Non-Fault claim?

JTM2020

The other morning, driving to work, someone drove into the back of my car in queuing traffic, their car is badly damaged in the front, probably a write-off, the one behind them had some damage but driveable (they went into the car behind me). But mine doesn't have much damage - but after I took it to local garage to check it, they said it's safe to drive but an insurer would write it off, the car is 15 years old.

I notified my insurer that day "for information only", and they said they can proceed to a claim, but it would be on the other divers' (behind) insurance, so my no-claim and excess wouldn't be affected, and wouldn't cost me a penny. I did ask if it would affect my premium as renewal is next month, and they said they couldn't guarantee it would or wouldn't, but it would be non-fault claim on their insurance.

My main concern is that the car is safe to drive, which it is. I'd rather not have any damage on it, but considering the age of the car, I don't know how many more years it'll last anyway. I'm tempted to leave it and tell my insurer to leave it as "information only", or maybe get a quote to repair it and approach the driver without any insurance involvement.

What is the best option?

MyRealNameToo

Purely up to you… you could ask for a cash in lieu settlement or for it to be written off and you retain the salvage. Give you some cash, you keep the car and its free choice if you repair it or live with the damage.

Certainly one of the questions that may be raised is if the car went into you and then the second car hit them and pushed them into you again meaning the two rear cars share the cost or if the rear most car pushed the middle car into you etc. These sorts of debates can add notable timescales to settlements.

QrizB

... you could ask for a cash in lieu settlement or for it to be written off and you retain the salvage.

Agreed; if it isn't significantly damaged, I'd take the cash, keep the car and run it until I wanted to change it for other reasons (eg. other repairs needed that made it Beyond Economic Repair).