Can I claim this on my car insurance

[chicadelmonton]

Hi,
Our car has quite a bit of damage to the bodywork, a big dent on the front bumper, a couple of dents and some scratches. It was new when we got it a couple of years ago. We haven't claimed for any of this but we're wondering if we could now, as we are returning the car (it's bought on one of those finance agreements). I'm a bit clueless on insurance so would appreciate knowing what I would do, I'm guessing I need to claim for each incident independently so the deductive would apply? Is it possible to claim for damage that hasn't just happened and that obviously wasn't reported to the police (because noone else involved). Thanks so much in advance!

I wouldn’t think so. You need to claim at the time.

How did it happen?

Why did you not claim then?

How much is your excess?

No, you can't just claim to have scratches and dents repaired. That's not how it works. You have to claim at the time the incident happened, reporting how each incident happened and who else was involved, in case the insurance company needs to claim off the other person's insurance.

I'll add that if you've done the damage to the car, most of the time it's not worth claiming because you have to pay the excess and your premiums will increase. I'm assuming you now want it repaired because you're returning the car and they go over it with a fine tooth comb and deduct the damage from the valuation price.

Did you have cosmetic cover?

Usually you have to declare, when you return a car, whether it's had any claims. If you want to reduce the deductible amount then take it to a garage and ask them to give you an estimate for a private repair. This may be less than your total excess for multiple claims and you won't lose your NCD.

How did the damages happen?

I will check now if we have cosmetic cover.

No other car was involved. The main damage is the front bumper which scraped badly on the entry to a car park (overseas) as the car's very low. It's a tesla so you have to book repairs via the app.

Another thing is a ding in the bonnet which looks like someone has dropped something onto it, so possibly some kind of vandalism.

The reason we didn't report any of them is because we imagined it wouldn't be worth it. But when we had it valeted the guy said the damage is quite extensive and could be thousands to repair.

Your insurance will have a clause saying you have to advise them if incidents/accidents at the time surely?

So, one in a car park scraping the front bumper on an upward slope, one ding on the bonnet, vandalism. Scratches and tiny dents, probably car park doors. Happily I was not able to drive for a year (for medical reasons) so I can't be blamed!