My wife's car. I'm insured as a named driver on her policy.
I have a company lease car & no insurance in my own name.
I damaged my wife's car (no other car or 3rd party involved) , not badly but you know how costly this can be.
I'm arranging for the vehicle to be recovered to a local repairer and depending on his report I can decide wether to just pay - or make a claim .
I rarely ever drive her car and I'm only really on the policy for emergencies or taking her car in for service etc which she could do herself. Yesterday was a one-off!
So - the questions:
If I/we claim on her policy and then at renewal time she leaves me off the policy :
1. Would the insurer load the policy - but by less as the at fault driver was no longer on the policy and therefore the risk is lowered
2.or would they load by the same amount regardless of wether I stay on the policy
3. or If she switches insurer (and insures herself only) does she mention this claim as
she will still be accident free > 5years.......I'm thinking she must mention it as the claim is in her name (her policy) even though I'm the at fault driver.
Any thoughts or experience as it helps me decide what to do
thanks
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If she claims and gets car repaired she no longer has 5 yrs NCB whether you are on the policy or not. If you go to another insurer she has to own up to a claim as she has claimed on her policy to get your damage fixed.
If you do not claim, who is going to tell the insurer? Although officially, you have to tell them of al accidents/bumps etc whether you make a claim or not.
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>> So - the questions:
>>
>> If I/we claim on her policy and then at renewal time she leaves me off
>> the policy :
>>
>> 1. Would the insurer load the policy
Probably
- but by less as the at fault
>> driver was no longer on the policy and therefore the risk is lowered
Probably not.
>> 2.or would they load by the same amount regardless of wether I stay on the
>> policy
Probably
>> 3. or If she switches insurer (and insures herself only) does she mention this claim
>> as
>> she will still be accident free > 5years.......I'm thinking she must mention it as
>> the claim is in her name (her policy) even though I'm the at fault driver.
Its relevant information that she has to disclose (if she claims most certainly)
Officially you also have to report the accident to the insurance company even if you don't claim. Was there any third party damage?
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The insurance companies always tell you to disclose all.
I would suspect number one would be true. Your wife's NCB will be affected as there has been a claim on the policy. However, her driving history is still claim free. It would be fairly easy to check by simply adding/removing yourself from the new policy.
If she switches insurance she will have to tell them her policy has had a claim on it (its unfair I know)..
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If t'wer me i'd be having a chat with a small one man and his dog bodyshop, likely to be the cheapest having no receptionists carpets customer coffee or courtesy cars to pay for.
Then keep schtum.
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>> If t'wer me i'd be having a chat with a small one man and his
>> dog bodyshop, likely to be the cheapest having no receptionists carpets customer coffee or courtesy
>> cars to pay for.
>>
>> Then keep schtum.
>>
Yes that's my first thought, it's being towed to a small local bodyshop who have said they will try to source some s/h parts (2 wheels, 2 door mirrors) , then it's a case of new exterior trim & repaint - both wings, bonnet and a small part of the roof all deeply scratched.
The insurance questions are in case it's just too much to pay and we have to claim.
No one else was involved so I won't be telling the insurer unless a claim is made (obviously!). I did inform the police as the car came to rest in a privately owned farmers field and was left there overnight, I did not want the police to tow it away thinking it had been stolen/abandoned/etc. I didn't tell them it was damaged - and they didn't ask - merely that it was stuck in soft ground and needed a recovery truck (true). So there's a record somewhere but it unlikely that those dots will be joined up to the insurer for what is a no crime minor (to the police) incident.
Thanks to those who replied
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>>>damaged my wife's car... not badly
>>>2 wheels, 2 door mirrors new exterior trim & repaint - both wings, bonnet and a small part of the roof all deeply scratched
Blimey... real bad luck... wouldn't like to see one you did damage badly :-)
Wonder how old it is and what sort of value? The local chap I've always used would probably be £750+ to make good and spray that much paintwork.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 24 Jan 13 at 15:23
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I'd hate to see the hedge....
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The fact that you're happy to use S/H parts and have it done on the cheap suggests that the car isn't exactly worth a fortune (you fail to mention what it is).
I suspect if you were to go through the insurer, they'd insist on assessing it themselves, factor in a repair cost involving new parts and a "professional" (i.e. priced as it's an insurance company paying) respray, quite possibly go for new panels rather than fettling the old ones and then write the thing off anyway.
Another thing to think about.
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Don't forget that if you claim you will loose your wife's no claim bonus but also you will have to declare that you have claimed on renewal for the next 5 years.
My wife had a no fault accident 4 years ago and every time i admit to having a claim my premium goes up.So even though i didn't loose our no claims discount it means year on year i am paying about £50 more because of someone else's mistake!
So even if the repair job is say £750 you might find it cheaper to pay it yourself rather than have increased premiums for the next 5 years.
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Is there any such thing as a 'no claims discount' any more? I think it belongs to a previous era, in which risk assessment was far less sophisticated than it is today. Mine is 'protected', so if I make a claim my premium next year will not be affected, right? Come off it! Insurers price on risk, and no amount of 'protection' is going to keep my premium down if I put a car through a hedge backwards - or apparently in this case, forwards.
Keeping from my insurer that I'm the kind of driver who has put a car through a hedge - hmm, how honest would that be?
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You don't have to claim on your insurance. However, if you want to claim you have to get them involved at the beginning.
So if you do now decide to claim, then they are going to be slightly irritated that the car has been recovered and assessed without their involvement and to a garage that they may or may not have agreed to and then may or may not need moving to a garage that they do agree to.
So, firstly you run the risk that they will not pay for all of that. You may have to pay for the initial recovery yourself, you may then have to advise the repairer that you've given it to that he will not be repairing it and he may then charge you storage at a ridiculous rate for the period he has had the car which you may also have to pay.
Of course, none of that may happen and you may accidentally have had it recovered by a service they're happy with and to a garage that they're happy to use.
My point being that you need to factor that in when deciding how to proceed.
Next time tell your Insurer, get them to arrange recovery and subsequently refund the recovery costs if you decide not to further the claim. Unlikely that you'd get a premium loading for that at renewal.
If you do claim the policy will cost more at renewal. In addition you should tell your own insurer, and that will get more expensive as well.
If you decide not to claim then you are correct in that it will probably never show on on anybody's radar. UNLESS there is a subsequent accident for which you do claim, which may even be serious ad or expensive, and then the car will be inspected and that would be a bad time for a bad repair or incomplete repair or hidden damage to show up.
You are potentially opening up a bag of worms here, especially as it sounds like the vehicle took quite a bang. What about damage underneath?
If I was you I'd probably report it and claim unless I was damn sure the damage was trivial. And if you are going to claim, then get your skates on and stop doing stuff yourself.
If you don't then be aware of the risks. And whilst risks don't necessarily happen, sometimes they do.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 24 Jan 13 at 16:51
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"Next time tell your Insurer, get them to arrange recovery and subsequently refund the recovery costs if you decide not to further the claim. Unlikely that you'd get a premium loading for that at renewal."
Even if you don't proceed with any claim your insurance will still go up for the next 5 years due to the insurance company knowing that you have had an accident.So the above statement is a load of tosh.No premium loading...get real.
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You are wrong.
What would you advise? Lying?
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 24 Jan 13 at 20:44
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"You are wrong.
What would you advise? Lying?"
If your not claiming on your insurance then there's no need to tell them so, no not lying, your just not telling them.
It obviously depends on the damage to the car.For example if you scraped your car Fm2r and had it repaired by chips away would you tell your insurance company that you'd bashed it?
I don't think so.
On the other hand if a lot of panels are damaged which sounds like the OP's case then you would probably claim.
Last edited by: Videodoctor on Thu 24 Jan 13 at 20:55
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>> If your not claiming on your insurance then there's no need to tell them so,
>> no not lying, your just not telling them.
>>
When you renew you are required to declare any material facts. Not doing so is lying by omission.
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>> so, no not lying, your just not telling them.
I understand your thinking but it is wrong. And potentially disastrously so.
Firstly it is up to you what you do, I am merely talking of the situation it puts you in.
It is your responsibility to disclose all material facts.
It is not your Insurer's responsibility to ask.
If you are not sure whether or not a fact is material, then you should disclose it anyway and let them decide.
An easy method of deciding whether or not something is material is this; if it would in anyway change the rating, conditions, terms or acceptance of the risk, then it is material.
If you fail to disclose a material fact it can make life difficult.
Of course, if you don't disclose it and it never comes to light then it doesn't really matter.
But the most common time for an undisclosed material fact to come to light is at the time of a serious accident, likely to be very expensive and often involving serious personal injury.
Because this when your insurer will go over it with a fine tooth comb.
If he finds something then under circumstances he can;
Refuse to pay anything not regarded as compulsorily insured under the requirements of the RTA. i.e your losses including car and expenses.
They would still have to pay third party losses, including injury claims, but they would be able to recover all their payout from you personally - i.e. your house, car, wife's jewelry etc.
So think carefully.
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I can appreciate what your saying but i am generally saying that most people wouldn't notify their insurer if the damage was minor. ie. a damaged wing mirror or a supermarket scrape.
If the accident involved any 3rd party or is fairly major. ie you have rolled the car onto it roof then the insurance would obviously be involved but minor scrapes i would have repaired myself.
The OP's situation sounds fairly serious so i would claim if i was him.
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>> minor scrapes i would have repaired myself.
From my original note....
"If I was you I'd probably report it and claim unless I was damn sure the damage was trivial. "
Clearly if I ding it I'm not going to bother anyone. But dumping it in a field, I'd really want to be sure. Because if there turned out to be something incompletely repaired then in the event of a further accident it could go very badly indeed.
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Not wanting to hijack the thread, but it is renewal time for me and have often wondered the following if anyone can help.
The vehicle is in my name and my wife drives it most weekdays to and from school. I do the weekend driving and invariably do more miles per year than her. Do I put myself down as the main driver?
Hope you get yours sorted soon jacks
TIA
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I would tell them exactly that in writing and then forget about it.
The reality is that they won't care unless one of you is substantially different to the other (Drink Driving, Accidents, Unpopular profession etc. etc)
It would be more difficult if it was you and your offspring because then it would make a difference to the risk.
If you're really trying to get an answer, I'd say that your wife is probably the main user since when you use it she's probably in the car with you, whereas when she uses it you are probably not in the car.
Consequently she is the one mostly affecting the use of the vehicle.
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And her use is probably the most risky.
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>> You don't have to claim on your insurance. However, if you want to claim you
>> have to get them involved at the beginning.
>>
>> So if you do now decide to claim, then they are going to be slightly
>> irritated that the car has been recovered and assessed without their involvement and to a
>> garage that they may or may not have agreed to and then may or may
>> not need moving to a garage that they do agree to.
>>
>>
>> You are potentially opening up a bag of worms here, especially as it sounds like
>> the vehicle took quite a bang. What about damage underneath?
>>
>> If I was you I'd probably report it and claim unless I was damn sure
>> the damage was trivial. And if you are going to claim, then get your skates
>> on and stop doing stuff yourself.
>>
>> If you don't then be aware of the risks. And whilst risks don't necessarily happen,
>> sometimes they do.
>>
Thanks for the advice, I take your point - but until I know how bad/ how much I can't decide
wether to claim or not, at the time the car was damaged it was dark and it didn't seem too bad. The reason for the recovery was that it was stuck in soft ground, 2 wheels were buckled but the tyres were inflated and had it not been stuck in the soft gound and snow it would have been drivable.
I organised recovery - a one man local firm - recommended by the mechanic who services the car and he only charged £90 which I'm happy to pay. I wasn't present when it was recovered and it seemed to make sense to get it dropped at a local repair centre where someone could tell me how bad (or not) it was - on the phone it was this local repair centre that made the suggestion of s/h parts and a "non-insurance" price. He also said he would do a quote based on an insurance claim being made. He will give me the costs today (Friday)
The car is a 2003 MINI.
Several years ago I had a BMW that was correctly parked up in a designated space but was swiped (quite bad damage) by a bus pulling into a bus stop, I managed to get the bus details and claimed via my insurance. They arranged repairs which seemed ok at the time (car looked fine when collected) but 6 months later when the car was serviced by an independent BMW specialist he pointed out several problems "underneath", parts fitted badly etc including one fault that was an MOT fail.
So I would prefer to use this local shop, they are very well respected in my area , and - I'm told - not expensive. Surely it's my choice not to use the Insurers preferred repairer if it comes to a claim? Provided the local guy's costs are acceptable. I don't need a curtosy car.
Last edited by: Jacks on Fri 25 Jan 13 at 01:10
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>>>. Surely it's my choice not to use the Insurers preferred repairer if it comes to a claim?
To an extent. Or rather it is your choice but it comes with baggage.
The issue comes if something goes wrong. I assume that you sent the car back last time and had it fixed properly. If you didn't then you should have done.
If this one goes wrong your insurer may not be interested in the cost of any correction work. They won't pay any increased cost (bearing in mind that the insurer would not pay its recommended repairer a retail price).
I would generally say that unless you have a specialty car, then you should get it done the way the insurers want it done, just make sure its done right. i.e. pay for an inspection afterwards yourself and if they find anything wrong then you will be able to get it corrected, AND your inspection costs refunded.
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>> >>>. Surely it's my choice not to use the Insurers preferred repairer if it comes
>> to a claim?
>>
>> To an extent. Or rather it is your choice but it comes with baggage.
>>
Ok thanks,
I didn't take the BMW back - 6 months later I assumed they wouldn't want to know
I'll post again when I know more later today
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>>
>> I'll post again when I know more later today
>>
Update
£2761.83
Clearly the damage was worse than I thought. No metal panels required but all the trim and lots of plastic moulded parts add up plus 2 new alloys & tyres and a door mirror (!) which was the most expensive single item (£160)
Elephant were ok with me using the local non-approved (by Elephant) repairer, they approved the emailed quote within 24 hrs and didn't visit to inspect the car. They may have emailed photos I suppose, car will be ready Tuesday.
So all in all not too bad.
Until renewal time.
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So an alloy wheel is less than the wing mirror.
With this much damage... are you sure the car has not got structural damage that hasn't been picked up on? A lot of money but it must have a lot of damage!
Lucky your insurer is so flexible too.
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Yep - BMW 8 spoke alloy £106.67 each
It sounds a lot of damage but there are no actual panels dented and the car "looked ok" - it's not a wreck by any means but passing through a barbed wire fence has scratched most of the car and it's almost a full respray inc. the roof.
The rest is made up of all the plastic trims - under trays, plastic inner wheelarch x2, & various mouldings which are not trashed but snagged or split. plus 2 wheels/tyres and the mirror.
£1100 parts, £930 labour (the respray) £230 paint and the VAT.
The guy offered to do a non insurance repair with s/h wheels and whatever s/h bits he could source for £1700 but it was still too much so yes - lucky the insurer was so helpful.
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Insurance question - accident my fault ! - Falkirk Bairn
