Do You Have To Tell Your Insurer Even If You Don't Make A Claim Ab

[japthree]

"You must also report the accident to your insurance company, even if you’re not planning to make a claim."

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-insurance/if-youre-in-an-accident

Few years ago I hit the back of a car and we decided for me to pay direct instead of going via our insurance companies. I wasn't sure if I was to tell my insurer so phoned my driving instructor who said that you don't legally have to tell your insurer so I didn't. What's happened has happened - I don't need to tell them now and I'm with a different insurer than that "bump"?

[Lexmanic]

If you don't tell them there's every chance they'll deny liability should you have another incident. Moral DO NOT give an insurer any excuse to deny your claim cos given the chance they WILL do just that

[Spartan 01]

Sorry, very old thread I know. But, for anyone else who's viewing this now, having been a personal lines insurance broker for 4 years, I can give some input. It's a double edged sword and it depends entirely on the type of accident.

If, for example, you are referring to an accident that you had with somebody else (so another car was involved) then you should always report it! There'll be plenty of people who don't and get away with it, but it is a ticking time bomb. Whenever a driver has an accident and the insurers are going to have to pay something (which every insurer does, it's just a matter of whether they get the costs back or not) they will likely do something called a CUE check. This stands for Claims and Underwriting Exchange. In other words, your accident history is recorded on a central database and it can be found. So, even if you didn't report an accident..it's likely (based on the fact that the other person may have reported it to their company, even just as a notification rather than a claim) that your insurers can still find out about it. As a previous post suggests, this is a very bad situation to be in. Your insurers are well within their rights to cancel or even void your entire policy (voiding being from inception). Quite frankly, unless it's a genuine error on your part, I had no sympathy for people who did this and then found themselves in this situation. My advice, don't do it. There will be implications of notifying your insurers. PM me for individual detail.

On the other hand, if you're referring to a single vehicle accident (you've hit a gate post, wall, scratched your car, hit an animal, etc... So, no other vehicle or person is involved at all) then this isn't necessarily one to report. You would easily be able to go and get this damage fixed yourself and your insurers would not need to know, it is also unlikely that they would ever find out. You would only go through your insurance if the damage is too bad for you to afford on your own. However, in this circumstance you would likely be liable to pay your excess and it will impact your insurance premium.

If you'd like any clarification on the above, or just a bit more detail then PM me.

Thanks.

Sent from my Iphone using Lexus OC

[Rory]

u have to inform them as insurers require the statistic to bump up the premiums of those who don't claim :)

[rayaans]

Depends.

If you hit a car and its a 20 year old banger and you pay with cash, they arent going to know anyway.

If you hit a car and the other drive claims on your insurance, they'll know anyway so there's no point telling them is there?