Car insurance accident on supermarket car park

beattie

My unatended car rolled back onto a car and damaged it Will i still be insured for the damage 
 regards Beatrice

Jenni_D

Why wouldn't you be? It would be a strange insurance policy (even a 3rd party only one) which didn't cover the insured for unattended incidents. (With a 3rd party only policy you'd be covered for damage to the other party's vehicle/property but not your own car).

Did you forget to apply the handbrake? Or did it fail whilst you were away? Either way it shouldn't matter - your insurance should still cover the incident.

beattie

fully comrehensive  78 years old no accidents for 30 years and i didnt put my handbrake on  silly old me
               thanks

Aretnap

Not sure why you think you wouldn't be covered but to look at a few possibilities

(1) The fact that it was a supermarket car park rather than a road won't affect the claim: your insurance is required by law to cover you in any place which is used by the general public. And in practice nearly all insurance policies will cover you for accidents in places which aren't open to the public as well (eg your driveway), with a few specific exceptions for places like racetracks.

(2) The fact that it was a bit silly of you not to put the handbrake on won't affect the claim. Nearly all car accidents are the result of someone being a bit silly. The point of car insurance is to cover you for silliness (your own and other people's).

(3) The fact that you weren't in the car at the time won't affect the claim. Your insurance is required by law to cover all your liabilities which result from your use of the car - that would include liability for leaving the handbrake off then getting out of the car.

So relax and leave it to your insurer to deal with - it's what you've been paying them for these last 30 years.

400ixl

You didn't intentionally leave the handbrake off and they wouldn't be able to prove negligence so can't see any reason they would turn down a claim.

One of the reasons to park and leave it in a low gear though as handbrakes can also fail. Just means getting into the habit of having the clutch down when you start the car, which you should anyway to remove the load when starting.

All the best with your claim.

Baldytyke88

Jenni_D said:

Why wouldn't you be? It would be a strange insurance policy (even a 3rd party only one) which didn't cover the insured for unattended incidents. (With a 3rd party only policy you'd be covered for damage to the other party's vehicle/property but not your own car).

Did you forget to apply the handbrake? Or did it fail whilst you were away? Either way it shouldn't matter - your insurance should still cover the incident.

If it was on a slope, it should be in gear.

DullGreyGuy

All Motor insurance covers places where the general public have access even if it's private property. There is a class of insurance known as RTA Only which sits below TPO that doesn't cover private property without public access but its not sold to consumers, for them TPO is the lowest level of cover and it covers everywhere other than maybe one or two specifically named places (eg race tracks).

Insurance is explicitly there for the purposes of covering people that have done something a bit silly, it only excludes when you've been very silly (ie drink/drug driving) or deliberate acts and in both those cases the insurer does have to settle the third party claim first but then can come after you for reimbursement.