This is dodgy right? Car Insurance

[0range99]

Eldest DC had a car accident at the weekend. No other car involved, no street furniture damaged, no passengers, just the car and driver.

If we claim, we wouldn't get much, as the car is old and there is a massive excess.

Someone suggested scrapping it and not making the claim.

I know people do this when they have a minor scrape / knock a wing mirror off, they get it fixed and don't claim and don't declare it at renewal.

Would it be unreasonable to do this?

Thank you for your kind responses - he is home now after hospital admission - his stereo flew out and hit him on the head so he had concussion and a big old chunk of flesh missing off his head

Totally his fault and he has taken full ownership of it, he wasn't breaking the speed limit, he felt the car hit a pothole on a country road, which caused the back end to kick out, snake across the road, hit the verge which then sent it rolling a couple of times.

Bloody terrifying to get a call from a stranger saying "Don't panic but your son has been in an accident and the ambulance is on it's way as he has a head injury"

Given that the excess would be more than they are likely to value the car at, I was just hoping to minimise his insurance premiums - he is on a low apprenticeship wage but needs the car to get to work as we live quite rurally.

The ambulance service will make a claim for transporting to hospital. When I had my accident I just passed it on to the insurance company.

Scrap the car and move on, just be careful when you go to renew your insurance that you answer the questions asked. some insurers ask about claims made, in which case no is the correct answer, others ask if you have been in an accident even where a claim was not made....in which case you would be obliged to say no, but more likely you would search around until you got an insurer who asks the question the first way.

If it was me I would just scrap the car and not make a claim. I dont know anyone in RL that would actually let them know if they are not claiming and all it will do is put his premiums up, which I imagine for a young driver are already through the roof. It won't invalidate the insurance if you don't mention it. Only if you don't mention a previous claim.

Glad he is ok and not seriously hurt. In a strange way its sometimes a good thing when young drivers have a non serious accident early on as it drives home to them they are not in fact not indestructible as many believe at that age.

So your son isn't to blame for the incident. Potholes are a national menace, I hope he is feeling better. www.gov.uk/claim-for-damage-to-your-vehicle

If the ambulance service are going to make a claim for transporting him to hospital, then the insurance company will obviously know about the accident.

Therefore it doesn't seem like a good idea to not inform them, or pretend that the accident didn't happen when buying insurance in the future.

Your poor son, what a fright!
I do not think you have to tell insurance company anything if you aren't claiming.

I have never had an ambulance make a claim for transporting anyone from the scene of an accident and have been a PI lawyer for 10 years. I have no idea where this notion comes from

depending on how deep pothole is you may have a claim against council/county. - go measure and photograph.
you need to tell insurer if there is a possibility of a claim on the insurance by yourself or a third party - eg farmer/fence owner - if not then you don't.

there is a chance, depending on how busy police are, that he could be charged with careless/without due care and attention - but if the pothole was basically unavoidable then it won't get far.

If the pothole was big enough and your insurance has legal cover then they would write the claim to the council - however that would impact your / his premiums even if council paid up - so may be better to claim yourself

I have never had an ambulance make a claim for transporting anyone from the scene of an accident and have been a PI lawyer for 10 years. I have no idea where this notion comes from
My accident was 4 years ago. I received a bill from the ambulance service and the legal dept of insurance co. dealt with it.

Well, the field belongs to some one, thats a third party and they can claim damage. The police may have recovered it already. I work in this area so a statory police recovery is 250 or 300 (cant quite recall) as its off road / severely damaged plus the storage at 20 per day for every day they hold it for you.

If you make a claim your insurance may cover this - the ones which work with us do ask us yo pay on their behalf. Plus you'll need it recovered to the salvage, either from the field if its still there or from the compound.

I appreciate you might not want to claim but you will have to tell your insurance this one im afraid...

Unfortunately I think as an a ambulance was called and he went to hospital it is in the system so you may have to report it.

Am glad your son is (mostly) okay, though he must have had a terrible fright. I know you did too.

I agree with other posters that you should inform his insurance company even if your son is not claiming.

It could be that the ambulance service invoice your son and, as has also been mentioned, it could be that the land owner also makes a claim for damages.

If these charges come in at round about the level of the policy excess then it might still be worth your while to tell the insurers that you do not wish to make a claim, but it is likely that the terms and conditions of the policy dictate that you still must inform them of the accident, regardless of claim.

wow - glad he is ok.

The speed limit on country lanes is usually 60 but it is rarely wise to go that fast. That pothole needs reporting and the wreck needs removing, so the insurers need to know. It will be a write-off but it still needs shifting.

he cannot risk not reporting this, a big premium is better than invalid insurance.

I did this just recently dinged the car over winter, not worth repairing/ claiming. Scrapped it the bloke came collected it and paid me a whopping £40 into the bank. I did tell my insurance though. After three months if no one claims against me then it it doesn't affect my ncd. I'd call them also call the scrapper to see if they can recover it directly.

If you ask your local garage they'll have a contact.

@IIIustriouslyIllogical you are asked if you have been involved in any incidents and/or made a claim, and if so, the value of that claim. If you can't remember seeing that on policy inception or renewal then you aren't reading it thoroughly. Why would an insurer insure someone where they cannot calculate risk?

Also worth knowing. Any third party can make a claim for personal injury against you for up to 3 years after the incident.

If you haven't notified your insurance company of an incident and the third party does claim against you, in 3 years time, how can you argue against that claim if you had already failed to declare? Would you be happy to foot the bill and risk losing your home to pay them compensation and all legal costs, because if you haven't notified them your policy could well be void anyway.

Failing to inform is misrepresentation for financial gain (don't tell them so your premiums don't increase) and this is fraud. I have seen this happen many times and it normally doesn't have a happy ending. There is also what is known as fundamental dishonesty. This means that if you have lied, den by omission, the law can assume you haven't been truthful about other aspects of a claim.

I am surprised at those of you claiming to work in the industry saying it is ok to not report, it makes me wonder what bad advise you are giving to policy holders.

I have worked in insurance claims for a long time, specialising in fraudulent claims, please read your policy and make sure you understand the terms of that policy, failure to do so could be a costly mistake.

@honeybadger32 if a personal injury claim is lodged (originally just RTA, now much wider) then payer of compensation is liable for NHS charges cf
www.gov.uk/government/publications/recovery-of-benefits-and-or-lump-sum-payments-and-nhs-charges-technical-guidance/recovery-of-benefits-and-lump-sum-payments-and-nhs-charges-technical-guidance

in this case if op son were to make an injury compensation claim against council, council Insurers would have to pay ambulance & hospital charges.

Just to update, we informed the insurance company but said we didn't want to claim. I've arranged for the car to be recovered and scrapped, so all above board and hopefully NCD unaffected.

Thank you for all your replies and advice.

This happens frequently where PIL live a local farmer will usually pull the car out with a tractor for 'a drink'. I see you reported it, I hope it doesn't affect premium, as you would've been fine not doing so

Someone mentioned in the future the insurers will ask if he has had any claims, not accidents. That isn't the case. The consumer insurance act says they must be clear and ask if there have been any accidents OR claims. So you do need to disclose it in future when getting quotes. I can see you have reported it now anyway so it will be on the database. Another who worked in fraudulent claims here.

Whether he claimed or not doesn't affect the risk, the accident happened, so he is seen as a higher risk to the insurers in the future. Lost control incidents are usually 25%+ increase. I am pleased he is doing ok now and that you reported it.

You will hugely struggle to make any claim for PI in this case (if you wanted to, a pp has mentioned it).

Dh works for direct line insurance and said you don't need to tell them, just scrap it.