Penalised for not claiming.

hudster

My wifes car was parked outside her mums house when is was hit by a drunk driver.

The police told us to inform our insurance company, which we did, but the driver turned up and said he would pay for any damage. So we didn't make a claim, and informed our insurance company.

Now our policy is up for renewal, she got the renewal notice with her no claims bonus statement showing she made a claim.
But we didn't, her insurance company, Diamond, say that we had and "Incident" and that even though we didn't make a claim with them, or receive any money from them, this "incident" has increased her premiums.

Now whenever she applies for car insurance she has to inform them that she made a claim, and this puts up every other policy we apply for.

Is there anything she can do about this or does she have to be penalised for someone else hitting her car?

homer_j_3

I had a similar situation - not being hit by a drunk driver but making them aware of a potential claim.

I had to call the insurance company and get them to rectify their systems and this took about 2 mins for them to check no claim had taken place.

I guess it depends how long ago the potential claim was though as about 6 months had passed between me advising a potential claim could be coming in and the renewal date.

dunstonh

A lot of people dont tell the insurer and get away with it. Technically you are meant to tell them and have done the right thing.

FlameCloud

She hasnt been penalised.

She is a higher risk now that she has had one potential claim hence the higher premium.

homer_j_3

The way car insurers work as I understand it is..

If you have 5 years no claims and you have not protected these and you call your insurer to inform them that you have a potential claim to make or have one potentially you coming then the insurer will probably reduce your no claims down by 2 years until the claim has been sorted.

Sometimes what happens and happened to me is that if you do not call them to say that the claim is not proceeding, they never put the records back to the full 5 years.

So when you come to renew, the NCD will show 3 yrs and not 5, hence the reason the increase in premiums.

An insurance company cannot penalise you because you 'nearly' had a claim.

Hey_Dude

What is more likely is that the claim with your Insurer is still 'open' - i.e. they are not aware of a resolution.

It is porbably the case that your insurer has flagged this as a 'fault' claim until they hear otherwise.

Give them a call and put them straight.

HTH

Dude

shelly

I know ins co's say you should inform them of any accident whether you are claiming or not but this thread is exactly why I wouldn't tell them anything if a claim wasn't being made.

FlameCloud

Hey_Dude wrote: »

What is more likely is that the claim with your Insurer is still 'open' - i.e. they are not aware of a resolution.

It is porbably the case that your insurer has flagged this as a 'fault' claim until they hear otherwise.

Give them a call and put them straight.

HTH

Dude

Its nothing to do with fault or not.

At the moment, they have her on record as advising that damage has occured to her vehicle. Stats show that people who have made one claim (at fault or not) are more likely to have another claim. Given that premiums are calculated by the risk the insured brings to the common pool, her equitable contribution increases as she is more likely to claim in the future.

advantix

shelly wrote: »

I know ins co's say you should inform them of any accident whether you are claiming or not but this thread is exactly why I wouldn't tell them anything if a claim wasn't being made.

And that is exactly why, if they found out you had not informed them you had been involved in an "incident", they could refuse to pay out on any claim you made in future as you had not disclosed "material facts"

skylight

I had exactly the same with Diamond. A quick call to tell them to check there systems as I had not made a claim at all sorted this quickly.

Hey_Dude

FlameCloud wrote: »

Its nothing to do with fault or not.

At the moment, they have her on record as advising that damage has occured to her vehicle. Stats show that people who have made one claim (at fault or not) are more likely to have another claim. Given that premiums are calculated by the risk the insured brings to the common pool, her equitable contribution increases as she is more likely to claim in the future.

What you say is true - the advice you gave previous is also true.

What I am saying is that Insurers are staffed by young adults - they make mistakes - the claim may well be sitting their as an unresolved claim with a fault flag.

Dude