. 

As you say an open claim = a fault claim in most circumstances and that will have an impact on your NCD if its not protected. You are still perfectly entitled to shop around but the costs are going to be naturally higher. Before buying you should also confirm that if the claim is closed non-fault and NCD reinstated that they will rerate the policy (not all can/do)

77588p

Im not entirely sure what the allogations are to be honest. We were not turning or anything. We were just driving down a main road through a village. A car was waiting to pull out of a junction. We were coming from her right, amd to her left is a fairly blind corner. She pulled out looking to her left and hit the side of us. As mentioned, we were not making any turnings. Our insurers do not know what they expected us to do differently. 

They are claiming 50/50 on the basis that there are no witnesses so our insurers keep telling them to look at the damage to both cars and this tells the story of what happened.

DullGreyGuy

77588p said:

Im not entirely sure what the allogations are to be honest. We were not turning or anything. We were just driving down a main road through a village. A car was waiting to pull out of a junction. We were coming from her right, amd to her left is a fairly blind corner. She pulled out looking to her left and hit the side of us. As mentioned, we were not making any turnings. Our insurers do not know what they expected us to do differently. 

They are claiming 50/50 on the basis that there are no witnesses so our insurers keep telling them to look at the damage to both cars and this tells the story of what happened.

Then you need to be on to your insurers to get the TP's version of events... its hard to defend or argue a claim when you dont know what the other side claims happened. 

For example with T Junctions you often get cases like Moody -v- Powell where a vehicle was overtaking queuing traffic, making their own lane in the process, when a vehicle was "let out" from a side road turning right and so went into the side of the overtaking vehicle. Case settled 80/20 against the overtaking vehicle as overtaking at a junction when creating your own lane is fraught with hazards. 

50/50 is a common outcome when there are conflicting version of events and no witnesses or evidence to support one version over the other. Saying "look at the damage" isnt very helpful without knowing their version of events as if its totally different it may possibly support their version too. 

prettyandfluffy

You might find it easier to stay with your current insurer until the claim is resolved, that is what I did in the same situation.  If the difference is huge I would talk to an insurance broker who might be able to find you a good deal.