Non Fault Claim (or is it?)

mkukster · 13 July 2017 at 2:46PM

Hi, I have just encountered a strange situation. My wife was involved in a car accident. Liability was not at question and everything was settled and paid out. However, over 15 months later, I took out a policy and declared the accident as a non-fault accident (as the website asks) but one week later got a letter from my insurance company asking for for another £200 stating that my wife had indeed had an accident and it was her fault. Confused, we contacted her insurance company at the time who indeed confirmed (by email and letter) that the accident was not her fault but that it was being left on the database as her fault because they had not yet claimed the money back from the other insurance company. I am struggling to see how any of this can be right but I am struggling to find anyone in a similar situation so I can find what the correct course of action should be.

paddyandstumpy · 13 July 2017 at 3:16PM

Fault and blame are two different things.

Your wife wasn't to blame for the accident, but unless a full recovery of costs is made by the insurer it's classed as a fault claim.

In a similar vein a vandalism claim or storm claim wouldn't be your fault, but they are normally classed as fault claims as there is no one to recover costs from.

Quentin · 13 July 2017 at 3:43PM

Your OP says everything was settled and paid out.

Did you lose any NCD over this? And has your excess been reimbursed?

mkukster · 13 July 2017 at 4:46PM

Thanks for the reply. We have paperwork that states;

"I can confirm that this is a non fault claim on the part of yourself. However, until we have recovered our outlay from the third party insurers this claim will show as a fault claim although we are not holding you at fault for the incident."

It seems the only person at "fault" is the person at the insurance company who has left it 15 months to claim the money back. I guess if you take the above statement and you are on an insurance company/price comparison website filling in the details "Was this claim made against your insurance policy" or "Third Party hit you/recovery made" then you somehow have to interpret that they actually mean "has your insurance company recovered their costs".

I suppose the one thing is hopefully I can help someone not make the same mistake. Luckily I was told about it fairly quickly. Thankfully I wasnt involved in an accident before I found out.

mkukster · 13 July 2017 at 5:00PM

I ended up cancelling my policy. I was doing what I always do and adding my wife as a named driver. I have ended up taking out a new policy. It will be cheaper to buy her a push bike :-) than pay the extra.

The irony is that she has taken another insurance policy and specifically asked them about this point (since we found out) and the other insurance company said that they looked into it and have noted that the accident was non-fault.

I think it shows how open to interpretation the whole thing is. I have been in touch with the financial ombudsman and they have asked us to send a letter and they will take it up if we dont get a reply within the statuatory 8 week period

Quentin · 13 July 2017 at 5:53PM

Get your wife to ask her insurer to confirm back to her in writing that they understand that her claim is outstanding.

Just in case this comes back to bite

(Did it result in any loss of Ncd? Did you get your excess reimbursed?)

mkukster · 13 July 2017 at 7:25PM

Yep we have already asked for it. We did not lose ncd and all money was paid including the excess on the policy

Quentin · 13 July 2017 at 7:35PM

Assuming you got your excess back of the third party insurer (thereby accepting liability) then it looks like either your insurer hasn't bothered to chase for the money they had to spend on your claim (as mentioned in your OP), OR the third party is disputing the amount being claimed.

Ask your insurer when they anticipate closing the claim and take it from their reply

mkukster · 13 July 2017 at 8:26PM

I have tried explaining to them that we seem to being penalised for someone else not doing their job. I have probably spent over 4 hours on the phone over the last 2 days. They dont know if it is going to be another 15 months or whether they will settle at all.

At the time the car was written off. The other party drove into the back of my wife as she sat stationary at red traffic lights. The other driver was texting her husband on the mobile. To be fair to the other party they admitted liability very early on. You hear horror stories of people changing their mind but this now seems to be a simple dispute between insurance companies.

Hopefully a letter and the threat of the financial ombudsman after that might spur them on a bit. We actually recieved the money for the car over 13 months ago.

Believe when I say it took my insurance company them less than a week to try and get just short of double my premium probably thinking I had tried to lie about who was at fault for the accident.

The 3 questions I had to answer when getting a quote were ;
What type of damage was suffered - Written-off
Was this claim made against your policy - No
Was the No Claims discount affected - No

I can honestly say that even knowing what I know now I would still answer the same way.

Quentin · 13 July 2017 at 8:31PM

mkukster wrote: »

The 3 questions I had to answer when getting a quote were ;
What type of damage was suffered - Written-off
Was this claim made against your policy - No
Was the No Claims discount affected - No

I can honestly say that even knowing what I know now I would still answer the same way.

Well......that looks a wrong answer. Your posts do say you claimed off your own insurer??

If you actually claimed off the third party as you now say, then your own insurer isn't involved in this.

mkukster · 13 July 2017 at 8:48PM

Not exactly sure when you say we claimed off our own insurer ? This could be where I am getting confused.

Simply an accident took place, insurance details were exchanged and after that it was left to the insurance companies involved. We were told they had accepted liability. The car was taken away we were paid for the market value of the car and the excess ? I assume these costs were covered by the other party.

Non Fault Claim (or is it?)

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