Use car insurance or not

YorkyGal10

Hi
I scraped my neighbour’s car today - totally my fault. My neighbour is insured with the same as me Aegas. I’m wondering whether it’ll be cheaper for me in the long run to get these fixed without involving insurers. Does anyone know if I contact the insurers will I still use my no claims even if I decide to pay for the repairs myself depending on the cost. Basically once the insurer knows about the scrape will I have to go with them or can I choose to handle this myself? 

Thanks. 25 years of driving and never had to make a claim or ever had any form of accident so very upset about this. 

Brie

I think everyone is going to say that you both have to tell your insurance company even if you are going to sort out the repairs yourself.  To not do so could make your whole policy invalid.

McKneff

Even if your neighbour makes a non fault claim he will also be penalised with higher premiums. 

Veteransaver

If the damage isn't too expensive to fix then I'd do everything possible to avoid telling insurers! Your neighbour would also likely benefit by not involving his insurer either. Obviously he is within his rights though to go through insurance and if he has an expensive car (or a company car) or lots of damage he might well wish to.

Luke451

Brie said:

I think everyone is going to say that you both have to tell your insurance company even if you are going to sort out the repairs yourself.  To not do so could make your whole policy invalid.

Is it due to the non-disclosure of facts?

But officially, I don't think it's legal, I think that the law allows you to sort out things between parties and custom agreements, without involving insurances, unless there is a health complication with a car accident for example.

(I have some doubt about the renewal or new subscription though..)

For example, what about the legal insurance for disputes? (usually referring to house insurance)

Not everything needs to be sorted with an insurance, but if you have anything to point out, I'd be very glad to know.

DullGreyGuy

Luke451 said:

Brie said:

I think everyone is going to say that you both have to tell your insurance company even if you are going to sort out the repairs yourself.  To not do so could make your whole policy invalid.

Is it due to the non-disclosure of facts?

But officially, I don't think it's legal, I think that the law allows you to sort out things between parties and custom agreements, without involving insurances, unless there is a health complication with a car accident for example.

(I have some doubt about the renewal or new subscription though..)

For example, what about the legal insurance for disputes? (usually referring to house insurance)

Not everything needs to be sorted with an insurance, but if you have anything to point out, I'd be very glad to know.

You can sort it out yourself but you must still inform your insurer... they do however have the right to deal with the claim as they see fit. They often will allow your to settle privately but may require you to sign an indemnity agreement such as if you mess things up and triple the cost of the claim you will pay the extra your actions have caused. 

Personal injuries would be no different, if you are happy to pay the £10,000 for the injury you caused you are free to do so. 

Legal Expenses insurance doesn't typically ask for history unlike motor and home. 

McKneff said:

Even if your neighbour makes a non fault claim he will also be penalised with higher premiums. 

Depends on the insurer and their general history... for a single non-fault claim on an otherwise good risk we didn't used to adjust premiums. Indeed a single fault claim only raised my premiums about £15

Luke451

DullGreyGuy said:

Luke451 said:

Brie said:

I think everyone is going to say that you both have to tell your insurance company even if you are going to sort out the repairs yourself.  To not do so could make your whole policy invalid.

Is it due to the non-disclosure of facts?

But officially, I don't think it's legal, I think that the law allows you to sort out things between parties and custom agreements, without involving insurances, unless there is a health complication with a car accident for example.

(I have some doubt about the renewal or new subscription though..)

For example, what about the legal insurance for disputes? (usually referring to house insurance)

Not everything needs to be sorted with an insurance, but if you have anything to point out, I'd be very glad to know.

You can sort it out yourself but you must still inform your insurer... they do however have the right to deal with the claim as they see fit. They often will allow your to settle privately but may require you to sign an indemnity agreement such as if you mess things up and triple the cost of the claim you will pay the extra your actions have caused. 

Personal injuries would be no different, if you are happy to pay the £10,000 for the injury you caused you are free to do so. 

Legal Expenses insurance doesn't typically ask for history unlike motor and home. 

McKneff said:

Even if your neighbour makes a non fault claim he will also be penalised with higher premiums. 

Depends on the insurer and their general history... for a single non-fault claim on an otherwise good risk we didn't used to adjust premiums. Indeed a single fault claim only raised my premiums about £15

The problem is what kind of dispute, in this case there is a damage, so probably best to use the insurance, but if anything happens or being discussed between neighborours for example, I don't think I need to use my insurance every time they complain something .

Same way, if there is a damage to the surface only, he can't ask to fix his engine damage that popped up after the incident, but only as long as you take photos, videos and a photo with the owner too, hugging each other to show that everything is just fine and ends there

DullGreyGuy

Luke451 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Luke451 said:

Brie said:

I think everyone is going to say that you both have to tell your insurance company even if you are going to sort out the repairs yourself.  To not do so could make your whole policy invalid.

Is it due to the non-disclosure of facts?

But officially, I don't think it's legal, I think that the law allows you to sort out things between parties and custom agreements, without involving insurances, unless there is a health complication with a car accident for example.

(I have some doubt about the renewal or new subscription though..)

For example, what about the legal insurance for disputes? (usually referring to house insurance)

Not everything needs to be sorted with an insurance, but if you have anything to point out, I'd be very glad to know.

You can sort it out yourself but you must still inform your insurer... they do however have the right to deal with the claim as they see fit. They often will allow your to settle privately but may require you to sign an indemnity agreement such as if you mess things up and triple the cost of the claim you will pay the extra your actions have caused. 

Personal injuries would be no different, if you are happy to pay the £10,000 for the injury you caused you are free to do so. 

Legal Expenses insurance doesn't typically ask for history unlike motor and home. 

McKneff said:

Even if your neighbour makes a non fault claim he will also be penalised with higher premiums. 

Depends on the insurer and their general history... for a single non-fault claim on an otherwise good risk we didn't used to adjust premiums. Indeed a single fault claim only raised my premiums about £15

The problem is what kind of dispute, in this case there is a damage, so probably best to use the insurance, but if anything happens or being discussed between neighborours for example, I don't think I need to use my insurance every time they complain something .

Same way, if there is a damage to the surface only, he can't ask to fix his engine damage that popped up after the incident, but only as long as you take photos, videos and a photo with the owner too, hugging each other to show that everything is just fine and ends there

Sorry, your post wasn't very clear... as already said you aren't forced to use your insurance but they can hold you liable for costs where your mismanagement causes extra costs. For example one insured informed us of an incident where the TP alleged our insured caused them to swerve and hit a tree/lamppost. They signed the forms to agree indemnification because they wanted to deal with it themselves as they said they weren't to blame and feared the insurer would just settle. 

The insured unfortunately didn't tell us that the TP had to be cut from their vehicle and airlifted to hospital having sustained significant injuries. Long story short, they went to court, they lost, we had to pay the TP damages and injury but based on the evidence we'd not have allowed the case to court so the insured had to repay us about £20,000 in court and lawyer fees for having mismanaged the case. 

A photo of you hugging the TP would go straight in the "policyholder is a bit of a loony" folder unless the TP has alleged a dismembered limb or such