[Matty_]

Its my first post and not a very good one to start. I'm all ready and starting to sorting out about buying a new mini when to my shock my insurance company have suspended my no claims due to a claim that has been put against me when a shocking bit of driving came from a BMW driver.

The driver was trying to undertake me in a cycle lane when i was turning left onto a side road. well he didn't make it and scraped up the side of my car and his wheels on the curb.

he even tried to blame me!!

i didn't claim as i can T-Cut his black marks out of my car but his nice new BMW had some go faster white lines above his wheel arch at the front of his car drivers side. he has tired to claim and my insurance has said no with a big fat NO its not my fault and has rejected his claim. they have not had anything back from his insurance but my no claims has been suspended until either, his insurance company back down and accept there is nothing there to claim. Or if nothing is heard in 12 months this if from October 2006 when it happend they will look at the case again and then close it if they still think i am not at fault. until then i am back to square one.

it seems i am being punished by my insurance company for something thats not even my fault and my insurance company are the ones backing me up.

i was hoping to buy a lovely cooper s but now i am stuck with nothing

can anyone offer some advise what i can do so speed this along of anything really that might help my cause.

[lertulo]

Lawyers are your friends.

[Randall Raines]

Quote: Originally Posted by Matty_ (original)

Its my first post and not a very good one to start. I'm all ready and starting to sorting out about buying a new mini when to my shock my insurance company have suspended my no claims due to a claim that has been put against me when a shocking bit of driving came from a BMW driver.

As soon as you are involved in an accident and one party or the other reports the incident, tries to claim, then both party's No Claims Bonus's are put on hold until the whole incident is sorted out either through mutual agreement between both party's, both insurance's or a judge .

Quote: Originally Posted by Matty_ (original)

i didn't claim as i can T-Cut his black marks out of my car but his nice new BMW had some go faster white lines above his wheel arch at the front of his car drivers side. he has tired to claim and my insurance has said no with a big fat NO its not my fault and has rejected his claim. they have not had anything back from his insurance but my no claims has been suspended until either, his insurance company back down and accept there is nothing there to claim. Or if nothing is heard in 12 months this if from October 2006 when it happened they will look at the case again and then close it if they still think i am not at fault. until then i am back to square one.

it seems i am being punished by my insurance company for something thats not even my fault and my insurance company are the ones backing me up.

Even though you haven't claimed for your damage, the other damage is still there and until it is sorted out 100% in your favour there is still a chance that your insurance will still be liable for some, if not all of the damage depending on the out come, hence, you'd have a claim against you whether you actually claimed yourself or not , it's not that your insurance will be backing you up, although they will do if it means that they don't have to pay out, they just won't want to pay anything out.

Quote: Originally Posted by Matty_ (original)

can anyone offer some advise what i can do so speed this along of anything really that might help my cause.

In my case, it looked like a 50:50 but I was 100% sure that it was the other party's fault, I think my insurance and solicitor actually got it to a 75:25 in my favour (this still meant loss of some no claims), it was when I held my ground and said no it has to be 100% or nothing my own insurance dropped me (they came up with a reason to drop me), I was advised by a solicitor of my own, if I wanted to speed things up as neither side wanted to take the actual plunge and start court proceedings, I would have to do it myself. ie pay the court fee and start the court proceedings myself, which I did and eventually won 100% in my favour hence getting all my expenses paid by the other party's insurance .

A little advice on that comment, knowing your in the right, and thinking your right, are two different things, every body involved in an accident believes it's the other persons fault but whether it is or not .

Luckily I was early on in the insurance and although they had dropped me in this case they said I would still be covered until my policy ran out , I couldn't actually get a decent quote from anyone else as I had zero No Claims & a ongoing dispute, so I had no choice but to believe them and stay with them however this case took nearly 18 mths to sort out so come time to renew my policy, my own insurance quoted double / triple the original price off the original policy (because of zero No Claims & a ongoing dispute) due to the way they had treated me, handled the case I declined, they did however say that I would get any extra money back should the claim be resolved 100% in my favour (i didn't believe them, and I wasn't prepared to give them any more money anyway, I went without insurance for a few months, not driving), once the case was settled I was credited with my no claims bonus though .

On the same note a friend of mine was in a similar position as you, someone cut him up at a junction and scraped his front wing and the rear quarter of the other persons car, same thing happened both believed it was the other persons fault so it took a long time to sort out, however he took his insurance up on their offer that he would get some money back once it was all settled if it was found to be in his favour, it was 100%, however when he asked for some money back he was told "who told you that, it's not our policy to tell people that, you were covered for the risk that you represented zero No Claims etc... etc...", so he never got any money back, he now records all calls to his insurance himself so that he has evidence should anything like that happen again.

[MarkW]

I going through similar with NCB at the moment

The insurance company have no right that I'm aware of to withold NCB UNTIL the claim is settled.

The key part is the fudamental underpin of UK justice, you are innocent until proven guilty, witholding NCB reverse that and assumes that you are guilty until your innocence is proven.

Another issue is technically they are blackmailing you to renew with that company.

My issue arose just before renewal and whereas my insurers stated the ncb would be reinstated upon a conclusion no other company would honour that so if I had changed I would have lost that NCB for good.

Been driving for long enough now and been through enough claims previously. Ever other time a pending claim was noted on file but NCB was not effected until blame was leveled and the responsible party.

[Randall Raines]

Quote: Originally Posted by MarkXR (original)

Another issue is technically they are blackmailing you to renew with that company.

My issue arose just before renewal and whereas my insurers stated the ncb would be reinstated upon a conclusion no other company would honour that so if I had changed I would have lost that NCB for good.

Been driving for long enough now and been through enough claims previously. Ever other time a pending claim was noted on file but NCB was not effected until blame was leveled and the responsible party.

I have actually had it happen a couple of times to me now, but I've heard of it happen to quite a few people, I think the problem shows up mostly when it comes for time for renewal or you actually want to change insurance company, If a claim is settled within a few weeks or even months providing your policy isn't due for renewal, you / most people would never know .

It also happened to the other ½ just recently, she wanted a MINI but as it was going to be her 1st car with zero No Claims she was getting quotes in the thousands so we got a banger so that she could get 1 yrs No Claims as the quotes came down considerably (affordable), around the 10 month mark we actually purchased a MINI in anticipation of the No Claims, yes!, you guessed it about 3 weeks before the policy was up, there was an accident , it was a straight forward they ran into the back off her, nothing that she could have done would've changed anything, her own insurance didn't actually go up or down on renewal as she was in the same position as 12 mths before (apart from the ongoing claim), but she couldn't however afford to insure the MINI again , so that got garaged in anticipation of a quick settlement which never materialised as the third party denied responsibility and then the third party's insurance tried not paying out (saying that the person driving wasn't actually covered at the time for various reasons), by the time it was agreed it was the third party's fault and they were actually covered by their insurance and my other ½'s No Claims was reinstated (luckily just before her 2nd renewal, 2yrs No Claims), it was over 12 mths from the date of the accident and the claim has still not been settled completely.

So with that in mind I think the original statement that I made should have said both party's No Claims Bonus's are put on hold until one or the other party's have admitted liability, not, both party's No Claims Bonus's are put on hold until the whole incident is sorted , which is not actually the same as being settled, although if it does go to court it's one in the same .

"MarkXR", relating to your comment about no other company would honour reinstating NCB upon conclusion, Once I had won my case 100% I went to another Insurance company and they took me on straight away (I gave them the court case details), although I suppose this wasn't half way through, it had actually ended in my case and with all the blame put on the other party.

[suzysafloozy]

happened to my bf. a CYCLIST went OVER a grass roundabout, skidded and went straight into the side of the car. two new doors and front wing pannel thingy. then musta seen a no win no fee advert on tv and thought he'd try his luck! even after admitting liability to the police. stand your ground if you know your right.