Dog strike to car - insurance or private repairs?

amtrakuk · 13 April 2019 at 10:08PM

Last night I was unfortunate enough to have a dog chasing a fox from a dark playing field across a main road, even with an emergency stop letting the fox run off the dog slammed into the front offside bumper causing a dent, paint scratching, fog light to pop out and the windscreen washer bottle to pop. Apart form that the car us still drivable.

I dialed 999 and got a CRN from the scene and the dog was taken by an emergency vet as the owner was nowhere to be seen.

Phoning the vet this morning to see if they found any owner details I was told due to data protection they wont speak to me - even though I was involved. I phoned the police who advised me the insurance company should pursue.

The insurance company have said it was my fault and are not willing to peruse. Is this a normal resolution?

I would not normally be so concerned but with a 600 excess, losing a 1 years NCB and a major hike of over 300 to over 700 for next years insurance.

Secondly I'm thinking of phoning up the insurance tomorrow to cancel the claim and get it repaired myself, as the excess and mark on my insurance file will be costly.

Does this sound a reasonable plan?

Quentin · 13 April 2019 at 10:15PM

Cancelling the claim won't remove the "mark"

You cannot erase the incident from your history and will now have to be disclosed to other insurers you approach for quotes over the next 3/5 years depending on how long a history is requested

(Your insurer is out of step with others if you only lose one year's NCD - if you are sure then it looks unusually good - unless you have it protected?? Normally you get no NCD for the current year and lose 2 years from whatever you had at the start of the year)

Worth getting an idea of what the difference to future premiums will be by claiming/not claiming to help your decision

Do dummy quotes online with a "fault claim" in your history and loss of NCD compared with a "loss with no claim" and NCD not affected and do the sums

amtrakuk · 13 April 2019 at 11:09PM

That's not good,so my premium will still go up? When using things like gocompaire I am declaring I have 1 claim but i'm not sure what to classify it as, at fault, not at fault?

I only have 1 years NCB to lose as I have always had company cars until last year, hence the 1 years NCB

Quentin · 13 April 2019 at 11:21PM

When disclosing it (in the scenario of not claiming over it) on gocompare its an "incident - no claim"

uk1 · 14 April 2019 at 12:51AM

amtrakuk wrote: »

The insurance company have said it was my fault and are not willing to peruse. Is this a normal resolution?

Sorry to hear of your accident. I would contact your insurer and tell them that you disagree with their decision, and ask them to explain in detail why you are responsible for the accident and why they believe that this was your fault and what they assert that you could have done to avoid the accident. Ask them what precise speed they feel that you should have been driving that would have avoided the accident. Say that you require the answer in precise detail and in writing as you intend to take this to the Ombudsman if they fail to agree that there was nothing any careful driver could have realistically done to avoid this accident. You may find that with these questions they may reconsider.

An owner is responsible for damage or injuries caused by their out of control dog. An owner has liability for their pets and if an owner fails to stop their pet from venturing onto a road and it causes a car accident, they would be liable for the accident. They are also likely to be covered under the public liability section of their household insurance.

The vet and Police will provide your insurers with the names of the owners if requested as there is a "public intererest" let out for them to do so. Data Protection is often used as a convenient excuse and mostly correctly but to say it is absolute is untrue.

Good luck.

paddyandstumpy · 14 April 2019 at 7:33AM

uk1 wrote: »

Sorry to hear of your accident. I would contact your insurer and tell them that you disagree with their decision, and ask them to explain in detail why you are responsible for the accident and why they believe that this was your fault and what they assert that you could have done to avoid the accident. Ask them what precise speed they feel that you should have been driving that would have avoided the accident. Say that you require the answer in precise detail and in writing as you intend to take this to the Ombudsman if they fail to agree that there was nothing any careful driver could have realistically done to avoid this accident. You may find that with these questions they may reconsider.

An owner is responsible for damage or injuries caused by their out of control dog. An owner has liability for their pets and if an owner fails to stop their pet from venturing onto a road and it causes a car accident, they would be liable for the accident. They are also likely to be covered under the public liability section of their household insurance.

The vet and Police will provide your insurers with the names of the owners if requested as there is a "public intererest" let out for them to do so. Data Protection is often used as a convenient excuse and mostly correctly but to say it is absolute is untrue.

Good luck.

A 'fault' insurance claim doesn't necessarily infer 'blame'. A 'Fault' claim means the insurer paid out and didn't or couldn't recover the claim cost from a TP.

You're correct in saying there is most likely PL cover for the dog, if it can be proved the owner is negligent.

I'm not sure there is a "public interest" for the police or the vet to provide the names of the owner though?!

lisyloo · 14 April 2019 at 8:51AM

I am surprised most people believe the dog owner automatically has insurance. Not everyone is a home owner or has insurance.

Personally I’d push the insurer as per the excellent post #5 but you might find Your insurers will reluctant to pursue a non-motorist (they don’t know whether he/she has insurance or the ability to pay) and ill take advice on this if anyone knows but I don’t think your insurer can easily find out whether they can pay.
This is therefore different to a motoring claim where everyone is effectively insured one way or another.

If they are reluctant to pursue then if you can get the repairs done cheaply yourself, then it may be best to do that.
You will save your excess and NCD but you will still be loaded for the incident.
You can see the effect by doing quotes with and without the incident.

missile · 14 April 2019 at 9:08AM

Getting the repairs done yourself will not prevent your premium increasing for the next 5(?) years.

My wife and I have been unfortunate to have our cars damaged whilst parked in the last 5 years. We were able to identify the culprits on each occasion and claimed damage from their insurers. We both have 9+ years NCD, nevertheless our premiums are considerably more than they would have been.

I would contact a solicitor, possibly you have free legal advice included with your policy?

marlot · 14 April 2019 at 9:19AM

lisyloo wrote: »

I am surprised most people believe the dog owner automatically has insurance....

Even if there is insurance, it may not pay out unless the dog owner can be shown to have been negligent.

amtrakuk · 14 April 2019 at 9:24AM

wow thank for the replies...

I've phoned the insurance people this morning and spoke to someone on the out of hours claim line. Explained a dog ran into the side of my car and asked as the excess alone is probably more than the repair cost if I were to cancel the claim would me premium and no claims discount be affected? She advised to phone back after 10 when the main claims department was open but said as no 3rd party was involved and the claim was against yourself, you could cancel it and your premium and NCD wont be affected.

I will wait and see at 10

lisyloo · 14 April 2019 at 9:27AM

marlot wrote: »

Even if there is insurance, it may not pay out unless the dog owner can be shown to have been negligent.

Are you sure that’s correct?
Do you have a link to show negligence must apply?

https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public

Dog strike to car - insurance or private repairs?

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