Motor 3rd-party claim outstanding against another insurance company at renewal

mathepac

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I got my renewal notice yesterday from chill.ie, brokers for RSA. The net premium is €12 cheaper than last year for the same comprehensive cover on the same car. A phone call got them to drop the broker's fee and change the finance arrangement from €200 deposit with 9 equal payments on the balance to 10 equal payments with no upfront deposit.

I have a 3rd-party claim outstanding against another insurance company, ALLIANZ, and chill.ie say I cannot get competitive quotes as a consequence. This is news to me and I chose not to claim against my own comprehensive policy to allow me flexibility at renewal time. Are they correct as I can't see that specific condition in the T&Cs?

Does this restriction, triggered by the 3rd-party's failure to report the accident to his insurers a month after the accident, form part of my claim? I got an indicitave quote from another insurer that is 10% cheaper than chill.ie.
 
So a third party that you were involved in an accident with has put a claim in against your policy? Is there a personal injury aspect to it or just property damage? Why is it their insurer and not yours? Did you not report it to your insurers at the time? What I'm getting at is if you were involved in an accident its not the other party's insurers fault.

you said you chose not to claim against your policy but there was obviously another party involved so who bore responsiblilty here?

If you are liable and there is an open personal injury claim under your policy its unlikely you fit anyones' criteria. If its only property damage, there should not be an issue with other quotes, depending on the amount of the damage.
 
"I have a 3rd-party claim outstanding against another insurance company,"

An idiot reversed into my empty, stationary car causing €850 damage to my car's front bumper, bracketry, etc. One month after the event, said idiot has not reported the incident to ALLIANZ, his insurer. I called the Guards, who took notes at the scene and to whom I also made a statement. I notified my insurers on the day, declining the option to claim against my comprehensive policy and made a full written report to them including photographs.

Using the details supplied by the Guards at the scene, I notified his insurers of my claim, and at their request, attended at a main dealer/approved repairer for damage assessment and seperately, allowed their assessor access to my car for examination and taking photographs.

In the middle of this I received my renewal notice and NCB and tried finding cheaper insurance with the results I outlined in the OP. Last Friday I asked ALLIANZ when they will be in a position to settle the undisputed claim against their customer. They responded maybe in a month or two and in the meantime I should be careful that the damage to my car doesn't get any worse. I asked how I could ensure this and their response was to claim against my own comprehensive policy!! I asked why they hadn't issued the "14-day notice" to their customer and they said they were discussing it and trying to make contact with him directly and through his broker. I told them to hurry up with it.
 
I was in this exact situation in August. I ended up having to stick with the current insurance company as my insurance was about to expire. It was somewhat stressful at the time.
 
Thanks for the explanation. I'm sure you're aware people tend to bandy around the wrong words for things, open drive when they mean driving other cars extension etc. Saying "i have a 3rd party claim" just makes it sound like you have a 3rd party claiming against another insurer as opposed to you claiming from a third party.

Then unfortunately your broker is doing you a diservice. You haven't made a claim against your own policy and your actions against another insurer should not stop you from getting a competitive quote elsewhere!

By the way a quick call from a specialist third party recovery solicitors like Hussey Frasier would probably make Allianz setlle a little quicker!!
 
mathpac - if there is an open claim from you in relation to your car with the other insurer, then there may be a chance, that you could claim against your own insurance to get your car fixed, if that third party claim remains unsettled / rejected etc.

I was in a similar position coming up to my renewal a few years back - I had a claim against third party for damage done to my car. When I rang around for quotes, I specified the full details of the incident, also stating that the claim was not against my own insurance, and it was to be settled by the other party. Some quotes were "higher" than expected (my current insurer was one of the highest (AA), others were competitive. Seems to be an issue with some companies, not with others.

In relation to AA, they said that the incident itself didn't affect my renewal, it was just the best competitive price they could give me (almost €400 more than previous year). I've never rang them back for a quote since.
 
Saying "i have a 3rd party claim"
I didn't say that. In my OP I was very careful to state that "I have a 3rd-party claim outstanding against another insurance company,", in other words, the claim is mine but the insurance and insurance company are not. I'm sick of ringing ALLIANZ and sick of their stories. I'll give those guys you mentioned a bell, thanks.
 
claim is mine but the insurance and insurance company are not.

In my experience insurance companies still treat this as a potential claim against your own policy. The logic is that if the other insurance company only accept partial liability, your own insurance company could be on the hook for the remainder of the claim amount. The other party also usually has 12 months to initiate a claim against you for the event that gave rise to your claim.
 
In my experience insurance companies still treat this as a potential claim against your own policy. The logic is that if the other insurance company only accept partial liability, your own insurance company could be on the hook for the remainder of the claim amount. The other party also usually has 12 months to initiate a claim against you for the event that gave rise to your claim.

this one is open and shut to be fair to mathepac
 
this one is open and shut to be fair to mathepac

It sounds it, but until such time as the claim is recorded as resolved, they treat them all the same. It's all about the insurers protecting their own interests.
 
we had something similar, where someone drove into the back of my wife causing 12k worth of damage to our car and injuring her.

Our insurers at the time said claim from us and we will recover all costs from the other parties insurance, which they did (we needed to get the car back on the road quickly). Anyway all was settled, our insurer recovered all of their costs etc.

When we moved the policy a few years later the new insurer came back a few days later increasing the premium as they said we had a previous claim that wasnt disclosed. The circumstances and subsequent full settlement by the other co;s insurance and our fully procteced NCB didnt seem to matter.
 
The circumstances and subsequent full settlement by the other co;s insurance and our fully procteced NCB didnt seem to matter
You had a claim on your own insurance, so that must be declared to all other insurance companies that you talk to, when renewing the insurance - regardless of who was to blame / costs / etc.

The protected NCB is only relevant to your current insurance provider if you renew with them.

There is still a "claim against insurance" on your record and must be declared for each subsequent insurer, if it's within their time remit - "have you had a claim in the last X number of years, regardless of blame ..... etc "
 
It sounds it, but until such time as the claim is recorded as resolved, they treat them all the same. It's all about the insurers protecting their own interests.
Except he is saying that the claim isn't open under his policy. Its by virtue of whatever way he is explaining to his brokers i gather.
 
You had a claim on your own insurance, so that must be declared to all other insurance companies that you talk to, when renewing the insurance - regardless of who was to blame / costs / etc.

The protected NCB is only relevant to your current insurance provider if you renew with them.

There is still a "claim against insurance" on your record and must be declared for each subsequent insurer, if it's within their time remit - "have you had a claim in the last X number of years, regardless of blame ..... etc "

but even if that claim was fully recovered by my insurance company from the liable parties insurance, its still a claim? surely its only a claim for the period between them paying out to repair my car and then recover the monies. We werent at fault or liable.
 
but even if that claim was fully recovered by my insurance company from the liable parties insurance, its still a claim? surely its only a claim for the period between them paying out to repair my car and then recover the monies. We werent at fault or liable.

Yeah, I have complained about this but got nowhere. It needs to be reformed. Same thing happened us and when my wife rang the insurance company and they asked if she wanted to make a claim off her insurance and then they will just claim off the other insurance company. Wife said sure and before you know it, we have a claim on record even though the insurance company recouped all money within weeks. Despite the amount of money I pay every year, I would be more and more reluctant to go to my own insurance company for anything unless I really have no choice...
 
Yeah, I have complained about this but got nowhere. It needs to be reformed. Same thing happened us and when my wife rang the insurance company and they asked if she wanted to make a claim off her insurance and then they will just claim off the other insurance company. Wife said sure and before you know it, we have a claim on record even though the insurance company recouped all money within weeks. Despite the amount of money I pay every year, I would be more and more reluctant to go to my own insurance company for anything unless I really have no choice...

they certainly dont make this clear at the time either, that it will sit as a claim on your policy.
 
Except he is saying that the claim isn't open under his policy. Its by virtue of whatever way he is explaining to his brokers i gather.

It doesn't matter whose policy the claim is made against. Until such time as all parties confirm the matter is closed in full, it's regarded as an open case with potential liability for both parties.

In this particular case, Allianz might come back and offer to cover 80% of the claim, suggesting the OP could then need to claim the remainder via his own insurer.
 
they certainly dont make this clear at the time either, that it will sit as a claim on your policy.

A no claims discount or bonus is just that, fault or the outcome is immaterial. It's all engineered in their favour.
 
A no claims discount or bonus is just that, fault or the outcome is immaterial. It's all engineered in their favour.

Its not even just about the no claims bonus (My wife's was left untouched as the insurance company didn't have to pay anything). As mentioned, you have to declare it to other insurance companies and can impact your quote even though there was no fault and no cost to your insurance company so it limits your ability to leave move insurance companies in search of cheaper quotes....
 
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