Looking for advice for car accident

[Davidhee58]

Had a bad day today, drove to a supermarket and stopped at local roundabout to give way to a car from my right, a VW golf driven by an old lady behind me badly hit the back of my car. As far as I can see, the rear bumper of my car was damaged and the metal bar behind the bumper was bent slightly (don't know if there is any other damage yet). Obviously it's not my fault at all, so I hesitate to contact my insurance company to make a claim, which definitely will affect my next insurance renewal price. I am thinking if it's possible to contact the other parties insurance company to sort out the repairing. Has anyone had this similar accident before? How did you deal with it? All advice is welcome.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Not sure whether the third party's insurer will contact your insurer anyway. 

[forkingabout]

Just file a claim with your insurance company & let them sort it out.

[AndrueC]

If you were rear ended it's fairly unlikely that your premiums will be adversely affected. Your insurer will want to know anyway and won't be very happy if it finds out from someone else.

Make a claim and let the insurance companies sort it out. That's why you're paying a premium in the first place.

[Bper]

Hi David,the other insurance company will likely not liaise with you. You can contact the lady and ask if she wishes to pay for the damage to avoid her own insurance premium from rising. But it depends on the cost of repair to your car, which in this day and age will not be cheap. IMO it's not worth the grief just put it through your insurance and let them deal with it. Unfortunately you will have to shop around at renewal time for the best price you can get.

[CassUK]

You have to notify your own insurers asap if you have been involved in an accident/incident, regardless of blame and you will also have to declare this at renewal time.

If the other party wants to pay and/or has accepted liability, there will be no blame attached to you. 
 

You should notify your own insurer now and just let them sort it, as individuals and insurers often change position or dig in afterwards to reduce liability. Contact up your insurer now 👍 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Have you checked the boot floor around the spare wheel well for any damage there (creases, etc), which may entail a new boot floor ........

A deflated spare wheel may also be possible if the impact was substantial which burst the seal.

Happened to one of our cars a few years ago.

[Davidhee58]

19 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Have you checked the boot floor around the spare wheel well for any damage there (creases, etc), which may entail a new boot floor ........

A deflated spare wheel may also be possible if the impact was substantial which burst the seal.

Happened to one of our cars a few years ago.

Hi Mike, thank you for suggestions, checked boot floor and the spare wheel, they seem all fine, but the metal metal reinforcer behind the bumper is bent inward (to front), basically, the car was hit at the low part of rear bumper (Reg plate area).  

[Cyker]

Honestly, don't worry about the insurance premium going up because of this - In my experience claims, esp. no-fault claims, have almost no effect on the insurance premium.

A lot of people have had accidents and thought their next premium was being hiked to penalize them, but I bet if they'd compared with someone who didn't have an accident that year the hike would be similar. The only exception is if you don't have No-Claims Bonus Protection, but in this case as it's a no-fault claim, it shouldn't affect your No-Claims Bonus anyway.

In the years I've had claims, the hike in the next years premium has been similar or in one case less than it had been the previous years where I *hadn't* had a claim!

And even if they do hike it for that, you can probably just change to a different insurer who will only hike it by the going rate.

You need to log it with the insurer anyway (Don't be tempted to try and hide it from them - If you have a claim later and they find out they will cancel your insurance and leave you out to dry; It's just not worth it), so you may as well take advantage of it to get the car repaired to as near-perfect as can be and get a courtesy car if needed.

If you're not in a rush and don't want to pay the excess, most insurance companies will be fine with holding off the repair until the other party has agreed to pay out, before actioning anything, as they will get the excess off them.

 

Often you can deal with the other party's insurer directly, but it can be a risk as they can try to half-arse the repair and it can be much harder to take them to task if they suddenly decide to be difficult as they have no contract with you, and then you have to go back to your insurer anyway. There's not any real advantage for you, as you still have to tell your insurer about the accident anyway (The advantage is for them as if you go through your insurer they will forward all costs to them, but if you use the third-party they can try and cut corners on the repair to save money e.g. use cheaper inferior repair shops and rental vehicles)

 

[Davidhee58]

Thanks Cyker and for all above advice as well, have reported to LV already, was told the garage near to me will contact me to arranges the repair, I don't need to pay the excess as it's a no-fault claim, and LV will ask the the third party insurrer to hire a car for me if I want. 

[Roy124]

Your insurer will pass the problem to a claims management company.  In the case of AAIS it is Acromas.

It took us quite some time to work out who they were and what they after my MiL was rear ended.   The slight bumper damage resulted in her car being written off - transferred shock.

The Claims Management Company is on your side.  Her insurance company may offer you a hire car for X days.  Your CMC will get then to provide a car for as long as you need it etc.   My MiL had a dedicated agent who handled the claim.

 

[Roy124]

David, it would be helpful to establish that it is a CMC working for LV and you.

[Cyker]

Woo!  

Please keep us appraised on how it all goes - I'm always very interested in how different insurers treat their customers, e.g. how easy it is to get everything sorted, how easy it is to get in contact with them, if you have to keep chasing them up, if they try and pressure you into anything, whether their repairer is a cowboy or not etc. so I'd love to hear your experiences with them!

 

[fred88]

I had a no fault accident and my insurer agreed and pursued the other parties insurance for all costs. No financial hit at all, quite rare I think but this was pretty clear cut.

[Davidhee58]

3 hours ago, Roy124 said:

David, it would be helpful to establish that it is a CMC working for LV and you.

Hi Roy, regarding the non-fault claim, it is said at the LV website:

"In some circumstances, we don't receive payment from the third party or their insurer in the time frame given. For us to settle your claim, we need to recover the costs we've paid out. So, we'll instruct one of our panel solicitors (Horwich Farrelly or Lyons Davidson) to help us settle your claim as quickly as possible. They'll take over the management of your claim on our behalf. "

[Roy124]

So there you have it David, find out which solicitor is handling the claim and work with them.  I think it is much better for you having a point of contact in a 'small solicitors' rather than the main insurer.

[Sharnie70]

I’m in a similar position at the moment. I was rear ended about 11 days ago when my car was 3 weeks old. I’m insured with Esure. They like you to do everything online even filling in the accident claim. Mine kept coming up with an error so had to phone them.  They don’t speak very good English. Explained what happened and answered the questions. Said it didn’t sound like my fault. Was sent a link to take photos from every angle of the car. From this they say my car is repairable.  Sent another link to send photos or anything else to do with the other car. When I check online in my account the details of the accident aren’t all right and I’ve twice told them but nothing has changed. After the accident- because I was right beside the dealership I bought the car from - and I was in shock and didn’t know what to do I went to them. They recommend going straight to the accident and repair place they use and who are a Toyota approved repairer to check it was safe to drive. I did this and they checked it. The black bumper is damaged because it went against the bar. He checked underneath and said it was fine. The damage to the white bumper above I think is from his number plate puncturing it. When I contacted the insurance company I said I wanted them to do the repair as he said they dealt with Esure.  Esure checked and agreed. On my account it shows a different company is going to do the repair. I’ve 3 times told them it is wrong but it hasn’t been changed and this is how I’m supposed to follow my repair! They say the company I wanted has been instructed and I’ve checked and they have. I’ve also been told I will have to pay my excess to the repair company and then get it back if the other insurance company pay up. Because the other car was from overseas it will take longer to sort out and they will have to identify who in the uk will handle their claim. Must admit Esure doesn’t inspire confidence. Sorry for the long post. 

[Cyker]

That's an interesting point actual - In the past my insurance repairs were done by accident damage repairers directly authorised by the insurer, but it seems these days insurance companies outsource that out to 'repair networks' who then assign the repairer for your vehicle.

In my last one, it showed the repair network company as the repairer for mine, and i had to create *another* account for that company in order to log in to log e.g. tickets and allow me to see the actual repairer company.

Another layer of complication!

[fred88]

9 hours ago, Davidhee58 said:

Hi Roy, regarding the non-fault claim, it is said at the LV website:

"In some circumstances, we don't receive payment from the third party or their insurer in the time frame given. For us to settle your claim, we need to recover the costs we've paid out. So, we'll instruct one of our panel solicitors (Horwich Farrelly or Lyons Davidson) to help us settle your claim as quickly as possible. They'll take over the management of your claim on our behalf. "

That's exactly what happened to me. The other party ignored everything apparently but Solicitors got involved and sorted it. I am with LV.

[Davidhee58]

On 5/27/2024 at 7:31 AM, fred88 said:

That's exactly what happened to me. The other party ignored everything apparently but Solicitors got involved and sorted it. I am with LV.

Hi Roger, I am with LV as well, how long did it take for your claim to be finally settled?  in my case, i don't think it needs the solicitors to get involved, the accident happened at roundabout, I perfectly stopped my car behind the lines to give way to a car coming from my right, the old lady followed me didn't keep enough space to avoid rear-ending. I hope the third party or their insure will accep the liability for the accident and LV can recover all costs without any issue.     

[fred88]

It wasn't my choice to involve solicitors, LV made the decision, I didn't even have legal cover. Can't recall timescale exactly but it was slow. Something like 2 or 3 months passed and out of the blue I got a call from the Solicitors, it must have been at least that again before I got a letter telling me that all costs had been recovered and there was no impact on my insurance - apparently!

[Davidhee58]

3 hours ago, fred88 said:

It wasn't my choice to involve solicitors, LV made the decision, I didn't even have legal cover. Can't recall timescale exactly but it was slow. Something like 2 or 3 months passed and out of the blue I got a call from the Solicitors, it must have been at least that again before I got a letter telling me that all costs had been recovered and there was no impact on my insurance - apparently!

Thanks Roger, I have only about one and half of month left with LV and need to find a new insurer soon, if my claim isn't settled before the renewal date, it may impact my new premium. So far it seems the third party's insurer AvivaZero accepted the liability, as they have called me twice and said they would like to put things right and will repair my car and provide replacement for the duration of repair at no costs to me, and asked me to close my claim from LV. As Cyker advised, there is no advantage for me, it's just in favour of reducing their costs, I have rejected their offer already.

[Cyker]

Don't worry, I've had claims carry on past renewal date and as long as they're declared it'll be treated as if it's resolved as it's nothing to do with the new insurer anyway.

In one case I even effectively *started* a new claim with my previous insurer because autoglass were dicking me about for months when my windscreen spontaneously cracked, so I called my previous insurer and explained it to them, and after they checked with autoglass that there was an active case open with me that had been started while they were still covering me, they gave me authorization to get the glass replaced elsewhere!

Had to give props to Churchill for that, as I was expecting long drawn out fight!