Just been involved in an accident, and need some advice please.

400ixl · 16 September 2024 at 8:36AM

I assume you mean that you put the value of the car as £200 and not that you paid a premium of £200 for your years insurance. I assume the history of the previous notified incident was included in your quote.

If that was the value you entered, it is not the maximum value they would pay out, that was for quotation purposes.

Do you have the insurance details of the 3rd party that hit you?

If you do, I would notify your insurer of the accident but tell them it is a notification not a claim at this stage. Then contact the 3rd parties insurance and tell them you are willing to allow them to deal with your vehicle directly. It has some advantages in that it is often quicker, you don't pay the excess and they can put you in a replacement car, but has some disadvantages that you can't use the ombudsman if you have issues.

Going to your insurer, there is a chance they will want to pass you to an accident management company to claim against the 3rd party. Personally I would avoid such companies as you have to sign up to conditions to support them, and although they would get you into a credit hire vehicle it is not in their interests to get the claim sorted as quickly as possible as they make money out of that credit hire. Personally I would insist your insurer deals with the claim directly rather than an accident management company. You may have to pay your excess and claim it back if you go through your own insurer.

If possible I would go down the 3rd party route in your position as it sounds like the car will be a write off anyway.

DullGreyGuy · 16 September 2024 at 11:06AM

If you claim directly from the third party insurer then whatever you declared the value as for your insurance is totally irrelevant, they'll pay you the market value of the vehicle pre-accident, assuming thats more than the cost of repairs. Note that you will not be protected by the Ombudsman as you are not their customer so if you think they low ball you you dont have the right for a formal complaint and you go to court rather than the ombudsman. Given you say the car is only £200 then almost certainly you'll be happy with their valuation as thats too low for pretty much any car that runs and has a MOT.

As others have said, you will have to tell your own insurers for information purposes, and yes like the last time they will log it. "Non-fault" accidents dont always been your driving style isn't contributing to the incidents and/or can also mean you're regularly parking in dodgy places which inevitably means your insurers will consider you higher risk.

You can ask to buy the car back from the insurer, most will do so at the price they'd have gotten from their scrap merchant. How much that leaves you will be what it is.