Third Party Claim - Protocol/Law

LordNelson_2

Our car was bumped (front bumper damage) whilst parked. The person left contact details on the windscreen. I was not sure of the protocol regarding informing ones own insurance company, so I contacted them after a few days. According to them it will not effect my insurance going forward. The other driver has since contacted his insurance company, they keep sending me texts say I don't need to contact my insurance company. Is this legal? I thought insurance companies worked together to prevent all sorts of wrongs.
What is the protocol/law? What should or could I have done?

Tiexen

What you should do is contact your insurers give them all the details and let them get on with it

If it's minor damage, you're better off not claiming as even if you don't have to pay anything it will come back to bite you on renewal and for the next 5 years

DullGreyGuy

LordNelson_2 said:

Our car was bumped (front bumper damage) whilst parked. The person left contact details on the windscreen. I was not sure of the protocol regarding informing ones own insurance company, so I contacted them after a few days. According to them it will not effect my insurance going forward. The other driver has since contacted his insurance company, they keep sending me texts say I don't need to contact my insurance company. Is this legal? I thought insurance companies worked together to prevent all sorts of wrongs.
What is the protocol/law? What should or could I have done?

There is little "law" on the matter but when buying a policy you agree to the terms of it and so you have contractual obligations rather than statutory ones. 

Your policy will almost certainly require you to inform your insurers of the incident, like any change in circumstances some have to be declared immediately (claims, changes in jobs, address, vehicle etc) and others typically only at renewal (new points on license, medical conditions etc). Not all insurers are the same as to what falls in what bucket but most want to know about incidents straight away so they can defend any claim that comes in and/or they can sell your details to an accident management company.

What the third party insurer will be meaning is that you dont have to claim from your insurance as they are willing to deal with you directly. This avoids you having to pay your excess and reclaim it (some insurers will waive it anyway), avoids you being palmed off to an accident management company and the challenges around Credit Hire that can create (looking at you Admiral Group) however you are not their customer and so in the unlikely event that things do go wrong you dont have the right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman. 

Some third party insurers even pay you to claim directly, such is their belief in their own claims control -v- the costs accident management companies and such charge. 

There is no right or wrong answer... if the car isnt at risk of being a total loss then most would probably claim from the third party insurers but others think they've paid their insurers to do a job so may as well get them to do it.

rigolith

It will affect your premium either way now. Add the increase to your claim against the TP.