Car Insurance Notification or Claim

Taraka

Hi Experts, 

Hope you can help me here.

Called my car insurance company to make a No-fault claim where the other driver is at fault.
After few hours on the same day, speaking to the body shop garage near my house, the damage could be fixed for less than the insurance excess, so i called the insurer to change my claim to Notification only but my car insurer (esure) says if you reported minor/medium/major incident involving third party driver they will have to hear both sides of the story.

They have sent the claim to third party insurance company to accept liability and if they don't respond they will send solicitors. Until then its 50/50 liability and the whole process would take weeks or months.

I am now thinking though its legal requirement to report accidents to insurer and in my case though the other driver who was driving Range Rover did not even realize she hit my car at the roundabout, I confronted her at the next signal and asked her to stop her car by blocking my car in front of hers to assess the damage and exchange insurance. Now it all looks useless and stressful after reporting the incident to my insurance company. I will have to wait and see if the other driver accepts the liability or not. if not, i have to pursue the hassle of disputing.  

Question - Are my insurance companies right ? Even for Notification only incidents, Do they have to pursue the liability if 2 cars are involved ? or they just trying to make money by paying the recovery agents and solicitors in the process and increase my premium.

I might as well pay excess and get it repaired as my premium is going up for reporting the incident. Can any experts help.

Thanks

Aretnap

No it's not a scam to make money by paying solicitors - how would that work?

Not is it an excuse to increase your premium. If an insurer wants to increase your premium that don't need an excuse - they can set any price that they like. And in turn you don't have to renew with them - and if you're not happy with their service or price you probably won't renew. So the most likely outcome is that they'll get nothing from you next year - hardly a good money making scam. 

For regulatory and accounting readings they do have to treat a collision that you've been involved in as a potential claim until they are confident that there will be no claim coming from the other party. At the moment they only have your word for it that it was the other driver's fault. For all they know the other driver could tell her insurer a completely different version of events and try to blame you. Once it becomes clear (touch wood) that this isn't going to happen your insurer should change the way the claim is recorded to notification only/not fault - but it may take a bit of time.

Taraka

Thanks Aretnap.

if third party disputes and tells different story, will there be arbitration where we come face to face to give our statements or go to the place of accident ? Is arbitration done by independent consultant ?  

If third party accepts liability - All good but is there is any legal timeframe to response ?

Regards

Aretnap

Ultimately liability would be decided by a court hearing, however relatively few car accidents actually do end up with drivers having to give evidence in court - the insurance companies usually reach an agreement between themselves before it comes to that. 

Legally the third party has up to six years to bring a claim, however I believe standard practice would be for your insurer to close the file and mark it as no claim if there is no sign of one after six months (with the provisional that it can be reopened if a claim does appear after that).

400ixl

Did you tell your insurer you were reporting an incident or making a non fault claim?

If the other party gives a different version of events that indicate that you were at fault or partially at fault then the insurers will make a judgement as to whether they believe they can defend a non-fault position. If they don't believe they could then they would likely go with a partial fault (probably 50/50).

You would never get a face to face arbitration, the insurers work it out and if they can't it would go to court, but that is not that usual.

Taraka

I first called insurer to make a non fault claim then after speaking to the garage, i asked them to change to notification only and they did but next day they reopened the claim. I called them and asked why did they reopen and there answer was to find who is at fault and until then it would be 50/50.

I claimed that if i don't want to claim and if the other party is not claiming what is the purpose of all this hassle but they said its how the claims are dealt.

Taraka

Hi Experts,

Can you please clarify some info with regards to car insurance claim in the situation where i will decide to claim or not based on the outcome of investigation as the damage is minor.

if third part accepts liability - All good

if third party disputes and final decision goes as 50/50 claim - will my insurer pay the third party and third party pays for my claim ? Customer service said the above and i was like thinking it should be wrong as my insurer should pay for my claim and third party insurer pays for the third party car. Is that right ?

if third party disputes and final decision goes as 50-50 claim and assuming insurers pay for their own car claims and at that point i don't want to claim the minor damage  - will it be still a claim on my record or can it be changed to notification only as i have not taken any money from the insurer ?

if third party disputes and final decision goes as 50-50 claim and assuming insurers pay for opposite car claims and third party doesn’t claim as its minor damage and i don’t claim for minor damage - will there be no claim at all and claim changed to notification only as there is no money exchanging ?

if third party disputes and final decision goes as 50-50 claim and assuming insurers pay for opposite car claims and third party claims for minor damage, i might as well claim as there is no point.

Thanks

cw8825

hi

Taraka said:

Hi Experts,

Can you please clarify some info with regards to car insurance claim in the situation where i will decide to claim or not based on the outcome of investigation as the damage is minor.

if third part accepts liability - All good

This is correct, but you will still need to declare the incident going forwards

Taraka said:

Hi Experts,

Can you please clarify some info with regards to car insurance claim in the situation where i will decide to claim or not based on the outcome of investigation as the damage is minor.

if third part accepts liability - All good

if third party disputes and final decision goes as 50/50 claim - will my insurer pay the third party and third party pays for my claim ? Customer service said the above and i was like thinking it should be wrong as my insurer should pay for my claim and third party insurer pays for the third party car. Is that right ?

if third party disputes and final decision goes as 50-50 claim and assuming insurers pay for their own car claims and at that point i don't want to claim the minor damage  - will it be still a claim on my record or can it be changed to notification only as i have not taken any money from the insurer ?

if third party disputes and final decision goes as 50-50 claim and assuming insurers pay for opposite car claims and third party doesn’t claim as its minor damage and i don’t claim for minor damage - will there be no claim at all and claim changed to notification only as there is no money exchanging ?

if third party disputes and final decision goes as 50-50 claim and assuming insurers pay for opposite car claims and third party claims for minor damage, i might as well claim as there is no point.

Thanks

No if the final decisions goes to 50/50, - all total claim cost are shared between both insurers
if your claim is £0 but the third party cost is £1000 - both insurers will pay £500 each
50/50 is still a fault claim so needs to be declared as such going forward

If both cars don't claim, both will be closed as notification only

if your damage is below the excess, you would need to get the damage repaired yourself, then approach the third party insurer to reclaim half of your costs

Also as it is happened on a roundabout, there is a strong chance of it ending 50/50 as its likely she will have a different version of the accident than you, and without any witnesses or dash camera. It becomes you said vs she said