Car hit whilst parked - insurance Q's.....

[ScottC]

Hiya all, well I'm back in the Rover fold since I'm now in possesion of a nice 45 TD.

However, this is ever so slightly OT since it doesn't involve that car - though I hope those of you with experience can offer some advice anyway:)

One simple Q to kick off........

With a no-fault claim will my no claims bonus be affected at all?

Here is how it stands right now.... My Citroen AX (used to get to and from work) has been hit by a van belonging to a large telecommunications company. My car was parked outside my house at the time. The damage is not massive but it will be written off since its to the B pillar.

We have just spent £250 on getting it through another MOT and before the accident it was a nice low mileage example in good order.

Problem is my insurance company has put a value on it of £100. I have a £100 excess also.

The guy who hit it doesn't want to go through the company insurance but through his personal insurance since he has protected no claims.

I am concerned that if it is written off we will not get any money to replace it - or a laughable amount.

Anyone with similar experience care to offer any advice?

Thanks so much in advance

Scott

[Berger]

Blackmail him into paying you cash to the value of getting yourself back in the same situation or take it through his company insurance.

[mg-richard]

why should you care if he loses his no claims

he should loose his no claims if he ran into someones car

i think they would write the car off but let you keep and drive it, and give a cash settlement

[Punx0r]

A non-fault claim won't affect your NCB but will increase your premium by a small amount (you'll have to declare it for the next ~5 years).

Since you're making a claim on someone else's insurance (and not involving your own policy in any way) your excess is irrelevant (happy days).

Whichever of his policies you claim on I'd ask for a payout of of the car's value (haggle!) minus scrap value so you can keep the car (assuming you still want it).

If he's going to lie about what vehicle he was in I'd be careful not to be any part of it.

[rover400turbo]

First you must report the accident to your insurance company, BUT you can instruct them to not pursue a claim , as it isnt illegal to settle without a claim being made.

An insurance company will only start an investigation if it will cost them money for a claim, but it is an offense to not report the accident.

Therefore get them to note it on your file, so at a later date you can pursue a claim, if he doesnt cough up.

The issue here is that you are only entitled to your lost, i.e the vaule of the car. Therefore you cant get the damage repaired and them sue the 3rd party for the cost of repair.

Of course you will win the case if the 3rd party is at fault, but you will only be awarded the value of the car ( the lost ).

[Punx0r]

it is an offense to not report the accident.

I'm pretty sure it's not!

It's a condition of your policy though so they can increase your risk and load your policy when it comes to renewal

[rover400turbo]

Ok an offense is incorrect wording, but

You should always inform your insurance policy of any incidents involving your vehicle. Failure to do so can invalidate your existing policy, regardless of who was to blame for the incident.

Also it keeps your powder dry if you later need the company to pursue an investigation into a claim, or the 3rd party gets cheeky and tries to sue you.

[Punx0r]

Fair enough, I thought you were implying the police would come and kick your back door in

[munky]

never accept their valuation of your car.

All you need to do is find two current or recent examples of a car in similar condition/mileage for sale to the public (auto trader, ebay, pistoneheads... the latter is the best for this purpose as they are always massively overpriced on there) to show them and they will normally offer the asking price in those adverts. This is pretty much standard practice acorss the board with insurers. Some may want three or 4, some may want one...

Their initial offer is based on the glass's guide price for your car to the trade, in average condition... regardless of what you have told them about the car.


ps, shouldnt this be in a different forum? other marques, insurance, living room?

Might get more answers there, and from people who know more (the flux/chrisknott chaps)


ps, he wont be an owner driver if he works for bt or virgin etc. So he wont be able to claim on his own insurance. It will cost him nothing to claim through the company, but he will get sh*t from his boss.

Unless he has some form of special personal insurance that covers him for driving a work van for some obscure reason, he is telling porkies to save himself some grief. He'll probably offer you cash...

Just make the claim, why do you care if it affects him? It wont affect your ncb at all, you werent even in the car. Your excess is also n/a because you're not claiming on your insurance... which begs the question, why has your insurer, not his, given a price?

[Sheaf]

Strangely enough, I've been in the same situation. Parked my mum's Citroen AX outside my Nan's house. Came back to find it'd been hit by her neighbours.

We informed our insurers (Direct Line) who took the car away, gave us a hire car and got it repaired.

They then claimed against the neighbours insurance (Saga).

The cost of the repairs and the hire car was well in excess of the value of the car. However, as we were the third party and not at fault, plus it could be repaired, it was.

My mum recieved a letter from Direct Line afterwards stating that she would loose no NCB for this as she was not at fault, and didn't need to even declare it in future.

Basically, they cant force you to write your car off. You'll be claiming against the other persons insurance (even if it's through your own) and they dont have the right to force you to write it off. Your contract is with your insurance co, only they can do this.
In theory you shouldn't be hit with NCB drops, however in a lot of cases it doesn't get cleared up for years and you can get charged loads in the mean time.

Have a search for posts about insurance by 'Mark' (Mark Eley, RIP). He covered this in detail a few years back as he had to get his CRX repaired.

[SubCat001]

ps, he wont be an owner driver if he works for bt or virgin etc. So he wont be able to claim on his own insurance. It will cost him nothing to claim through the company, but he will get sh*t from his boss.

Unless he has some form of special personal insurance that covers him for driving a work van for some obscure reason, he is telling porkies to save himself some grief. He'll probably offer you cash...

Spot on.

Highly unlikely that his personal insurance will cover him to drive the works van. More than likely he has had a few to many accidents already and this one could land him in trouble. Don't get dragged into lying on his behalf. Afterall if he can always settle this with cash.