Wrongly accused of being in a car accident

MLevey

Hi all, I just wanted a little advice if possible.

My car insurance (Prima) contacted me in September to say my car was involved in a car accident in August but I confirmed I hadn't. The name given by the insurance company was someone not known to me, and had no possibility of driving my car. I sent my insurance company pictures of my car (taken that day) to show that there was no damage to my car. I also provided them with information of my location that day (I was in work and then went for an eyebrow appointment) and I asked them for further information for example the location of the incident. They advised that the 3rd party insurance didn't provide that info, or any further details. They however mentioned they had cctv footage but they couldn't open the web link that they had been supplied. They forwarded it to me also, and I couldn't open it either which seemed suspicious. My insurance company went back to them requesting further information which so far, they have not been able to supply. I have chased my insurance company up about the situation, because my renewal is due in April, and I don't want this false claim to affect my renewal. They said that normally they give the 3rd party  6 months to provide all info, and then they close the case if they feel that it is a false claim. I chased my insurance company again in december and this was their reply...

Unfortunately, there is no further update since the correspondence we sent to you in December 2024. Due to the other

parties insurer chasing for costs and stating that they hold CCTV evidence we have to ensure that they are no longer

pursuing us before we are in a position to close this matter down.

We chased the insurer for the CCTV in December 2024. Therefore, we need to allow them 6 months from the date of

that last correspondence to either present the footage again or not.

I understand your frustraton, however, before we can close this file we need to ensure that they are not going to

continue pursuing us for costs.

Now I feel like its pushed back further because they are now saying they need to give them 6 months from the last point of contact. Is that correct? I wish I had not chased it up, but it is causing me a bit of stress thinking that I have this hanging over my head. 
Can anyone offer advice or help?
Thanks 

ButterCheese

I would phone them and ask "how do I get insurance whilst this is going on?"  They can't expect you to have no car, and no insurance for 6 months.  You are also not bound to stay with them for the next year of insurance either - unless they specifically say so.  Go on the comparison sites and see what is the cheapest policy.  Go with that unless, again, they say you can't.  But in my experience (when I DID make a claim) I still didn't have to stay with the old insurers who were handling the claim

UniDebtStudent

I would go with a different insurer when you come to renew. I suspect someone cloned your plates? Keep as much evidence as you can, get CCTV from work and brow bar. I wouldn't stress too much, you have all the proof, they just have to give the other side time to prove their claim so it's a waiting game unfortunately. 

born_again

UniDebtStudent said:

I would go with a different insurer when you come to renew. I suspect someone cloned your plates? Keep as much evidence as you can, get CCTV from work and brow bar. I wouldn't stress too much, you have all the proof, they just have to give the other side time to prove their claim so it's a waiting game unfortunately. 

Except that they will have to declare the current outstanding claim.
If they do not & ins co finds out & odds on they will. Then OP will end up with a big bill at the very least.

DullGreyGuy

MLevey said:

Hi all, I just wanted a little advice if possible.

My car insurance (Prima) contacted me in September to say my car was involved in a car accident in August but I confirmed I hadn't. The name given by the insurance company was someone not known to me, and had no possibility of driving my car. I sent my insurance company pictures of my car (taken that day) to show that there was no damage to my car. I also provided them with information of my location that day (I was in work and then went for an eyebrow appointment) and I asked them for further information for example the location of the incident. They advised that the 3rd party insurance didn't provide that info, or any further details. They however mentioned they had cctv footage but they couldn't open the web link that they had been supplied. They forwarded it to me also, and I couldn't open it either which seemed suspicious. My insurance company went back to them requesting further information which so far, they have not been able to supply. I have chased my insurance company up about the situation, because my renewal is due in April, and I don't want this false claim to affect my renewal. They said that normally they give the 3rd party  6 months to provide all info, and then they close the case if they feel that it is a false claim. I chased my insurance company again in december and this was their reply...

Unfortunately, there is no further update since the correspondence we sent to you in December 2024. Due to the other

parties insurer chasing for costs and stating that they hold CCTV evidence we have to ensure that they are no longer

pursuing us before we are in a position to close this matter down.

We chased the insurer for the CCTV in December 2024. Therefore, we need to allow them 6 months from the date of

that last correspondence to either present the footage again or not.

I understand your frustraton, however, before we can close this file we need to ensure that they are not going to

continue pursuing us for costs.

Now I feel like its pushed back further because they are now saying they need to give them 6 months from the last point of contact. Is that correct? I wish I had not chased it up, but it is causing me a bit of stress thinking that I have this hanging over my head. 
Can anyone offer advice or help?
Thanks 

Would you be willing to share the link?

The basic process for claims tends to be that the policyholder phones up, speaks to the First Notification of Loss team, they fill in the basic claims details into the system and normally select a basic summary of the claim which drives liability and which technical team is allocated. 

Depending on what details they have of the TP the FNOL advisors can either check with the DVLA and/or MID to fill in the gaps but inevitably those are dependent on them having correctly entered the vehicle registration. Either the system automatically or the first thing the technical team do is then send a letter of claim to the third party insurer and/or third party depending on what details they were given/were able to get from MID etc. 

Unfortunately people make mistakes, either in reading a plate, hearing what the caller says, reading the rain soaked note that was left on the window plus you get cloned plates etc. Wrong plate means wrong insurer is identified, wrong third party is claimed from. The letter tends to have minimal details on there. 

Certainly when I was in claims, when receiving such a letter we would register a claim and reach out to our insured, some would say yes it was them and give their excuses for not telling us sooner and the others would deny it. Our initial response back to the TPI would be saying our insured has no knowledge and therefore we need more details. 

Unfortunately, insurance claims departments are often busy, they may get our letter, look at the video for themselves (possibly for the first time) see that there is an error in the registration so correct it, run MID check again and send a new letter to the newly identified insurer. They tend to be very bad at then coming back to us to advise it was an error so we as the defendants are left hanging and not knowing what's going on. 


Insurers must hold reserves against claims to ensure the company has enough money to pay for its liabilities. This is split into two, one is case reserves which is the Claims department's estimate of what a single incident is going to cost them and the second is a figure calculated by the Actuaries to work out the reserves for all those incidents that have happened but we haven't been told about yet, the under stated claims and the future claims. You add to that risk margins and various other bits and you get the amount of capital the insurer has to hold. Generally case reserves are preferred over IBNR because there is more certainty so less margins to be added but you'll always have some IBNR no matter how prudent you are. 

This is ultimately why they need to keep the case open so they can hold a reserve against it. Different companies have different internal rules of when they'll close the case and release the reserve. Typically it's 3-6 months after the last inward communication. The sooner they close them then it's more likely they have a larger IBNR. 

In principle they could pick up the phone, speak to the TPI and get told they're now pursuing someone else but we dont have hotlines to each other so have to sit in the same 1hr queues as customers do and given most case handlers will have 300+ claims in their name they dont have time to do so. 

Ultimately keep on at your insurer to see if there is anyway they can get comfort to close the case earlier than when your renewal is generated which is likely circa 4 weeks before the renewal date/