Not at fault accident, didn't tell insurance, at fault driver now refusing to pay

doweha

Hi all,

I have tried to condense my problem into the title, but here's a bit more info:

I was in a small collision 6 weeks ago, and at the time we agreed to settle it outside of insurance. 

The reason for wanting to avoid my insurers is that 2 years ago my parked car was crashed into while I was asleep. Fortunately, the other car was on its side (everyone inside OK), so I got the details and had all repairs covered by their insurance, but even though I wasn't in the car, my insurance doubled. This is my reason for not wanting to involve insurers and see another huge hike in my premium.

The problem is, now 6 weeks later he's refusing to pay. Is it too late to tell my insurance company? Will I face any major problems with them for not reporting it at the time? The damage is about £500, so not catastrophic (but who has that to spare these days). I do have his full details, if I need them.

I also wondered if it would be worth contacting a credit hire company. I do not need a courtesy car as mine is still drivable, but is this a good means of bypassing my insurers and any penalties for not informing them of the accident?

Or, is none of this worth it, and instead I should just suck up the £500 and let him completely get away with it?

Thanks,
G

DullGreyGuy

doweha said:

Hi all,

I have tried to condense my problem into the title, but here's a bit more info:

I was in a small collision 6 weeks ago, and at the time we agreed to settle it outside of insurance. 

The reason for wanting to avoid my insurers is that 2 years ago my parked car was crashed into while I was asleep. Fortunately, the other car was on its side (everyone inside OK), so I got the details and had all repairs covered by their insurance, but even though I wasn't in the car, my insurance doubled. This is my reason for not wanting to involve insurers and see another huge hike in my premium.

The problem is, now 6 weeks later he's refusing to pay. Is it too late to tell my insurance company? Will I face any major problems with them for not reporting it at the time? The damage is about £500, so not catastrophic (but who has that to spare these days). I do have his full details, if I need them.

I also wondered if it would be worth contacting a credit hire company. I do not need a courtesy car as mine is still drivable, but is this a good means of bypassing my insurers and any penalties for not informing them of the accident?

Or, is none of this worth it, and instead I should just suck up the £500 and let him completely get away with it?

Thanks,
G

You're legally obliged to inform them irrespective of what you intend to do, it will have whatever impact it's going to have either way. Doubling for a non-fault claim would suggest your a poor risk for another reason, even a fault claim on my last policy only increased the premiums by circa 20%. 

You could contact an accident management company, they'll try and insist your car isn't drivable now but even if you maintain it is then they'll provide credit hire when it's in for its repairs. Ultimately credit hire and injuries are where they make their money so if you need neither of these they're unlikely to be interested in doing just credit repairs. 

If you do engage an AMC then they will claim their outlay from the third party insurer who'll most likely put a record on CUE which your current or next insurer may well find and then you have the difficult conversation as to why you've failed to declare it to them. 

Most policies require you to inform them as practicably possible of any potential claim however as long as the delay hasn't rejudiced their position or increased your losses then most won't cause any significant challenge for it being a month or two. As a former claims handler we would at times get notified over a year after the alleged incident occurred. 

Car_54

doweha said:

The reason for wanting to avoid my insurers is that 2 years ago my parked car was crashed into while I was asleep. Fortunately, the other car was on its side (everyone inside OK), so I got the details and had all repairs covered by their insurance, but even though I wasn't in the car, my insurance doubled. This is my reason for not wanting to involve insurers and see another huge hike in my premium.

So you want to avoid a financial loss by withholding information. That is the very definition of fraud, which is an imprisonable offence.

To answer your question, it's not too late to tell your insurer. And if you don't, and they find out later, it will prove very painful.

doweha

Thank you for your prompt replies, I’ll let the insurance company know.

Petriix

A similar thing happened to me about 5 years ago. I called their insurance company rather than my own and they were extremely helpful throughout, ultimately reaching a reasonable settlement figure which I was happy with.