I have successfully made a no fault claim with no increase in premium or excess to pay.

 

On returning to my car parked in a multi story car park  I found damage to my rear quarter, (car was scratched too)

 

Viewing the dashcam footage the offender was easily identified, both him and his registration number and not wanting to suffer increased insurance costs for five years I had no doubt I would pursue the offender directly or through his insurance company.

I knew I would need a crime reference number so popped off to the local police station only to find it was closed...yes closed, I could start a whole new thread at my consternation over this but lets move on.

When I did go to the police in opening hours (humorously I saw two burglars and a rapist waiting till 7am to commit their crimes) I was told that an officer would be in touch with me soon as the offender had not reported the incident and therefore had committed an offence.  

Three days later I got a text repeating the crime reference number and telling me I should contact my insurance company...laughable..no details of his insurance , name or anything.

 

As part of car insurance terms and conditions you have to inform them of any INCIDENT whether you intend to claim or not and not wishing to rely on word of mouth (phone calls) I wrote to my insurance company detailing the date, time, damage, my details and the offending car details with an emboldened and underlined title of ~

FOR INFORMATION  ONLY    THIS IS NOT A CLAIM

The next stage was to identify the driver.

You need to download form v888 from the dvla

It is a simple enough form but to save you the three attempts it took me, where it says "please state why you require this information ~" continue on a separate sheet if needed, it is needed.

They will not accept "cos he broke my car"

they want a full description like you would imagine you would give in a court including car reg xxx xxxx was parked and car reg xxx xxxxx did this then car reg...etc

they want thee time date and even the post code of where it happened and photographs.

You can not give enough information so don't try writing it on the form where it asks you to.

Eventually you will get the name and address but not his insurance details, the police I am told should have given this however they wont unless they are certain you have a good reason to want it, ie view your dashcam footage as part of their investigation

 

Once you have the insurance details you can now contact them, in my case it was a company called Acromas...no I had not heard of them either. This is thee company trading as Saga / AA insurance.

Acromas gave me the run around for weeks, never a reply to mails, phone calls result in being asked to email and then no reply again.

I finally got to speak to their third party claims department who said they would contact their  insured and if he admits it or doesn't reply they would accept my claim.

One month later I got a letter stating he denied hitting my car (I had sent the dashcam footage) and so good bye.

 

I felt I had no choice but to contact my own insurance company (Aviva) and that's where things got a lot better.

I uploaded thee footage as instructed and was told that because I had obtained thee offenders details they would proceed for me on a no fault claim basis and not even charge me the excess.

A few days later I got a phone call from what I believe to be a legal firm acting as loss adjusters for acromas who wanted to see my evidence (footage) to which I obliged and after viewing it they rang again to tell me "no contest" and perhaps I could use their services

.

There is a good reason for that which I don't fully understand but due to some arrangement between insurance companies it was going to cost them a lot more if I proceeded through my own.

I referred the caller to the good bye letter I received from Acromas and pointed out the excellent service from aviva and said goodbye.

 

My insurance company did confirm when I rang a week later that the "no contest" status was valid so repairs can commence.

 

Here's the kicker, I have just had my renewal and true to their word they have listed one no fault claim, NCD intact and no increase in premium. I am told admiral group which I think includes Churchill and direct line do as a matter of course increase insurance costs to their customers in my position.

Worth considering if you are about to sign with them.

 

so to summarise.

get your evidence sorted

get a crime ref and tell them you want the offenders insurance details

Notify your insurance company

complete form v888 (£2.50 charge) and get the other party details

contact theirs or if you are with aviva let them do it

 

 

 

I had a no fault claim with Direct Line and as you say my premiums went up the following year, when questioned the response was "you've had a claim". I went through a legal firm, who informed Direct Line as per their terms, so they did absolutely nothing in terms of claim processing. The closest to a reason for the increase was because there's a claim, fault or not, you're statistically more risky to an insurance company!  Needless to say I didn't renew with them. 

naming and shaming is the only way motorists will have any effect!

 

I do wonder if complaints to the insurance ombudsmen (many) would bring about a change too

I had a no fault uncontested claim. Driver admitted fault at the scene, spoke to his firm (knock from a lorry) they again didn't contest.

 

Spoke to my Insurer (ESure) they said (and confirmed in writing) that as it was uncontested they would not require me to pay any excess and repairs could be arranged. Esure's repairer did more damage to the car than the lorry that hit it but that's a whole other saga.

 

A few months later my renewal came up and it was considerably higher. I phone up to haggle and I'm told that I have an 'at fault' claim outstanding. I explain the uncontested claim. They said that because they hadn't gotten round to recovering the excess from the other party's insurer it was recorded as an 'at fault' until the insurers had settled with each other. I would apparently be refunded when this was done. I was never refunded.

 

So in summary insurers.....

I'd be surprised if any insurance company didn't see someone with a claim, either fault or non-fault, as a higher risk, harsh if you're not at fault but just the way life is sometimes. They are a statistical driven industry after-all.

 

When you claim your premium did not increase, are you saying it was identical to the prior years price?

 

Most insurance companies raise the premiums year-to-year for many reasons, not just claim history, therefore making it difficult to determine what actually affected the price change.

 

My renewals are always higher than the previous year, designed to catch those customers that automatically renew and don't bother querying the price or shopping around. Once I've jumped through their hoops and played the game the renewal price is negotiated down to pretty much where it was the year before, give or take £20-£30.

 

Edited 30 August, 20187 yr by silver1011

20 hours ago, silver1011 said:

saying it was identical to the prior years price?

 

to within a few pounds, I was expecting it to be higher as you suggest.