Do/how to tell insurers about this?

tacticalx86

tacticalx86

tacticalx86

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In May 2023 my car hit a pothole causing an estimated £363 of damage. Now as per my other thread I'm going through the courts to attempt to recoup the money, having made a claim against the council.

My question is, with my car insurance renewal approaching in spring, what do i tell the insurers? there's no option to say you had a collision with a pothole, only about another vehicle, so perhaps assuming they wouldn't expect to tell you, especially in my case given i haven't actually even got the money yet. Btw there's nothing in my contract saying accidents have to be reported within 24 hours, only by the time of the next renewal, i believe the 24 hour requirement is if you hit a vehicle which is obviously an accident.

Is it worth even bothering to tell them? my only query is whether they can see if a claim is being made etc. i don't really see why i should be penalised financially for the council not taking proper care of the roads.
 
You've not made a claim against your insurance company, and the council have no reason to claim from you for any damages. It wasn't an "accident" so I see no reason to tell them.
 
Maundie said:
Why would you need to tell your insurance company?!? Do you tell them when you kerb an alloy?
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On MSE Forums people were trying to tell me how i'd need to tell the insurers as its classed as an "at fault accident" and the council could tell the insurers etc. I thought it was odd because if everyone reported they'd had an accident every time they'd hit a pothole people would be calling up their insurers every week.
 
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tacticalx86 said:
In May 2023 my car hit a pothole causing an estimated £363 of damage. Now as per my other thread I'm going through the courts to attempt to recoup the money, having made a claim against the council.

My question is, with my car insurance renewal approaching in spring, what do i tell the insurers? there's no option to say you had a collision with a pothole, only about another vehicle, so perhaps assuming they wouldn't expect to tell you, especially in my case given i haven't actually even got the money yet. Btw there's nothing in my contract saying accidents have to be reported within 24 hours, only by the time of the next renewal, i believe the 24 hour requirement is if you hit a vehicle which is obviously an accident.

Is it worth even bothering to tell them? my only query is whether they can see if a claim is being made etc. i don't really see why i should be penalised financially for the council not taking proper care of the roads.
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You'll need to report it as it is an incident that you could have claimed for through insurance.

You'll have to query with them how it would be recorded as I'm not sure how you pursuing it with the Council will impact things whether it would be recorded as 'no claim' as you've not pursued a claim with insurance or if it'll be recorded as a non-fault claim (as your insurer isn't paying out).

Either way it'll impact your renewal premium to some extent.

If it's not declared and your insurer later finds out in all likelihood you'd just have to pay the difference between what you paid and what you would have paid with the incident declared from the subsequent renewal, but you risk having your insurance cancelled/refused for misrepresentation if they suspect you wilfully withheld the information to obtain lower cost insurance and having to declare that when looking to be covered elsewhere which would reduce options available and increase the price hugely.
 
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Don't have to. Think about why an excess for example exists. It's so you don't go round claiming on the little stuff. Damaged wheel or a scratch are great examples.

The reason insurers would prefer to know stuff is to determine if there is any liability on their side, and so for you to not keep it a secret from them, and a lot of people hide incidents with third parties. An RTA incident must cause damage to another person or their property. This did not, and so the insurer has no liability, so just use common sense here.
 
muon said:
Don't have to. Think about why an excess for example exists. It's so you don't go round claiming on the little stuff. Damaged wheel or a scratch are great examples.

The reason insurers would prefer to know stuff is to determine if there is any liability on their side, and so for you to not keep it a secret from them, and a lot of people hide incidents with third parties. An RTA incident must cause damage to another person or their property. This did not, and so the insurer has no liability, so just use common sense here.
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Until the council claim the impact damaged the road and chase the OP for repair costs...

I'm joking of course... Mostly... Wouldn't surprise if they tried to be honest :/

I wouldn't tell the insurance though
 
I have to notify my insurers for pothole damage however it doesn't go against me. My insurer offers 'Pot-hole cover'. It's an addon like Windscreen cover so isn't part of the main policy

I claim, pay a small excess (£25) and they fix the car then they pursue the council. It costs £60/yr but I had cause to claim at the beginning of this year to the tune of £800+ and I've only had the cover 5 years so it's paid for itself already.
 
For the love of God, don't tell your insurer. They will use it as an excuse to increase your premium next year. Would you tell them if you ran over a nail and damaged your tyre? Or kerbed your alloy?

Just use some common sense. If you've damaged something that someone is going to try and claim off you for, or you were in an accident no matter how small with another car - then fine because your protecting yourself from future claims for damage and personal injury which have a habit of coming out of the woodwork months later. But your own car and a pothole? I think you're ok to keep this one to yourself...

And lol at the people on MSE - the council can barely empty bins on time or fill in giant craters in the road. And they think they've somehow got some hotline to every insurer in the country to tell them every time someone tries to claim from them for pothole damage? :p

You can tell these people have never worked in the public sector...
 
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You all stay with the same insurer every year? It's always cheaper to move to someone else, as staying with your current insurer, they always up your premium each yeah, at least in my experience.

I have multiple cars and the only one that doesn't go up is my old Japanese car that has been with the same company for years, on a limited mileage policy.

In regards to OP question - I wouldn't tell them. If it came down to it and they found out, all they'd do is increase your current or renewal premium. Then you move to someone else.
 
D-Ranged said:
You all stay with the same insurer every year? It's always cheaper to move to someone else
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Nearly always used to be the case, but in recent years where new customer discounts have been scrapped then it's actually quite common for there not to be much in it.
With this years insurance rises, it's actually been "better" for quite a few people to accept the renewal from their current insurer than shopping around (in that the current insurer's increases are less than they are getting quoted by other insurers)
 
Armageus said:
Nearly always used to be the case, but in recent years where new customer discounts have been scrapped then it's actually quite common for there not to be much in it.
With this years insurance rises, it's actually been "better" for quite a few people to accept the renewal from their current insurer than shopping around (in that the current insurer's increases are less than they are getting quoted by other insurers)
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One of them is up for renewal in a couple of months. I'll see if I get lucky!
 
D-Ranged said:
You all stay with the same insurer every year? It's always cheaper to move to someone else, as staying with your current insurer, they always up your premium each yeah, at least in my experience.

I have multiple cars and the only one that doesn't go up is my old Japanese car that has been with the same company for years, on a limited mileage policy.

In regards to OP question - I wouldn't tell them. If it came down to it and they found out, all they'd do is increase your current or renewal premium. Then you move to someone else.
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Yeah, I usually move to somewhere else anyway. Was with the AA in 2022, when I went to renew in 2023 my quote had gone up from like £750 to £2,200! For no reason, I hadn't made a claim or anything!
 
tacticalx86 said:
Yeah, I usually move to somewhere else anyway. Was with the AA in 2022, when I went to renew in 2023 my quote had gone up from like £750 to £2,200! For no reason, I hadn't made a claim or anything!
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Similar usually happens to me, although not by quite as much as that.

I had the company i was with's, renewal come through once before, and it was a few hundred quid more expensive. Did a money supermarket check, and the same company was offering it to me for less than i paid for the last year :o
 
There is no need to tell them anything as you did not make a claim. Had you claimed for the damage and then wished to move insurer you would need to declare this to the new insurer and if you hadn't been able to assign fault elsewhere and thus make the money reclaimable by your insurere you would then just need to have it as a fault claim against you unfortunately, which absolutely would make your premium go up but for a £350 claim not by a lot, I have one against me where my car was damaged while parked and I have no idea by who and it was £5700 there and abouts and it put my premium up about 50% at renewal with my existing insurer, it was more with others though ....having said that in the same time period they seem to have gone up by that much for everyone else anyway.
 
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