Do I have to give the person who damaged my car, my insurance details, if I don't want to claim?

[Cardriver12]

Someone drove into me whilst I was parked. As the damage to my car was minor (no damage to theirs), I didn't want to involve  insurers. They initially agreed to this, but then changed their minds, and have told their insurers. They  are now asking for my insurance details, but I don''t want to give them as I'm not going to claim. It is my understanding that you only have to give them (if you're not at fault) if someone is injured, which they weren't. Does anyone have any experience of an incident like this? Cheers.

[unclebulgaria67]

Yes if you have not caused an accident and have not damaged the third parties car or third party property, there would be no need to provide your Insurance details.

 

Do they know your cars registration number ?

[Man in the middle]

This is not quite so straightforward. Section 154 of the RTA says this:

 

154 Duty to give information as to insurance where claim made.

 

(1)A person against whom a claim is made in respect of any such liability as is required to be covered by a policy of insurance under section 145 of this Act must, on demand by or on behalf of the person making the claim—

 

(a)state whether or not, in respect of that liability—

 

(i)he was insured by a policy having effect for the purposes of this Part of this Act, or
(ii)he would have been so insured if the insurer had not avoided or cancelled the policy, and]
(b)if he was or would have been so insured —
(i)give such particulars with respect to that policy as were specified in any certificate of insurance delivered in respect of that policy under section 147 of this Act, or
(ii)where no such certificate was delivered under that section, give the following particulars, that is to say, the registration mark or other identifying particulars of the vehicle concerned, the number or other identifying particulars of the insurance policy issued in respect of the vehicle, the name of the insurer and the period of the insurance cover.

 

(2)If without reasonable excuse, a person fails to comply with the provisions of subsection (1) above, or wilfully makes a false statement in reply to any such demand as is referred to in that subsection, he is guilty of an offence.

 

Of course the issue is that this section applies "where a claim is made." A claim may be made, but not successfully, but nonetheless a claim may still be made. As well as that, some insurers have agreements where, although one party may be liable, each insurer pays for repairs to their own policyholder's vehicle.

 

Apart from  possibly facing prosecution for an offence under s154 (which is very unlikely), it scarcely makes any difference. The Third Party's insurers can easily find out the details of your insurance if they have your vehicle details.

[Cardriver12]

Thanks for the replies. They do have my reg. The Third Party's insurers would obviously be able to see whether or not I was insured, but would they be able to confirm the company, and if so, would they then contact the company saying what had happened? I just don't want them to find out, as I know that premiums increase, at fault or not, claiming or not. I have noted that my insurance policy states that I need to inform them of an incident that may give rise to a claim (on my policy). Since the person who hit me has admitted it, and has sent me emails saying as much, then there would be no claim against my policy, so I wouldn't need to inform them. Surely?

[unclebulgaria67]

The third party Insurers could advise your Insurers that their driver had caused damaged to your vehicle.  You are then contacted about why you did not tell them about the incident.

 

Or if you are unlucky the third party is now going to try it on, saying your vehicle was moving and caused the accident.  e.g.  You tried to move out of the parking space without looking and hit them.  Even if you had emails admitting fault, they have now had second thoughts about it and they have a witness who says you were moving your vehicle without looking.

 

Were you sat in your vehilce when it was hit ?  Is it possible the third party might try it on in the way described.  Have seen examples of people changing their stories once they realise the costs of an accident.

 

[Man in the middle]

39 minutes ago, unclebulgaria67 said:

The third party Insurers could advise your Insurers that their driver had caused damaged to your vehicle.  You are then contacted about why you did not tell them about the incident.

 

Yes, unclebulgaria has raised a good point which I neglected to mention. Your policy will almost certainly include a condition which places an obligation on you to inform your insurers of any accidents/incidents etc. You need to tell them about this.

Edited May 9, 2022 by Man in the middle

[Cardriver12]

Thanks both. I wasn't in the car, I saw it happen from inside a shop. One of my sons was in the back of the car though. One of the shop employees saw it, as did another of my sons, so I would hope I was fairly well covered in terms of being able to disprove a change of position on the other party's behalf.

My insurance policy says to "give us as quickly as possible, full details of any incident which could lead to a claim". Since I would only claim on the other party's policy (which I'm not going to do), and they won't claim on mine (for the aforementioned reasons), I don't think that what's happened  matches the statement in the policy. 

The main question as far as I'm concerned is whether or not my insurers will "get wind of"  the nudge as the other party has reported it to their insurers, but doesn't have my policy number, although they do have my name and reg. 

My wife's car was damaged in a car park when we were away from the vehicle and the "offender" left a note. It sounded like they would have needed to claim on their insurance, but we took no action and just touched up my wife's car ourselves. This seems to be a similar situation, in that they would have had her reg to cite when telling their insurers about the incident, but I don't really see why they would even need it. I appreciate that my insurers would be interested to find out as my vehicle will now be at greater risk in their eyes than previously, and would consequently up my premium. However, as I mentioned earlier when quoting my policy, I'm not sure that this incident requires me to tell them.