Insurer Refusing Details of Other Driver

[Bernie259]

INSURANE COMPANY

 

 

Refusing to provide any details of a claimant on my policy

 

Refusing to provide the same to police obstructing an investigation

 

Refusing to provide the same to allow customer to obtain quotes from other insurers

Increasing a premium by 30% when renewal notice states the driver has passed their driving test but they list them as a Provisional Licence in error.

My daughter needs urgent advice, she was involved in a very minor accident 10 months ago, a driver was indicating to turn right on a very wide main road, and traffic was flowing on the inside, just as she approached without any warning he swerved to the left blocking her path, she assumed he had changed his mind and was going to park on the left so she changed course at the last moment to pass him on the outside, keeping to her side of the road, however, what he was doing was attempting a complete u-turn causing my daughter to hit him, it was unavoidable, no indication and short notice.

The man was quiet intimidating, my daughter has never been in an accident before so was very shocked and upset, he demanded she sign a piece of paper admitting liability saying the damage was £1000, she refused but gave him her full details, she phoned her mother who was close by, she arrived and the other driver left swiftly without providing any details at all, we didn’t even have his registration in all the confusion.

My daughter reported the accident to her insurers straight away but due to shock and being upset she did not give a complete accurate account, she said she was not sure who was at fault as she has never been in an accident before, just he pulled across her path, he then said he indicated left and she just said yes, when in fact she meant right.

My daughter reported the accident to the police and they advised the other driver had already committed an offence by not providing his details at the scene, they said should he make a claim your insurer will have his details so can you pass them to police to be investigated, they said if he was driving illegally it would be a win situation for her.

We heard no more from my insurer for some time, then a letter saying on the evidence they have they will have to admit liability unless any further evidence comes within 14 days.

I sent several URGENT emails to the insurer asking then NOT to settle that the police wanted to investigate him and can we have all the details, all emails to several department were ignored, I tried phoning being on hold for 27 minutes until my battery went dead.

I sent another email setting all this out, it was then taken up as a complaint of poor service and we were given £40.

I managed to get them on the telephone and they said they had to admit 3rd party liability, they said it had nothing to do with the police and they were not allowed to provide and details to me or the police due to the Data Protection Act, I passed this information to the police, we heard no more from anyone and assumed the claim had been withdrawn.

My daughter has now received her Insurance Renewal Notice and has lost her 2 years NCB, costing her several hundred pounds more, she paid for her own repairs to avoid losing her NCB, she noticed there were some errors on it, it said Provisional Licence, under it stated date passed driving test which was wrong it was 6 month earlier. I advised my daughter I would make a formal complaint on her behalf to the insurers; however, she would need to phone them to make sure she has insurance in the meantime and point out the errors in case it reduced the premium, I advised not to go into the complaint as they would not be in a position to resolve it.

My daughter phoned them today, said she wanted to pay on instalments instead of yearly, and pointed out she had passed her driving test 6 months prior to the date stated and made it clear she had a full driving licence for over 2 years, so not provisional, they said they would need to recalculate the premium and it came out £300 more, my daughter said that was crazy you are already insuring me as driving with a full licence so what’s the difference now, and I have lost my NCB due to them not investigating her accident, she asked for details of the claim, my daughter said we had already drafted a formal complaint so best deal with it that way. The insurer insisted she wanted to look into the problem, however, we went around in circles and she only repeated what had been said before regarding the DPA; I took over the call and asked how is my daughter able to get a quote from another insurer if you are refusing to provide any details of her claim? All she kept saying was I know where you are coming from, and I can look into it for you, I said you cant if you wont release the details, I said we were getting no where and wanted to end the call.

Within minutes she was back on the phone to me saying she had spoke to claims and they have said its NOT settled yet (some 10 months on) and it may be joint liability, I asked why it had taken so long and why have we not been informed, she said something about emails were not coming to us, I said you have 2 email address for us and a postal address, its unacceptable, the lady was insistent I speak with claims now as they might have the answers, when I said ok, she said but they will only talk to your daughter not you. They would know from the very first call (recorded) after the accident they could run circles around my daughter and put words in her mouth, I said NO, please ask claims to put everything in writing and we will respond after seeking advice, she refused to do this and virtually begged me to let my daughter to talk to the claims department, I said we must at this stage have it in writing, if it was a simple matter why is it still ongoing after 10 months. My daughter will have no insurance in 2 days.

Can an insurance company operate in this fashion; they must owe their customers a duty of care, and allow them to get quotes from other companies.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated

Bernie

[unclebulgaria67]

A lot of companies have outsourced their claims and you can get a situation where the staff handling policy admin don't know what is happening with a claim.

 

She needs to phone the claim number and ask for the current position. The claim probably has a 'pending' status, with there being some fault on your daughters part. The renewal would have 2 years deducted from no claims, given that she seems partly at fault for the accident, unless she had witness evidence or CCTV to assist her.

 

When she is speaking to claims, she should ask whether they have received any claim from the third party or third parties Insurers. The Insurers won't release any of the third parties details due to the DPA. Under DPA, they can only provide your daughter with the details related directly to her as a data subject, not the third parties name and address. The Police can obtain details from Insurers to assist their investigations, but i don't think the Police will still be interested.

 

If your daughter has a case of holding the third party at least partially responsible for the accident, the Insurers should pursue this with the third parties Insurers, if they have their details. Also uf your daughter had legal cover under the policy, the Insurers should assist your daughter with claiming back any uninsured losses. So if the accident was decided as a 50/50 she might be able to claim back from the third parties Insurers 50% of her uninsured losses.

 

In regard to the provisional policy issue, as this would mean they calculated the risk as a learner driver with someone qualified supervising, when they corrected it to a full licence, it would increase the premium. Obviously a full licence means she can drive unsupervised as an unexperienced driver. Given this mistake, i suspect she has enjoyed a cheaper premium, than they would have offered.

 

Suggest that armed with the current claim info, that she phones a local brokers for quotes with a view to arranging cover elsewhere. She can still pursue the current Insurers about the current claim and make a complaint.

[Bernie259]

Thank you very much for your advice, she does have Legal Insurance so that may help, I hope a broker can come up with a quote when she cannot give them full details of the claim, we only found out by chance today that it was still not settled, this claim has not been outsourced its been handled by her Insurance Company.

 

 

Once my daughter had calmed down and we got the facts of the accident we felt she was not liable, the police said people who leave the scene without giving details commit an offence and normally have something to hide so if they were driving illegally their case would be weak, all we wanted was for both sides to be looked at and the police allowed to do their investigations, it may have been the case that the person claiming was not driver or insured and someone else was claiming on a policy, it must be a fair process, otherwise insurance scams like "cash for crash" would never be brought to light.

 

 

Regarding the DPA, does that cover Registration Numbers? That is all the police would need to start their investigations.

 

 

My daughter never declared herself as being a provisional driver, only as holding a full licence, the renewal even has the date she passed her driving test albeit they put the wrong date, so they were already insuring her as a person who had passed their driving test, she came from another insurer with proof of NCB, it was their simple error recording it as provisional, regardless, there was no increase in risk on that renewal, they had already increased it due to losing her 2 years NCB.

 

 

If insurers don't have to release details of claim made against people then how do they obtain future insurance quotes when insurers request that information?

 

 

Thanks again, I will keep the Legal Cover in mind

 

 

Bernie

[unclebulgaria67]

Think your Daughter needs to speak to the claims department to get as many details as they are willing to provide. She could consider a Data Protection Subject Access Request for a copy of all info held in the claims file to see what is made available to her. I can see no reason for Insurers not to advise the third party registration number, if they have provided as part of making a claim against your Daughters policy.

 

I don't think the Police will be interested in doing anything 10 months after an accident. I suspect if she provided the third parties reg no. it would be met with disinterest.

 

If there is any suggestion of any criminal issue, the Insurers will be very reluctant to provide your Daughter with any information. I have taken phone calls in a claims department from policyholders, where i knew there were investigations taking place with Police involved and you cannot say anything. For this reason, if your Daughter starts mentioning Police or any possible criminal issue, i think she will find Insurers not very helpful. They don't get involved, as Insurers have dedicated staff that handle Police enquiries.

 

Once your Daughter has details of what is happening with the claim, she should be able to get quotes. Some Insurers may not like quoting when claims are pending.