??? BUMP - Insurance claim/not claim protocol???

you should do. But I think you may get a nasty shock at the final repair bill if it is all done properly.

£200 doesn't buy a lot of bodywork repairs!

It is a condition of your insurance that any incident where a claim

*could* be made is reported. In your circumstance, you stand to not only lose the claim by failing to comply with your policy conditions, you might end up falling out with your neighbour.

My advice is to report it ASAP.

Chris

Yup, you it's a no claims bonus, if you don't claim you keep it.

[...]

Little too much Christmas cheer?

Could you rearrange the words into a sentence please?

;-)

Chris

Yup, it's a no claims bonus, if you don't claim against your policy you keep it.

Well, your policy requires that you do.

If you want your premiums to increase you will declare it. If you want to risk them finding out and increasing your premiums anyway then you won't declare it.

Duncan,

But I bet under the policy conditions, the OP still has to notify the insurance company that he has had an accident - and the way to do this is to inform them of the 'bump' and tell them "it is for information only".

That way, if there is a problem later on, the OP can still make a successful claim against his policy.

Cash

Exactly.

It's a no claims *discount*; a bonus is something you get paid, a discount is a reduction in what you must pay.

If things go wrong, and they often do where the third party initially agrees to settle outside of the insurance system, the OP could not only have to pay his excess, and lose his NCD, he might find his premium loaded in the future. He may also find he is declined insurance on renewal, and that would be something that he would need to declare on all future applications.

If his NCD is protected, he will not lose anything for this claim other than his 200UKP excess, which is likely to be insufficient to cover damage to three separate panels.

Chris

Plus a loading next year, probably, regardless of protected NCB, or even fault (though fault is pretty clear in this case).

Agreed. It's likley to be a couple of hundred per panel, so it's probably better to report it and claim.

His policy may well require it. I haven't seen his policy - evidently you have?

Thanks for info folks. I have contacted my insurance company for "notification purposes only" at the moment. It may well be that I need to claim BUT I do have protected NCB. It's the first accident that I have been involved in in 30 years of driving where I have been at fault

Every policy I have seen requires the policy holder to make full disclosure of all incidents that may result in a liability to the insurer. A colllision as described is such an incident.

You're simply playing twatgames.

HTH.

According to the letter of the policy , yes. In practice if you are very sure of the costs and are happy to pay cash then I wouldn't bother.

The problem with not telling the insurance company comes when you initially plan to pay cash and the bill suddenly turns out to be much higher. If you then change your mind and want to make a claim you may have difficulties explaining to them why you didn't notify them at the time.

You would still have the same amount of NCD , however the base premium will be higher as you've a claim against you so you will pay more.

I bet you won't find a single car insurance policy that doesn't require you to disclose any incidents that could potentially lead to a claim.

[...]

Another common situation is where the standard of repair is deemed unsatisfactory by the third party. It then becomes very difficult to resolve to everyone's satisfaction.

Chris

Or if the other party isn't satisified with the result of the repairs and decides to sic his legal cover the OP. The net result will be a claim on the OPs insurance and the fact that the OP has paid for the repairs is as good an admission of liability as a lawyer will need.

The OP is now in shit twice, once for not notifying his insurer of a claim and for admitting liability which his policy will tell him not to do.

Either way it's a hike in premium.

The OP has to make his own risk assessment. There are bad things on either side.

I'm not taking your bet, but the point is that what he has to declare depends on the exact wording of his policy. There is no overarching legal principle.