Noob question re. Insurance claim

wez130

wez130

wez130

Soldato
Joined
31 Jan 2004
Posts
11,316
Location
Matakana New Zealand
Never had to deal with this but some impatient camper van driver has scraped my car trying to pass, I've taken pictures of his van, my damage, got his insurance details and his mobile number, do I ring his insurer first? I got dash cam footage showing him being impatient too and not giving me chance to pull in properly.

Thanks
 
His insurer, if they are any good, will want to get involved and sort this for you as easily as possible as it reduces the chance of you using an accident management firm and gives them control of costs.

I would expect them to provide you with a similar car and allow you to choose where it's fixed.

They will probably try to contact you but no harm in contacting them first.

You will have to notify your insurer that it happened.
 
I was always told never to speak directly to another parties insurance, they are after all operating with theirs and their customers best interests.
If they phone you directly you should direct them to your own insurance.
 
robj20 said:
Phone your insurance company, you pay them to deal with it for you.
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Glanza said:
Ring yours and let them sort it.
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Don't do this. Inform your insurer, yes, but don't let them hand it over to a third party who will nag you and run up unnecessary costs on courtesy car hire that the other parties insurer may not agree to pay if excessive, amongst other things.

robj20 said:
I was always told never to speak directly to another parties insurance, they are after all operating with theirs and their customers best interests.
If they phone you directly you should direct them to your own insurance.
Click to expand...

Nonsense. The entire point of insurance in this situation is to put you back in the position you were in before the accident. How can they do that if you refuse to talk to them?

Going through your own insurance, via a third party claims management company, to talk to their insurance, is part of the reason why insurance is so expensive in this country.
 
robj20 said:
I was always told never to speak directly to another parties insurance, they are after all operating with theirs and their customers best interests.
If they phone you directly you should direct them to your own insurance.
Click to expand...

If they have accepted responsibility for the incident then this is very poor advice. Once they have acknowledged the liability, you are correct that they are operating with their best interests in mind.

But in a clear cut fault situation, their best interests are that the incident is resolved quickly, with minimal cost, and to your satisfaction. They know that you (or your insurer) can and probably will instruct an accident management company to sort everything out at which point they lose control of the costs.

So the decent insurers have intervention teams who aim to stop this by offering you quick and easy resolution to the problem.

If you went through your own insurer, it would be treated as a fault claim until such time as they have recovered the cost from the third party. This normally means a 1 litre hire car, loss of NCB until recovery is made, etc etc.
 
Avoid "accident management" companies at all costs. They will push up costs and make things difficult for their own benefit. Go directly to their insurer. Only go through your own if they aren't playing ball.
 
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The campervan wasn't hired, it's insured by a company called Motorhomefacts.com which is underwritten by Aviva.

I've not phoned anybody yet except lloyds bodyshop to get a quote to see if it's worth going outside insurance.

The damage to my car isn't that bad, but won't Polish out, it's about a 1" scrape on my back bumper.
 
If that's all it is. Do it off the books and don't even speak to insurer. It will be cheaper and less hasstle in the long run even if you pay for it yourself.

One of those mobile dent/scratch repair guys could probably do it for less than £100.
 
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Also damaged my wheel

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I've phoned his insurance company now and he's already phoned and denied liability. I can't upload dashcam footage here at work as the net is really slow, i'll upload it tonight when i get home and you can decide for yourself who's at fault. I'm a bit gutted though as for some reason my dashcam hasn't recorded sound, but you can clearly see my bonnet move was he makes contact with me when i'm stationary.
 
So call him up and ask why hes denied liability when clearly it was his fault and you have dashcam footage showing as much?
 
This is going to be a complete pain over what looks like, after you've gone over it with some decent cutting polish, a slight curb mark on the wheel and perhaps a small mark on the bumper. The Style 350M's are a conventional painted finish and easily refurbished without big expense.

Even if you win IMHO the increased premium alone will make it borderline as to whether it was worth bothering.
 
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