Car accident, not my fault, do I need to contact my insurer?

leahyl

Hi, so was involved in a car accident yesterday - hopefully my first and last

The other driver was to blame and admitted liability at the scene.

He took my insurance details and contact details and I took his. He said he would ring his insurance company this morning. To be honest I was in a bit of shock and I don't have a clue how these things work - so I am wondering do I need to ring my insurance company also or what's the best way to proceed?

Does he give my insurance details to his insurance company and they contact me/pay out?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Cee-Jay-Cee

Yes ring them and give them the details of the other driver.

djimi

Him admitting liability at the scene means absolutely nothing. You need to contact your insurer and give them all the details regardless, and at least have the incident on record with them.

leahyl

djimi wrote: »

Him admitting liability at the scene means absolutely nothing. You need to contact your insurer and give them all the details regardless, and at least have the incident on record with them.

Ok im going mad now cos I can't do that till tomorrow as I left the details in my own car and my dad dropped me to work this morning - so will have to wait until tomorrow to report it.

Is all I have to do basically is just report it to my insurance company?

Thanks again

shanered

Ring your insurance company ASAP, they shall tell you what to do!
Hope all is right!

yop

Echo above, ring them immediately.
Wondering have I read from others that you also should notify either the guards and/or his insurance or am I raving?

He could easily back off and do nothing so it needs to be recorded. It should be done the day of the incident as he could have rang his now and told them you hit him. His work against yours.

leahyl

I can't ring them though cos I don't have the other drivers details with me at the moment.

We called the guards by the way - they came and took our details so at least it's recorded by them.

ceo

Just ring them today give them as much info as possible and tomorrow you can update the other vehicle details.

As soon as possible after an accident you should report it to your insurers.

Just because liability was admitted by other driver does not mean you will receive a payout! Your insurers will advise how to go about making a claim of the other policy.

bop1977

It doesn't matter that you don't have all the details to hand. Ring them and get the ball rolling.

leahyl

Cheers guys for all the advice - I will ring them as soon as I can

yop

leahyl wrote: »

I can't ring them though cos I don't have the other drivers details with me at the moment.

We called the guards by the way - they came and took our details so at least it's recorded by them.

At least there is a record of it, as said record it with your insurance now also.
If you have time/date and then buzz them again when you have the details its very important.
Also get a quote for the damage for your car and get that quote onto his insurance then.

yop

leahyl wrote: »

Cheers guys for all the advice - I will ring them as soon as I can

And don't panic. No one injured and it will be sorted out.
We would all want a big sticker on the screen "what to do in an incident". I did the same as you and in the end another crowd towed my car and I had trouble getting it back from them without paying for it.

leahyl

yop wrote: »

At least there is a record of it, as said record it with your insurance now also.
If you have time/date and then buzz them again when you have the details its very important.
Also get a quote for the damage for your car and get that quote onto his insurance then.

Ok thanks, aaaah I hate this!

_Kaiser_

yop wrote: »

At least there is a record of it, as said record it with your insurance now also.
If you have time/date and then buzz them again when you have the details its very important.
Also get a quote for the damage for your car and get that quote onto his insurance then.

The insurers will want/get their own quotes anyway so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Definitely ring your insurer ASAP though OP and give them as much of the details as you can.. Also write down what happened as clearly as you can remember as soon as you can as you will need this later on (especially if it drags on should the insurers dispute liability).

leahyl

So I rang my insurance company just there and a lovely man talked me through the process

Basically I told him the other drivers insurance company and he said that they had not contacted my insurance company so the other driver obviously hadn't rang them yet.....he said to wait until the end of today and if they haven't rang by then to ring them tomorrow.

he just took the details and said he is going to send me out a crash report.

SK76

Hi

I know its a pain but at least noone was hurt. And remember this is what insurance is for. Might be an idea to draw a sketch of what happenend as a number of years back I was asked to do this.

Did he admit liability to the Guards? - if yes then you are sorted.

In my experience, if he admits liability then all work is taken care of by his insurance provider. I was allowed hire a car while mine was fixed and their insurance covered it (keep receipts).

You will probably have to get a quote for repairs etc as well - I'd go back to place car purchased if they do repairs etc

Ih here nothing by morning contact your insurance providers and hopefully its sorted ASAP

leahyl

SK76 wrote: »

Did he admit liability to the Guards? - if yes then you are sorted.

You will probably have to get a quote for repairs etc as well - I'd go back to place car purchased if they do repairs etc

If here nothing by morning contact your insurance providers and hopefully its sorted ASAP

He did admit liability when the guards were there so I hope they recorded that.

The guy from my insurance company told me to contact the other drivers insurance company if they haven't rang me by tomorrow.

Thanks for your advice

Atomic Pineapple

leahyl wrote: »

He did admit liability when the guards were there so I hope they recorded that.

The guy from my insurance company told me to contact the other drivers insurance company if they haven't rang me by tomorrow.

Thanks for your advice

I wouldn't wait until tomorrow I'd ring them now to find out if they have the accident on their records yet, if not give them the details.

_Kaiser_

leahyl wrote: »

He did admit liability when the guards were there so I hope they recorded that.

The guy from my insurance company told me to contact the other drivers insurance company if they haven't rang me by tomorrow.

Thanks for your advice

I'm afraid admitting liability at the scene doesn't count for much - the other guy can just say he was in shock and didn't know what he was saying.

If no-one was hurt then the Gardai generally won't be interested, but maybe the one that attended recorded that the other party admitted liability. In either case, get onto the Garda station and have a chat with the Garda in question.

It sounds to me like your insurer is washing their hands of it for now which is all too common (and will soon change if the other party puts in a claim against you) so you'll need to start chasing the other insurer.

Few points..

- Get the name and department of everyone you speak to. Record the time and date you called each time

- Ask for confirmation of anything they tell you in writing (eg: email)

- If they do accept liability they will have your car assessed and depending on the damage may offer to pay for the repairs. It's your car however so make sure you're happy with this - you're entitled to have it exactly as it was beforehand

- If the damage is too severe or expensive to fix they may deem it uneconomical to repair and offer to pay you the value of it instead. Note that they will not give you the prices you see on Carzone etc - they'll offer you the trade or "book value" which is significantly less.
Again however you are entitled to be put back in the position you were in before the accident and this does NOT include being out of pocket by having to pay to replace the car. Be ready to produce the service history of your car and printed ads from the internet of similar cars with the same mileage, age and general condition.. all of this will help you get as much as possible from them. Also be ready to be persistent and firm with them.
Remember they will want to settle for as little as they can.

- Ask about a rental car in the meantime. Again if the other insurer agrees to pay, they should cover the cost of it

Hope this helps

djimi

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

I'm afraid admitting liability at the scene doesn't count for much - the other guy can just say he was in shock and didn't know what he was saying.

Exactly. What you say at the scene does not matter a jot really.

If he admits liability afterwards then that might carry more weight. Id imagine a lot of people will be less willing to admit liability after the fact though, regardless of what they may have said at the time.

leahyl

Well the guy from my insurance company said that normally certain other insurance companies would ring them if they had been informed about an accident involving one of their clients (and that client was at fault) but he said the other drivers insurance company had not rang my insurers yet so that kind of worries me.

My dad is taking the car to a garage today just to get an idea on the cost of repairs - he got a quote on the phone based on his description of the damage and it wasn't as high as I thought actually.

I will get the details at home later and perhaps ring the guys insurance company

_Kaiser_

leahyl wrote: »

Well the guy from my insurance company said that normally certain other insurance companies would ring them if they had been informed about an accident involving one of their clients (and that client was at fault) but he said the other drivers insurance company had not rang my insurers yet so that kind of worries me.

My dad is taking the car to a garage today just to get an idea on the cost of repairs - he got a quote on the phone based on his description of the damage and it wasn't as high as I thought actually.

I will get the details at home later and perhaps ring the guys insurance company

I really would not be waiting around for everyone to get back to you - you need to start being more proactive and calling the other insurer yourself (your own insurance company will happily sit back and do nothing unless a claim against you/them comes in).

No harm in getting a few prices I suppose, but bear in mind that there may be damage not easily seen without a full inspection. Again you will need to talk to the other insurer before you do anything anyway to confirm they're going to pay for it.

Out of interest, what kind of car/year is it and what exactly happened?

leahyl

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

I really would not be waiting around for everyone to get back to you - you need to start being more proactive and calling the other insurer yourself (your own insurance company will happily sit back and do nothing unless a claim against you/them comes in).

No harm in getting a few prices I suppose, but bear in mind that there may be damage not easily seen without a full inspection. Again you will need to talk to the other insurer before you do anything anyway to confirm they're going to pay for it.

Out of interest, what kind of car/year is it and what exactly happened?

Yes I know, thanks for that. There's not much point ringing his insurance company now at the moment though cos I can't remember yer mans details so it would be pointless surely.

Basically, I was coming up a road and there was an entrance to a premises on my right hand side and this guy was coming out of the entrance and he drove across the road straight onto me - never saw me apparently. A car in front of me had just turned into that premises and he just pulled out onto me...drove me into the kerb.