Just settled with the insurance for the value of our car that was written off by a driver not paying attention 2 weeks ago so now need to go out and buy a new car.

Unfortunately I was driving as a named driver on the OHs policy so it will affect both our premiums.

We ran through the quotes for a freelander which will obviously be higher than a little peugeot but with the claim on OHs name the insurance goes up about £150. For me as named and also put down it doesnt affect it much more but it will on my own policy.

Has anyone successfully recovered this increase from the other parties insurance? If so what happens for the subsequent years you have to declare it? Looks like it will add about 30-35% onto our normal premiums which is really irritating.

I don’t think you can claim against somebody else for becoming a higher insurance risk – that bit is down to you I’m afraid. As unfair as it seems (and it does seem very unfair), it’s quite rational.

You need to talk to a broker/insurer or two this where online tick boxes don’t really work.

Even though you were not at fault, you will now be deemed to be higher risk, because you have been involved in an incident.
I don’t think there’s much you can do in recovering the extra cost, short of buying a Delorean and getting it up to 88mph…

You won’t be able to sorry.
Insurance is based on statistics so claims means a higher policy regardless of fault usually.

I always find it odd that I could be in a stationary vehicle, be hit from behind and this fact indicates I am a higher insurance risk in the future.

Not odd at all. Next time the other driver might not be insured, might drive away and not get caught or might successfully manage to wiggle out of the blame. Clearly you are more at risk of such an incident happening to you than somebody who it hasn’t happened to.

Just statistical analysis though.
If that happens to you it is more likely to happen to you compared with someone who didn’t have the first accident.

Can’t really apply logical scenarios to it

Its an intresting question and claims costs being the subject of an investigation perhaps worth pursueing.

andyl- Its not quite clear in your Op but did your or the other parties insurance pay for the repairs to your car?

Sometimes a first non fault claim doesnt load a premium, depending on the insurer and the rest of your driving history.

Presuming its the only incident in the last few years and the other persons insurance covered the costs, perhaps you could argue that legal cover(if you have it) should assist recover this non insured expense.

They will only act if theres a good chance of winning and may have a explanation why not, even if they dont help.

I’ve been in the same situation as the OP – hit whilst stationary, car written off etc

Surely my resulting higher insurance premiums are a direct result of the ‘at fault’ driver’s negligence and as such, should be treated in the same way as any other un-insured loss which resulted from the accident i.e. reclaimed through his insurance?

I knmow this isn’t how it works, but I don’t understand why not.

No, because what’s happened is that the incident has shown that you are higher risk. This is not directly the fault of the other party – you would still have been higher risk if they’d not run into you, it’s just that the insurance company wouldn’t have known 😉

Eh? The evaluation of me as higher risk is directly attributable to the accident, caused by him (the total nobber!)

I always find it odd that I could be in a stationary vehicle, be hit from behind and this fact indicates I am a higher insurance risk in the future.

Its the bigger picture, not you individually. There are kinds of driver who’s behaviour is such that they get involved in accidents even though they’re not at fault for them. I used to know a guy who’s employer was offering a crate of chamagne to any employee who could get through a year without being involved a crash. It rarely got claimed. Year on year he failed to claim his crate and yet he was never deemed ‘at fault’ in any of the accidents he had- but obviously with that history there has to be something in his behaviour thats contributing to these incidents and the risk that he will be the ‘at fault’ driver in one of them is greater for him than other drivers

So you premium is based on the kind of driver you appear to be, not the kind of driver you are, and when theres an accident in your history you become, theoretically more like him and less like you.

Also, you’ve proved you use a route also used by the at fault driver, therefore more likely to be hit by them again.

Bizzarely mine went down after the OH had an accident which was 100% her fault (might just have gone down normaly by more than she pushed it up I suppose).

Is it because they come in threes?

A no claims bonus is a no CLAIMS bonus not a no liability bonus, absolutely nothing you can do

IanW – other party have admitted full liability. Our car is a total loss and they are going to be hit with extra expenses unfortunately as 2 weeks after the accident I still can’t use my right arm properly so it is affecting my work (diagnosis as the scene was possible dislocated shoulder that I put back in whilst climbing out of the passenger side).

I can see their argument on the statistics as maybe they have evidence to suggest there is a pattern, possibly due to the areas you tend to live in etc etc. Must be lots of factors. But what I don’t understand is this is a direct financial cost to us due to the other persons actions. The difficultly is quantifying it beyond the time when they need to pay out, at very least it would be nice to have any increase seen while the claim is still in progress covered.

Just noticed this is in the wrong section, sorry 😳

I had this when it came to renewal time, just shop around for better quotes.
Price dropped from £650 to £350 I think so worth looking into.

People claim to have recovered it:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2692665

I tried but gave up as it was taking up too much time repeatedly chasing people 👿

Don’t forget as well that it’s not just this year’s premiums, but next year, the year after etc. No idea how you work that out to pass to the TP insurer.

No it’s not – it’s a cost to you due to your insurance company more “accurately” assessing your risk level. Related to your future probability of having an accident, not anything that happened in the past.

Did you recover all the costs from the other party with admission of liability?

I ask because a couple of years ago I got hit head on by another driver on a country lane – I had stopped completely, she was going too fast and hit me at about 10mph.

Initially the insurance companies wanted to just settle 50/50 as it was a head on. I was really pissed off (because it clearly wasn’t my fault) and got them to press for full statements from her so she’d have to lie if she wanted to avoid liability. In her statement she said that I was stationary and as such, it ended up being pretty clear and her insurance paid for everything.

One of the questions, I asked was what effect that would have on quotes. I was told that it wouldn’t be anything of any significance given that they admitted full liability and all costs were recovered.

Also, it didn’t affect my NCB since in effect I didn’t claim.

As to the statistical question, statistically it’s shown that drivers who have claims (even non fault) are more likely to have accidents. The point really is that when you get a quote when you’ve had no accidents, there’s nothing to go on to suggest how risky where you drive is. Having an accident suggests that where you drive puts you at risk of accidents even if not your fault and given that recovery of costs is not 100% that’s factored into the risk calculation. So it’s an indirect link which is why you can’t really claim against the other party.

Still don’t really get it but maybe I’m just thick.

As an example, I have been driving for 31 years (dear god am I that old?) and never had a claim or accident.

However this year there’s a freak accident where a front wheel detaches unexpectedly from a car after hitting a pothole 3 months previously whilst the driver was on a road trip to the Alps.

Everything would have been fine but a little old lady going home from her sisters takes a wrong turn due to her onset of dementia and ends up 100 miles away from home all lost and confused.

She takes avoiding action to miss the errant wheel and ploughs into my car which I have, for the first time ever, not put in the garage.

I claim on her insurance and when I come to renew I am an increased risk.

Taken to the nth I know but I am unconvinced that my risk has increased.

Clearly little old ladies dodging detached wheels are more likely to hit your car than they are mine, so I don’t see why I should pay for dangerous drivers like you 😉

In reality they don’t look at things in that detail. The stats tell them that people who have had a no fault claim are more likely to make a fault claim in the future.

Taken to nth is hard. Insurers don’t like hard as it can’t be programmed into a computer or assessed by a call centre monkey and it may take effort to resolve like where legitimately people contest those claims where lazy insurers go 50/50. Hard is not profitable.

Fundamentally I think that’s the deal here. Either that or the ‘no fault’ becomes ‘at fault’ as a result of you owning the car that was damaged.

Crap innit.

Crap innit.

Yup!

At the time I wasn’t going to take any crap and told the OH to call the police. Partly because I knew from the moment we stopped spinning that my arm was going to need attention and partly because I was not going to let her try and get away with 50:50.

Of course after 20 minutes and her husband arrived we got the old “you came out of no-where” rubbish. Fortunately the witnesses and CCTV backed me up and the police were having none of it.

Andyl- hope you make a speedy recovery.

I’m reading between the lines but it sounds like the other party has admitted fault but your insurer is covering the costs until they are recovered? In those circumstances you will be seen as an increased risk as you’ve cost yor insurer money. This will change when the other persons insurer pays out for loss of your car. Unfortunately it will be pro rata so if it drags on and you will be paying increased premiums on a new car until that point.

The bodily injury claim will not effect your premiums as it will go directly to the other insurer. I always think the “at fault” term doesn’t help here, what’s important is who’s cost who money.

Once settled and in the absence of other incidents( insurance pricing is algorithms of several factors) one non fault accident without cost to your insurer will often not increase premiums. If you can prove it is being used as a rating factor and proportion to which it alone is increasing your premium would make a complaint worth pursuing.

Good luck.

Shop around – I had a not at fault claim with excess recovered and my renewal went up a fair bit. Confused.com found me a multitude of other insurers with much lower quotes, intact doing some trial quotes showed me that most of them ignored the claim.

We ran through the quotes for a freelander which will obviously be higher than a little peugeot but with the claim on OHs name the insurance goes up about £150. For me as named and also put down it doesnt affect it much more but it will on my own policy.

I’m confused…. is it going to cost your OH an extra £150 to insure another pug [same as the written off one] or to insure a freelander?
Are you sure that the increase isn’t because of some other factors (i.e. change of location, job, speeding fines, etc.)

Think yourself lucky! I had my van damaged by somebody reversing into it whilst it was parked and locked on the driveway! I’ve had all 3 of my vehicles premiums loaded ever since (2 years), madness really but after trying to pursue it, I gave up in the end due to the insurance companies effectively having me by the short and curlys.

shop around. most motor insurers put their premiums up each year even for policies with no claims. you will probably find a cheaper premium with your existing insurer through one of the quote websites. we do every year and Admiral always agree to match. it’s annoying but it’s just the way it is.