Help needed with liability dispute - car insurance

ribenacat346

Hoping to gain some advice from you knowledgeable lot about a situation I’m in with a car insurance renewal and an accident I’m in the process of disputing liability for. 

There might be some obvious stuff in here but I have zero experience in accident claims and faults etc. Have read through my policy and some threads on here but haven’t found a specific situation that relates so far. 

I’m with esure flex (terrible experience with them so far) 

A summary about the incident; I was involved in a collision at the end of January that I believe was a ‘crash for cash’ type situation. I went into the back of someone who slammed their brakes on for no reason on a roundabout exit. He approached me from the side trying to overtake me on an exit, got in front then slammed on brakes. A dodgy situation followed where he tried to get £200 cash off me and refused to give insurance details (he gave them eventually). I got witnesses and plenty of evidence which I submitted to my insurance company when I disputed. He claimed on his insurance against me (for a hilariously low amount of damage - a single fingernail sized scratch) and I didn’t claim on my insurance as the excess was too high. I notified them only and said I wish to dispute liability for his claim on my insurance. 

My insurance is due for renewal at the end of the month and I’m so confused about what to put in to make sure my details are right. I’ve had no answer on the liability dispute from Esure flex yet and it’s almost impossible to get through to their department.

Some key questions are: 

- is my NCD affected if I notified only and didn’t claim on my side? 

- is it affected because he claimed on his insurance but against me and said it was my fault? 

-what info would you recommend to put in for insurance claims to inform them of this? (I plan to get some quotes over the phone if I have the patience to hold for hours, so I can explain details) 
-likelihood of them even bothering investigating the liability? 

-how long on average these things take? 

-what happens if I get an answer after I’ve switched insurers? 

Also

-I have another vehicle (camper), is my NCD affected or is it earned on individual cars? (Apologies if this is an obvious one) 

I’d be so grateful for any snippets of advice or even answer to just one of these questions that anyone could provide! 

LightFlare

It depends on if and how the question is asked by the insurer.

Its usually along the lines of:

”Have you had any accidents or claims in the last x years”

You have - whether it was or wasn’t your fault is irrelevant to answering the questions, although they may ask for further details

DullGreyGuy

ribenacat346 said:

- is my NCD affected if I notified only and didn’t claim on my side? 

- is it affected because he claimed on his insurance but against me and said it was my fault? 

-what info would you recommend to put in for insurance claims to inform them of this? (I plan to get some quotes over the phone if I have the patience to hold for hours, so I can explain details) 
-likelihood of them even bothering investigating the liability? 

-how long on average these things take? 

-what happens if I get an answer after I’ve switched insurers? 

Also

-I have another vehicle (camper), is my NCD affected or is it earned on individual cars? (Apologies if this is an obvious one) 

I’d be so grateful for any snippets of advice or even answer to just one of these questions that anyone could provide! 

1) if you claim for your vehicle or not only impacts if you have to pay the excess, no excess on Third Party only claims. Normally, an open claim like this will be considered fault until it's settled and so would impact the NCD if renewal happens before that. However its much simpler... see what's on their renewal quote in terms of both the claim and the NCD and repeat that

2) NCD is impacted by your insurers view and process for open claims. 

3) Copy what your insurer has put on the renewal quote. If its over the phone explain its an open claim with disputed liability

4) As you aren't claiming for your own damage your insurers are on defence only mode. A lot will depend what is presented. The problem is that insurers cannot recover their own costs so if the TP claim was only £200 it's not worth spending £1,000 to try and avoid it. That doesn't mean all claims are paid without question but economics are considered

5) As they are on defence mode it depends heavily on the third party and their insurers. These things can be over in a couple of months or go on years. If there are no injuries the third party/their insurers have 6 years to resolve the matter. Most are dealt with a lot faster

6) You can speak to your new insurers but many cannot change NCD after inception so whilst you may get a rebate if the claim goes from fault to non-fault its not automatic and may not be as much as if you stayed with your current insurer where hopefully it would be automatic

7) NCD is by vehicle, so you need to declare the incident and it may impact the premium but not the NCD

KeithP

This board tends to concentrate on parking events.
I think your thread would be better placed on the Motoring Board. 

You might want to hit the Report button below your opening post and ask MSE Forum Team to move this thread to that board.