How long after an insurance claim do you have to send in supporting evidence?

kinobestew123 · 3 Aug 2015 at 17:52

About 2 years and 3 months ago we were driving through France on a banger rally and our car irreparably broke down. We had breakdown cover which we promptly phoned and they arranged hire cars/replacement hotels/new ferry tickets/taxi's to get us out of bother. Some of this they paid for but some of it (probably around £200-300) we paid for ourselves with the intention of claiming back.

We subsequently received a claim form through the post which we never got round to filling in and it went into a drawer along with all the receipts.

Every so often I think to myself that I should probably get around to filling that form in and sending it off. Is it too late now however? I know I can phone the breakdown and ask but I was wondering what the legal situation would be?

I could imagine there being something about us not making the company aware, but we did "claim" in a way and they are aware hence why they sent us the form. It's just that we haven't sent the support in. Is there a deadline for sending support in?

I don't want to waste my time filling in the form for them to say it's no longer valid.

Unicorn · 3 Aug 2015 at 18:04

Probably within afew months or weeks, 2 years may be questionable now?
Id leave it and not bother with hassle

Thekwango · 3 Aug 2015 at 18:15

I'd be very surprised if the form doesn't indicate somewhere how long you have to return it. Even if it doesn't I'd be betting they'll tell you to do one after 2 years though, but if it's not a hugely complex, time consuming form why not go ahead for the hell of it? What have you got to lose?

Caged · 3 Aug 2015 at 19:30

Phone them and ask?

bitslice · 3 Aug 2015 at 19:39

I have this problem too, it's been about six months since an Asda lorry pranged my bumper.

Phantom Shadow · 3 Aug 2015 at 22:18

I'd fill the form in and send it off, see what happens. It can't take that long to fill in unless it's a complicated claim? If you're lucky either someone processes it who doesn't care to look too closely, or they can see it is a genuine claim from past account history and don't want you going to twitter over it so pay out since it's only a couple hundred pounds.

Or they just ignore/laugh at you. Unless you're overly sensitive you've nothing to lose by submitting the form

kinobestew123 · 4 Aug 2015 at 08:41

I think submitting the form is going to be the only way to see. I don't think the form is particularly complicated, I'll have to dig out some old bank statements to check a few amounts, but nothing too bad. Some if it was spent in Euros too so I guess that's an extra level of complexity, I can't remember what exchange rate we got at that time was.

I was thinking that if I phone up and ask, they might say no just to save themselves the hassle of digging my case back up. Hence I was wondering what the actual truth was and whether I would have a leg to stand on arguing that I'm still entitled to the money.

Destination · 4 Aug 2015 at 11:07

Is there any actual reason why you waited two years to claim?

Or created this thread rather than spending the time filling in the form?

I'd be amazed if things were nit automatically closed after a period of months, a year at the upmost, but who knows, try it, see, let us know the result.

booyaka · 4 Aug 2015 at 11:41

Caged said:
Phone them and ask?

This - never understand why people create a thread on an internet forum, spend the time typing it out, expecting someone to magically know the answer they are looking for......instead spend 5 mins on the phone to the insurance company and ask them :confused:

kinobestew123 · 4 Aug 2015 at 13:59

Hikari Kisugi said:
Is there any actual reason why you waited two years to claim?

Pretty much just forgetfulness. I should have done it straight away and i'm usually very good with these kinds of things (always claimed phone cashback on time back in the day).

Hikari Kisugi said:
Or created this thread rather than spending the time filling in the form?

I was at work on a break thinking about it, but I didn't have the form with me.

booyaka said:
This - never understand why people create a thread on an internet forum, spend the time typing it out, expecting someone to magically know the answer they are looking for......instead spend 5 mins on the phone to the insurance company and ask them

Pretty sure I've already explained this both in my OP and in another post a bit further down.

It's very likely that if I phone, they will just fob me off or tell me that it's too later but that might not actually be true. If you were owed some money and you phoned up the person who owed you that money and they said "Nah mate, don't owe you that", would you just roll over and go "Oh ok, thanks for your time, bye"? :rolleyes:

booyaka · 4 Aug 2015 at 16:06

kinobestew123 said:
Pretty sure I've already explained this both in my OP and in another post a bit further down.

It's very likely that if I phone, they will just fob me off or tell me that it's too later but that might not actually be true. If you were owed some money and you phoned up the person who owed you that money and they said "Nah mate, don't owe you that", would you just roll over and go "Oh ok, thanks for your time, bye"?

I severely doubt a large insurance company will fob you off with a made up answer to dodge a few hundred quid claim. Don't be silly. Call them up and ask them if there is a time limit on your previous claim. Simple.

cheesyboy · 4 Aug 2015 at 16:09

I like it: club together with your mates to pay for the recovery, then "forget" to make the insurance claim until everyone else really has forgotten. Then pocket all the cash.

Devious. But somewhat admirable.