Where Do I Stand With My Insurance No Claims?

[Dan_Harris]

Hi Guys and gals,

Now as i'm sure most of you are aware i've not had the best of luck with my Lex in the very short time i've owned it and it seems to be a target for vandalism and people crashing into it.

Nothings changed i'm afraid and last Tuesday another incident has happend, here's the scenario:

My car was in the car park at work, a member of staff accidentally reversed into my car snapping off and damaging the headlight washer jet and also putting a scuff on the front bumper on the n/side and then failing to report this. Upon discovery of this that evening as I was leaving work I contacted our Security team to check CCTV, sure enough this visibly shows the person hit my car, I have then gone through my work (which is a University) HR team who contacted the person responsible informing them that CCTV shows the person reverse into my car, get out inspect my car then drive off.

To save time I took it upon myself to obtain a quote for the damage to my car which comes out at a healthy £566.80inc vat, parts and labour, now after contacting the party responsible, she has admitted hitting my car and failing to report it to anyone and has decided to go through her insurance company and has given me her policy details.

What i'm curious to now is will I be penalised by my insurance company (Bell Insurance, part of Admiral) e.g. lose my no claims and/or have a increased premium because of this person hittinh my car? In previous occasions I have gone through a claims company who have dealt with this issue seperate to my insurance company which was resolved quickly should I go through my insurance or through the claims again?

Advice please

Best

Dan

[Steviewevie]

Sorry to hear that you've had yet more bad luck with your car Dan :(

But if the other person admits liability and is insured, then there's no reason your insurance company should penalise you in anyway, it shouldn't count as a claim for your NCB because you're not claiming off your insurance, just hers, and you shouldn't have to pay any excess.

[aaronabbott]

i shouldnt affect you but im sure you have to declare it when you renew your insurance as thats what happened when someone crashed into my girlfriends car

[Dan_Harris]

Yeah I know steve, beginning to think it's not meant to be :(

I will phone up her insurance company and then see where we go from there, didn't realise the headlamp washer jets cost so much lol £167 without fitting lol

[Davros]

Sorry to hear about your car again Dan. It is a real heartache when you have problems with a car like that.

But the first thing you need to do is, GET A COPY OF THAT VIDEO TAPE NOW !!!!!

The worst thing to happen now is the woman failing to pay up or delaying the repairs, even if she said she would fix things.

Security companies or departments at your work will only keep security footage for a certain time, (I forget how long) and then they usually erase them after this time. If they have been ok with showing you that tape so far, then they should be happy to give you a copy of it on CD.

If the woman was sneaky enough to hit you and drive off, she might decide to delay payment or refuse the repairs. If you have the tape, then you can take the video to the police and then they will follow up with a hit and run charges.

I really hope you get this sorted, and keep us updated on what happens !

[kam05]

Sorry to hear about this.

Your car will be repaired whether it comes off the woman's insurance (it should- not your fault from what you have said) or yours. But I'm sure she should be done for failing to stop at the scene of a accident and failing to report an accident- its things like this that increase insurance costs for honest motorists.

And yes, make sure you get a copy of the CCTV footage.

[edeath]

The claim will be on your record for 3years as a non fault claim - assuming you recover the full cost of repairing your car from her. You will have to declare it when renewing insurance but should not add anything to your claim (but we know what insurance companies are like.)

[Dan_Harris]

I'm quite lucky really Davros in that I work for the IT department at the University so we do the backups of the tapes but your right a copy is being burned to CD as we speak and I also have copy's of the stills of the incident in jpeg formatt :)

As it's on private ground the hit and run charges are not enforced (my dads a police officer so i've already checked this one :P )

Like I say she's already given me her insurance details and policy number so don't think she's going to mess me around especially as i'm in a front facing department such as IT so I give her support, it would be one of those karma "what comes around goes around" if she were to mess me around :)

But I shall keep you all posted, the damage doesn't look too bad but it's the hassle that comes with it, which is now the 4th time :( and the most frustrating part is everytime something has happend to the car it's been when it's standing still minding it's own business and on 3 of the 4 occasions the person at fault has failed to give details.

[norlec]

I think you will find the carpark is classed as private property so the police will not be interested, it will be classed as a civil claim if you get problems with her.

People that do as she has done really annoy me it makes you feel like giving there car a bit of damage as well, I know two wrongs don't make a right but just a bl---- selfish driver.

Norman

[jamesholden]

I'd wait a little while, last year a woman ran into the back of my Camry, I went through the usual process of telling my insurance etc, but within about 20 minutes her insurance company (Norwich Union) phoned and dealt with it all directly so I didn't need to involve my insurance company, made the whole thing much simpler and let me choose my own repairer and arranged a loan car, whole thing took about two weeks from them contacting me to the car being fixed.

[Mr Mole]

Sorry to hear this Dan, but since she was not forth coming with the truth.

You should see if there are anyother bits on your car that need touched up / sprayed.

Get that added onto the quote, and make her pay !!!!!

And her insurance company should also have to pay for a hire car for you aswell

[norlec]

I'm quite lucky really Davros in that I work for the IT department at the University so we do the backups of the tapes but your right a copy is being burned to CD as we speak and I also have copy's of the stills of the incident in jpeg formatt :)

As it's on private ground the hit and run charges are not enforced (my dads a police officer so i've already checked this one :P )

Like I say she's already given me her insurance details and policy number so don't think she's going to mess me around especially as i'm in a front facing department such as IT so I give her support, it would be one of those karma "what comes around goes around" if she were to mess me around :)

But I shall keep you all posted, the damage doesn't look too bad but it's the hassle that comes with it, which is now the 4th time :( and the most frustrating part is everytime something has happend to the car it's been when it's standing still minding it's own business and on 3 of the 4 occasions the person at fault has failed to give details.

Sorry Dan regards the repeat of the private property thing I must have been doing my thread as you were in the process of posting yours.

[Dan_Harris]

Exactly Norman, as if my Lex hasn't had a tough life as it is this was the last thing I needed :( unfortunately the only other respray bits that need doing on the car is panel work on the o/side which I doubt I can claim from a car park prang :P tempting though.

Will give her insurance company a call and say I want this sorted, being as i've already got quotes/cctv/stills of the accident and also pics of her car and the convenient black marks on her rear bumper (her's is a 94 white Nissan Primera so hardly unnoticeable) :D I was a man on a mission Wednesday :)

[kam05]

You should see if there are anyother bits on your car that need touched up / sprayed.

Get that added onto the quote, and make her pay !!!!!

The man has a point

[colbecoz]

Agree that a private car park is not insured under "any insurance policy". You would have to pursue under a civil claim. That goes for supermarket car parks etcc too. If the cctv shows the guilty party, maybe your HR department can carpet the culprit and persuade them to pay for the damage.????

Col...

[deckie77]

You should see if there are anyother bits on your car that need touched up / sprayed.

Get that added onto the quote, and make her pay !!!!!

The man has a point

Hey there,

When i was serving my time as panel beater / spraypainter, we would have customers asking this all the time, we would have to refuse as inspector would obvoiusly come out from insurance company to inspect damage and tell US how much we would get for fixing the damage, but if a garage has to use filler/stopper/primer/paint/laquer this would be paid for by the insurance claim, and we would hand over a seperate bill for a couple of hours labour to the customer for tidying any other area's on the car. Much better than having to pay for these things on your own bill!!!

Just depends on how accomodating your painter is, worth asking anyway mate.

[Parthiban]

Can't believe you've been hit again! As far as insurance goes though, if she's admitted fault and doesn't change her mind, then it won't affect your premium or your no claims :)

[Mr Mole]

You should see if there are anyother bits on your car that need touched up / sprayed.

Get that added onto the quote, and make her pay !!!!!

The man has a point

Hey there,

When i was serving my time as panel beater / spraypainter, we would have customers asking this all the time, we would have to refuse as inspector would obvoiusly come out from insurance company to inspect damage and tell US how much we would get for fixing the damage, but if a garage has to use filler/stopper/primer/paint/laquer this would be paid for by the insurance claim, and we would hand over a seperate bill for a couple of hours labour to the customer for tidying any other area's on the car. Much better than having to pay for these things on your own bill!!!

Just depends on how accomodating your painter is, worth asking anyway mate.

If you get a few quotes from main dealers like Lexus, then Toyota and then go to a bodyshop they will be much cheeper and then they can add on one or two hours of labour to your bill and get some extra things done. I'm not saying this is the right thing to do, but if she was going to pay for it and not go through her insurance it would serve her right !!!

[kev dood]

When a dustbin lorry hit mine I dealt direct with their insurance company then when it was all sorted, I just informed my insurance of a non fault claim, all costs recovered from 3rd party insurance.

They initially said I should have contacted them etc etc and they would have done it, but thought the less work they have to do the less they will bump up my insurance next year!

Seemed to work too. As they have already said, will go down as a non fault fully recovered 3rd party claim.

[Dan_Harris]

Awesome thanks guys,

I'll get on the phone today then and try and get this under way :( still can't believe it's happend though i'm beginning to think the car is hexed

[nigel883]

Hi,

I had an accident last year when my sister-in-law drove into the back of my GS. I was insured with swiftcover and even though it was not my fault and the other party admitted liability, my provider was expecting me to pay the excess and I would lose 2 years no claims bonus.

Before I went through my insurance, my sister-in-laws insurance provider contacted me and they recommended a third party firm called HELPHIRE, and this turned out to be the best thing I could have done as they arranged to take my car in to an approved local repairer and cover the cost of all the repairs to my car along with delivering a like-for-like replacement car the same day - I got a brand new IS250 with multimedia and sat nav/reversing camera, the works. My car took two months to repair as some of the parts came from Japan so was well chuffed with having the IS for that time - if I would have gone through my insurance I would have ended up with some crappy little courtesy car from the repairer.

HELPHIRE highly recommended - the only thing to make sure is to take out the indemnity policy with them which cost me £10 and this covers you in the event that they cannot recover the costs from the other insurer.

[Rabster]

Sorry to hear about this again dan

at least you have found the person who did it

However i have had 2 incidents in my 2 cars in the past 2 years all of which were not my fault

Attempted car jacking (damaged door)

Van side swiped me on motor way (wing mirror and trim damage) he wondered across lanes

i got quotes to fix both times and notified insurance they there was an incident but never claimed these were put down as not fault and of no value and i was told they wouldnt affect my insurance when i came to renew

i changed insurance company and forgot to mention these due to me thinking if they were of no value they were not of importnace i got my quote for new insurance was happy paid it, when they got my no claims bonus and saw the other 2 items on there for £0.00 value they phoned me up said my premium was goin up by £200.

this was because my risk factor changed dispite it not being a claim or loosing any no claims bonus etc

just something to bare in mind my insurance is with adrian flux.

Rabs

[Dan_Harris]

Cheers Rabster,

Think what i'll do is speak to the 3rd party's insurance company and say this is whats happend, i'm presuming that as she's just given me her details she hasn't notified her insurance company herself which isn't going to look very good to start with, tell them everything then once i've done this I will inform my insurance company of whats happend and that I have spoken with the 3rd party's insurance company and that they are sorting it out.

:)

[Dan_Harris]

Ok guys just spoken with mine and the 3rd party's insurance companies, the 3rd party cancelled their policy in March, i've informed my company of this and so it's now between the two companies to resolve.

My company (Bell) have passed this onto their legal team who will liase with the 3rd parties insurance company and will also arrange all repairs and a like for like car replacement car for me.

Starting to get a bit miffed now :(

[Rich OB]

If its been cancelled wouldn't that mean they're un-insured henace noone to claim from?

Unless she changed companies or something.

If there is no insurance to claim from it'll come out your pocket so to speak.