Lewegie

Short story, while sat eating breakfast last year we watched some prat drive into my parked car and proceed to drive off. Reported it to the police who provided details of it being a hire car and the insurance company but did nothing else.
I provided this information to Norwich Union who basically did very little, lots of calls to someone i could barely understand. So i end up with £900 of damage but to be honest its very difficult to see so will now get left as it is due to renewel time. I've had to call the 'out of the country call centre' today and ask them not to proceed with the claim against this incident as i will loose my no claims bonus until it is settled and will effect my renewel premium. I thought having a witness to an accident where i was not even in my car would be straight forward but not at all. Then i find that this incident is recorded as an accident i have been involved with, and i am supposed to disclose this when getting insured. After having my car vandalised in 2004 and now this I can sometimes understand while some people just don't bother.

Now breath......that feels a little better...

PaulC72

Sadly you have to disclose it especially as you have spoken to your insurance, they are obliged to record the incident, failure to disclose could invalidate your new policy should a claim be made AFAIK, the only hope is that you renew with your current insurer and they understand the situation provide a renewal quote including the claim and then deduct the difference of 50/50 and non fault after recovery, thats my interpretaion but I don't work for insurance.

Lewegie

Thanks for the reply but this claim never took place. I never had the repair carried out to my car. When i reported it to my insurance company i specifically asked them not to proceed if it would affect my position at renewel time. I told them what happened and said i would only pursue it if the other party was considered to be 100% at fault. With us sat in the restaurant watching the over the car park i can't see how i could be considered any part of this incident.

Tony@Greenlight

Hi Lewegie,

Sorry to hear about your accident and the ensuing hassle.

Outsourcing overseas does enable these companies to offer cheaper Insurance, as does internet only £1/min call centres.

As consumers when purchasing cover we all want a better deal and most people are wholly price focussed, but like anything in life you do ultimately get what you pay for and should you need to process anything in our experience overseas call centres make even the simplest of tasks onerous.

Thus as a company, Greenlight chose to deal only with Insurers who operate UK call centres and do not outsource any aspect of their operation to countries that do not adopt English as their 1st/primary language.

With regard to the specifics as to what you should do next:

1) You do need to advise your Insurer as to the accident, this is material information and as such must be disclosed. At this stage, you can tell them that you are not looking to claim and this is reported for information purposes only.

You are part of the incident, but are not to blame and in our opinion should not lose out financially due to the scurrilous actions of the responsible driver.

2) You should contact the hire car firm/their Insurer directly to ascertain as to whether the incident was reported, at this point make them aware that there is an independent witness and that you intend to pursue them for recovery in relation to damage caused to your vehicle.

3) Gauge the reaction of the hire co/Insurer at this point and take the name of the individual you speak to, their full address and follow this up in writing accompanied with either an estimate to repair the vehicle (or if already repaired, a receipt for your outlay).

You may be able to enlist the assistance of your uninsured loss recovery provider (legal expenses Insurer), which would avoid having to claim via your own Insurer and would be well versed with the handling of this kind of instance, but again with your specific Insurer in mind may mean another call overseas.

Shame you're not with us really, as we could have intervened to expedite the resolution of your claim and this would probably have been resolved by now.

Best of luck!

Kind regards

Tony

Lewegie

Thank you for your response Tony.
Today i cancelled my claim with the insurance company. From the beginning i made it clear that i never wanted the claim to proceed should the third party not co-operate.
I did contact the hire car company and the manager was rude, stating that they had questioned the driver who has quoted he had no knowledge of the incident, so enough said. Considering the driver watched my car move on impact as he couldn't be bothered to reverse once more to monouver around my car is frustrating to here. The manager was adament that he would not co-operate and from what NU have told me they have dragged this on in hope i would drop it, (which has worked).
I feel that i should have done all the things you have mentioned myself instead of relying on the insurance company.
I have to insure my car tomorrow but will visit your website.
Thanks again.

Tony@Greenlight

Ok Lewegie..

Lesson learned I suppose, but you do seem to have been left for dead by your direct insurer .

Anyway, if you get 5 mins log onto www.greenlightinsurance.com and put your details online, we'll see what we can do for you.

We may not be quite as cheap as some of these direct companies due to this, but the cover IS worth the paper it's written on and will be through an underwriter who is UK based that doesn't have overseas call centres - all with the back up of a broker that cares and will not leave you for dead

Kind regards

Tony