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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not have insurance for my child

87 replies

Nevermakeit · 01/12/2020 16:14

Just called up by another mum. Her DS and my DD (both aged 5) apparently bumped into each other in the playground last week, and her child knocked his tooth.

Tooth now wobbly and gum is bruised, and she has contacted her insurance for dental work - now or over the next 10 years (that is apparently the duration of the claim). I should mention, she is an expat and apparently has great insurance cover!

She is now saying her insurer needs to be put in touch with mine, as my daughter is involved in the incident. Problem is, we don't have insurance for that (I guess it would be personal liability?) - either for her or for us.
We have house insurance, health insurance (through work), and car insurance obviously.
What do others have ? Do you have insurance for yourselves or your DC, in case you accidentally hurt someone or damaged something in some way? I am suddenly wondering if we are being reckless and foolhardy not having some sort of personal liability insurance! (it's definitely not covered by our home insurance, I have just checked).

OP posts:

CatherinedeBourgh · 01/12/2020 17:58

In France third party insurance is covered under your home insurance and you basically let the insurers deal with everything whenever there is a problem, as far as I can tell.

combatbarbie · 01/12/2020 18:00

I'd love to see a claim in 10yrs time where they try and claim this incident means the child needs braces.... Although they can see the adult tooth underneath Id find it highly unlikely they can tell if the root is straight.

When my DD had her tooth accident the adult one came in sideways but has since turned straight.

formerbabe · 01/12/2020 18:01

By the way whenever my dc has had an accident or injury involving another child at school, the school has never told me who the other child was...obviously I know because my dc would tell me, but 'officially' I don't know. I wouldn't even admit to her that it was my dc involved.

stressfullday · 01/12/2020 18:07

Wow. I would tell her to go away and tell the school what has happened. Don't give her any details about your child.

The mum is french?? It's usually Americans who are that paranoid.

notalwaysalondoner · 01/12/2020 18:11

This is super common in other countries and I believe actually mandatory in much of Europe. Even a new baby would have third party insurance in case of incidents like the above or if your toddler damaged a friends tv, for example. I think it’s actually a shame that the uk doesn’t have this as it would avoid a lot of debate about who should pay for what. But certainly you are very much in the huge majority of uk citizens who don’t have this kind of insurance - I imagine nobody does unless they get it automatically through work to be honest.

Angelou79 · 01/12/2020 18:12

This is not and will not be covered in UK - I work in Insurance and the courts have done everything in their power to stop this sort of silly litigious type of thing. If she pays NI contributions and tax she can use NHS dentist. If she uses her health care insurance she could ask you to pay the excess but thats it. Under your household policy you will have some liability cover for people who injure themselves on your premises or your property injures them ie falling tiles but this is more for loss of earnings not medical or fix car if it damages a car etc.

Lexilooo · 01/12/2020 18:16

Your home insurance may have "family legal protection" which would deal with this.

Lexilooo · 01/12/2020 18:17

When I say deal, I mean tell her she has no claim and fund your defence of any claim.

Pandamumium · 01/12/2020 18:17

In France you have to have insurance for your children as soon as they start any form of school and for extra curricular activities. She is probably not aware that that is not the case in the U.K.

makingmammaries · 01/12/2020 18:18

In France third party insurance is covered under your home insurance and you basically let the insurers deal with everything whenever there is a problem, as far as I can tell.

That is correct. But my kids have been in French school for years and I never heard of anyone acting like this. This lady is on the make, methinks. Disengage, OP. She will give you the stink eye for ever, but don’t let it worry you.

Osteomancer · 01/12/2020 18:18

@Alarae

I've put my daughter on my private medical insurance as we have access to a 24/7 GP and can book online appointments (fair use so no real limit).

I can get dental insurance but haven't bothered as we have a NHS dentist and what i will likely claim in a year won't cover how much it will cost me.

That's not for accident covering other people though

Veterinari · 01/12/2020 18:20

Hand it over to the school

Also tell her that dental treatment in the NHS will be free for her child so no one is insured here. As an EU citizen she can use EHIC for treatment

lowlandLucky · 01/12/2020 18:21

Pretty standard in France, Germany etc but as this happened in the U.K you can politely inform her That s not the British way.

Bluetrews25 · 01/12/2020 18:31

Can she still use EHIC after 31/12/2020?

Whammyyammy · 01/12/2020 18:35

Tell her you live in the UK, not France and you use the NHS. Convo over

Puffalicious · 01/12/2020 18:35

This is very interesting. On another, unrelated but similar matter, my 13 yr old DS ran into on oncoming car on his mountain bike: he didn't see it turning and accelerated , so was his fault. Despite flipping over the bonnet he was completely fine but the brand, new Audi wasn't!

We got there and the driver was saying ' It's an accident, don't worry' but we got a call the next day from the police asking if we were admitting liability. Chatting to the police, which were very good, they advised us to check our home insurance to see if we were covered as they've seen a huge increase in people taking these things to court.

Luckily, we did indeed, have personal liability for the family (didn't think it would cover this, thought it would be for if our tree or something hit a neighbour's property or car). The insurance company took control and settled the £3500 bill (I was shocked as it was only a scratch along the wing and a new wing mirror) thank goodness.

The worrying part is that the police said that if we didn't have insurance we would have to have paid it. I asked what if the child's family didn't have the means and they said the court would set a payment plan! It really shook us up as I had no idea folk would persue a minor rather than just claim their car insurance!

Puffalicious · 01/12/2020 18:38

They also covered the cost of a new bike, which was good, as the first thing DS said apparently was ' Is my bike okay? I'll be late for rugby training otherwise!'. That boy!

MaidEdithofAragon · 01/12/2020 18:41

She hasn't any claim on you or your child at all. Refer her to the school. She can try suing them. (Work in a school, sometimes people want to pursue action about accidents. Almost never get anywhere).

Fuzzyspringroll · 01/12/2020 18:42

We have personal liability cover. It was a prerequisite for nursery. However, we aren't in the UK.
Haven't bothered with private dental cover but we've got a good dentist through our public health insurance.

Glittertwins · 01/12/2020 18:49

It is standard to have that kind of insurance in France, we had to take it out when students too. But she's being utterly ridiculous over a child's accident and I doubt that would even be covered.
DS knocked a milk tooth quite literally sideways which was safely removed by the dentist. He was xrayed to check on damage to the other tooth which remained a bit grey/discoloured until it naturally came out. There was no trauma to any of the rest of his teeth and this is 8 years on. All treatment via our NHS dentist.

FightingWithTheWind · 01/12/2020 18:58

My children do have some cover for things like broken bones/operations needing overnight hospital stays but ONLY because they are covered by an insurance plan I took out for myself. I'm not even sure what my insurance is called, I know its not life insurance because I couldn't get that but I don't think its health insurance either i've never heard of anyone getting insurance specifically for their child in the UK.

FightingWithTheWind · 01/12/2020 19:01

Also the insurance my children have is for themselves not others

Waveysnail · 01/12/2020 19:08

what another poster said and send
Just reply with:
"Not quite sure what sort of insurance you mean. We don't have any. We'd just use the NHS if DC had an accident." You should speak to the school

Chloemol · 01/12/2020 19:09

Just tell her

1 it was an accident and her child is as much to blame as yours
2insurance is not required in this country as the nhs covers any accident care
3 if she wants to sue anyone it should be the school who had duty of care for the children

Then ignore

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 01/12/2020 19:23

Tbh I'd give the school a heads up - they'll want to know if they have a parent who is prepared to go through insurers for every bump and scrape.

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