Reply With QuoteDoes she have fully comprehensive or just fire, theft, & third party?
a few years back, friend of mine bought a cheap car from her extended family, I think it cost £50, decent car though
recently, she rear ended someone. the person has a quote for about £300 for his car's damage, she's going to get a quote from her mechanic too (just to check his figures aren't inflated). he doesn't mind getting it fixed without letting insurance know
while her car was being looked at, a van drove by and crashed into it. there's a reasonable amount of damage to the side of the car- I've not seen it
she's asked me about it: what's the best thing to do, will her insurance scrap the vehicle etc, no claims bonus
there's a sentimental attachment to the car
any and all advice appreciated
Does she have fully comprehensive or just fire, theft, & third party?
Strictly speaking there is an obligation to notify the insurer, in any event, for the first incident and, probably, the second. This will offer protection in the event the driver of the car she rear-ended suddenly develops terrible whiplash, or incurs a large credit hire bill while waiting for the repair to be completed.
Does her policy include protected NCB?
If so, certainly notify the claim(s) and use the insurer service that she has been paying for to handle the third party claim.
For her car - she must only have TPF&T cover - her insurer will not be concerned. She could make a claim against the van driver. It will most probably be a total loss of minimum value. Better just to have the car repaired if required and ask AA/RAC to verify roadworthy etc.
There will surely be a million other offers of different advice!
thanks very much, I'll pass the details onto her
are obliged to tell them about the accidents? do you have to make a claim?
kinda like I'm sick but, still go into work
can you report an accident but not claim?
I am pretty sure that 'reporting an accident to your insurers' is also called 'making a claim', they are one and the same thing - depite whether you are insured for the loss or not!
I had a delivery van driver back into my car a long while ago, while I was insured 3rd party F&T. I wasnt even in my car as it was parked in the carpark at work, but I still had to notify my insurer legally. They paid nothing as all of the repair as the damage was fixed by the van companies insurance (all sorted out by me directly). But my insurance renewal still went up the following year as I had 'had an accident' in their view.
When I queried this I was told that statistically I was more likely to be involved in another (future) accident as I had already claimed - depite the fact that I wasnt even in the car!!!
If I hadn't have told them about it, they could void any future insurance/claim if they found out about the previous incident (eg if the van insurers contacted my insurers directly for example), so you are screwed either way.
Bloody insurance people!
The value of the car means that it will be a total loss, but if you want to keep it they often give you a write off value and then let you scrap the car yourself, so if you want to get it fixed up you can.
...When I queried this I was told that statistically I was more likely to be involved in another (future) accident as I had already claimed - depite the fact that I wasnt even in the car!!!...
Go compare can be quite revealing. Something similar happend to me. I had to make a claim against another driver who had gone into my car. On my next renewal I decided to look around and through go compare found a more competitive quote from one insurance company. When we went through the usual 10 questions they asked one was have you been involved in an accident (whether it is your fault or not). I didn't tick this on the go compare site but later revealed my past claim when I spoke to the sales rep. Turns out the insurance premium increased by £50.
When I asked why I was effectively being penalised for something that was of no fault of mine and out of my control, I was told that my propensity of making a future claim had increased in their (IMHO flawed) statistical models. I still laugh at this explanation now, clearly coming from the parrot rather than the down on his luck ex-soap star actor sailor, as surely the fact that I was unfortunate to be driving in front of a poor driver is no reflection on my own driving ability. But statistically, the parrot tells me there is a 'robust correlation'. Also I was told this was common industrial practice.
In despair I saved myself the further phone call expense and decided the Parrot/Sailor combo was not for me, however, there was something about my telephone exchange that was far from shipshape. That being, you have an accident that is not your fault, you incur the inconvenience and potential personal injury after the accident and then insurance companies who are supposed to protect you on the basis of likelihood of accident are increasing premiums on the basis of propensity to claim. Anne Robinson...there must be a weak link here!!!
Just as a word of warning, I recently had a customer come into our dealership with a fairly recent CLK that had been damaged while parked up. There was some damage to the rear axle, so a fairly costly repair.
I last heard that her insurer were refusing a payout due to non disclosure of a non fault accident.
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