No blaim accident.

Honest John Back Room » Legal matters
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Sun 1 Sep 2013 20:46
No blaim accident. - jandnrowe

Bit of a legal query this time.

My daughter parked her car up our road which is on a hill. Later that evening a neighbour knocked to say another car had rolled into it. Sure enough it had. Folded up the front spoiler as wing of the other car and pushed my daughter's onto the pavement. Lucily my daugher had parked with her wheels facing 'out' which prevented the other car rolling down the hill. I can appreciate the other owner being puzzled how this happened but now after 4 months she's claiming against my daughter's insurance. They are now charging her an extra 50 pounds on renewal and say all companies do this. My daughter was also 200 miles away at Uni when this happened. What can she do?

NR

West Yorkshire.

Edited by jandnrowe on 01/09/2013 at 20:50

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Sun 1 Sep 2013 22:57
No blaim accident. - FP

Question: Did your daughter claim on her own insurance after this incident, and was the damage repaired?

If she made a claim, that is why her insurance premium has been hiked, irrespective of who was to blame. Did she also claim her excess back from the other car's owner, which it would seem she is entitled to?

There is no reason why the owner of the other car should directly claim against your daughter's insurance - in fact, I don't see how that is possible. The claim would be on the other owner's insurance, not your daughter's. It is just possible the other driver might try to claim directly from your daughter - totally without justification, if you have told the story correctly and fully - but your daughter would know about that and should have then referred it to her insurance company.

Maybe there are a few more details to this story?

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Mon 2 Sep 2013 21:41
No blaim accident. - jandnrowe

No more details. We notifyed her insurers that there was no damage to her car and we were not claiming. They say the hike is because she is statistically likely to have an accident within the year of incident (as someone mentions elsewhere).

Edited by jandnrowe on 02/09/2013 at 21:43

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Mon 2 Sep 2013 09:40
No blaim accident. - rjr

2 points:

1. Liability follows negligence so the owner of the other car is only liable for the damage to your daughter's car if there is evidence of negligence on their part. In this scenario the most obvious example of negligence is if the other owner did not apply their handbrake correctly. If there is no evidence of negligence (perhaps the handbrake was applied but failed unexpectedly) then your daughter would have to claim through her own insurance.

2. Having said that I do not see how the other party feels that they are entitled to claim for their damage from your daughter's insurance unless

i) they have given their insurer a different version of events (such as your daughter's car crashed into theirs).

ii) they are making a claim themselves in ignorance of the facts.

What did your daughter's insurers say when she passed the other party's claim to them?

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Mon 2 Sep 2013 16:44
No blaim accident. - Bromptonaut

Even if it's a no fault accident notified to the insurer with no claim it can raise your premium. Reason is that it can indicate a change in risk profile, in simle terms being involved in one accident makes you statistically more likley to have another.

Something about this on Radio 4, possibly MoneyBox, about this recently. Malcolm Tarling from the ABI explained the rationale.

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Mon 2 Sep 2013 16:59
No blaim accident. - skidpan

Over the years I have had a couple of accidents that were not my fault. In both instances they were dealt with by my own insurance company, in both cases my uninsurred loss cover recovered my excess and in both cases there was no increase to my next years premium.

My wife had an accident when a van reversed into the front of her, he had overshot a set of lights whilst on his mobile. Our insurers were notified but the owners of the van arranged repairs with a local to us body shop with no cost to us. No increase in premium at renewal. Once she hit the wall in front of our house, only been there 20 years. Clearly her fault, protected no claims, no increase in premium at renewal.

Dad hit a barrier in the local, ASDA earlier this year, totally his fault, no other vehicle involved, protected no claims. He is 85 years old thus not the best risk but on renewal his premium actually went down.

So where does this myth about no blame accidents increasing your premuim and protected no claims being useless come from.

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Mon 2 Sep 2013 18:30
No blaim accident. - daveyjp
After a no faut claim with LV the next year they wanted much more and they have not been competitive since that day. Once the claim is off my record I'll try them again.
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