How to proceed?

waribai

Hi,

Last week, I scraped the side of my car against my neighbours  low 3 foot high wall and some of the bricks from one of the posts fell off. There was some scratching on my car too. My car insurer requires any incident to be reported within 24 hours. So, I emailed them and outlined the incident but made it clear that at this stage it was not a claim.
The neighbour was away for 2 days and when they returned, I explained what I had done. He said that since it was a minor issue and the bricks are all still there he was happy for us to repair it together at some point when the weather is brighter.  That was a week ago. Today, I heard back from the insurers and they left a message thanking me for my email and saying that they want me to contact them for further details regarding the incident.
My question is, could the insurance company take this out of our hands and instead of an amicable resolution, they contact my neighbour and insist on taking over any repair to his wall and my car?

cymruchris

No - if you don't intend to make a claim - then they can't insist on sending someone over to repair the wall. You've evidently given them an outline, and they probably want to clarify a few things. You can tell them that you reported as was required, but conversations since with the neighbour mean that no further action is required. They may ask a few more details to keep on file just in case the neighbour goes rogue and starts claiming for half a house.

DullGreyGuy

waribai said:

My question is, could the insurance company take this out of our hands and instead of an amicable resolution, they contact my neighbour and insist on taking over any repair to his wall and my car?

Yes, legally at least, they are entitled to resolve any claims how they see fit however different insurers take different approaches about going against customer wishes and its other motor vehicles that they tend to be more keen on dealing with themselves rather than non-vehicle damage. 

Clearly your neighbour could refuse to allow them to deal with the damage to their wall and your insurers cannot force them to, they aren't under contract to your insurers and the laws around insurance much more focus on the policyholder rather than third parties (other than to protect their rights). 

Given legally they can be forced to settle claims where the third party has a court order against the driver of the vehicle it makes total sense that insurers have the right to manage claims otherwise you'd get unreasonable policyholders driving up costs because they refuse to act reasonably meaning basic low value claims get thousands in legal costs added unnecessarily. 

Stateofart

I think you've just gifted the insurance company the go-ahead to put your premiums up next year!  Yes, it'll be logged as an incident, even if it's a no-cost one.

waribai

Thanks for the replies. Yes. They said they would just leave it on file for 6 months.They just wanted a photo of the damage to avoid the scenario of suddenly being present with a huge bill for much more extensive damage. Yes, I am aware that my premiums may go up. However, had I kept quiet about it and then at a later point the neighbour had started making different demands, I possibly would then have been snookered as the insurance company could say that I should've reported it at the time as per the terms of the insurance.

maxmycardagain

Stateofart said:

I think you've just gifted the insurance company the go-ahead to put your premiums up next year!  Yes, it'll be logged as an incident, even if it's a no-cost one.

I dont think that

i KNOW that

Goudy

Stateofart said:

I think you've just gifted the insurance company the go-ahead to put your premiums up next year!  Yes, it'll be logged as an incident, even if it's a no-cost one.

Since when have they needed an excuse?