Settle claim through insurance company without claiming

World-Peace · 13 Oct 2020 at 11:06

Hi everyone

My son, aged 20, rear-ended someone 2 weeks ago. At the time, my son admitted his fault to the other driver and they both agreed that my son would pay for the repair of the vehicle in cash/bank transfer as it was only minor damage. The other drivers car is an old 2005 Rover 25, which is only worth £200.

The 3rd party driver said that he would get an estimate for the repair and get back to my son. He never did and has subsequently decided to hand the matter to his insurance company, who have written to my son (who has only been driving for 1 year).

My question is:

Due to the 3rd party vehicle only being worth £200, is there any way that he can offer to pay the insurance company the full write off cost of the vehicle (Approx £200) rather than have a claim registered against his name and suffer the consequence for years to come? This way the insurance company do not have to pay out anything themselves.

Thank you in advance

paradigm · 13 Oct 2020 at 11:10

I'd tread carefully. Rear-ending someone, someone who clearly doesn't just want the money for their battered jalopy, they may well be lining themselves up for a whiplash claim. Even if you can offer to settle the insurance claim as-is, there will be other costs involved even before the third-party escalates an injury claim.

Secondly, your son will still need to declare the crash, regardless of if he or the insurance company pay out.

ScoobyDoo69 · 13 Oct 2020 at 11:11

You'll probably find the guy involved has told insurance so he can get a whiplash pay out that will see him upgrade away from his £200 Rover 25..

Diddums · 13 Oct 2020 at 12:39

The insurance company are going to stiff him to no end, given the choice of handling this matter in his favour or doubling their income due to the accident, which would you pick?

Sounds like the other driver is going for whiplash too, lube up.

And as crap as it is to say, tell your son to chill out whilst driving. Or stay off his phone or whatever it is that caused this.

booyaka · 13 Oct 2020 at 14:07

100% your going to get shafted....

Whilst it's not ideal - just hand it over to insurance and let them deal with it. It will end up with a 3k payout for whiplash (standard payout) and then whatever for the car situation. Just let them deal with it all.

It's not great/ideal - but as soon as someone gives them the option of a easy payout - they will go insurance every time (been there, and had the claim against me despite it being a sub 10mph small side impact)

Iamzod · 13 Oct 2020 at 14:21

This isn't a simple £200 claim as above, he's gonna claim his neck hurts & pocket about £3k

RexAlba · 13 Oct 2020 at 14:25

Its already too late, its been reported to an insurance company so now he is on the hook for the next 5 years im afriaid.

Actualy cost of the claim has little to do with the resulting premium increase to be honest (within reason)... I was on the hook for reporting an accident I did myself and then never even claimed anything on!

VincentHanna · 13 Oct 2020 at 15:57

The amount of people who agree to "bypass insurance" and then call their insurance companies is insane.

Firestar_3x · 13 Oct 2020 at 16:19

Iamzod said:
This isn't a simple £200 claim as above, he's gonna claim his neck hurts & pocket about £3k

Doubt it, not much money in it these days. Someone at work got rear-ended hard enough to write off a 10k car, they ended up with just over 1.2k in injury payments.

peterwalkley · 13 Oct 2020 at 16:59

VincentHanna said:
The amount of people who agree to "bypass insurance" and then call their insurance companies is insane.

Probably because common sense kicks in afterwards. Going outside insurance puts you at the mercy of the other side holding their end up and way too many factors can change peoples' minds after the event.

Raymond Lin · 13 Oct 2020 at 17:50

I rear ended someone in a 206 in my Yaris about a decade ago at about 3mph in start stop traffic. He came out covered in coke that he just bought from a McDonald’s drive through. His car came off much better shape than mine, hardly a scratch and my Yaris had a cracked bumper and slightly off the bracket holding it in. No one was hurt so exchanged details and parted ways.

I took photos, came home and reported to my insurance company. Sent them photos and that was that. I didn’t hear anymore from them afterwards, I got my car fixed under my insurance. That’s what insurance is for IMO, if they decided to put in a whiplash claim, I’m covered.

Any increase in premiums I will just suck it up and deal with when it comes. Life goes on.

Mr Oblong · 13 Oct 2020 at 22:31

VincentHanna said:
The amount of people who agree to "bypass insurance" and then call their insurance companies is insane.

I've heard this too, always amazes me. What do they expect will happen? :rolleyes:

ScoobyDoo69 · 14 Oct 2020 at 13:36

Firestar_3x said:
Doubt it, not much money in it these days. Someone at work got rear-ended hard enough to write off a 10k car, they ended up with just over 1.2k in injury payments.

Not sure about that, most believe it's a given to get £2-3k?

skaif · 14 Oct 2020 at 13:45

I'm not sure how it works now - my dad got a shunt few years back and wasn't even considering claiming whiplash but they offered £1k anyway to avoid any further claims. I suppose it depends on the severity but a £1k see you later cheque seems to be the norm.

ScoobyDoo69 · 14 Oct 2020 at 14:02

Hush money