Refused car insurance for open claim

yer man!

So I had an accident in 2012 that my insurance company deemed me as not being liable for but there are 2 bodily harm claims made which is keeping the claim open until now (they believe them to be fraudulant). I've had no problem getting insurance for the past three years with Axa and understood that nobody would take me on other than the company that I had the claim with, fair enough. However recently I sold my car and was gonna go on my mother's car to use occasionally so I cancelled my policy with Axa. When I went to add myself to my mother's policy Axa said no way, not with an open claim. So then I asked if I could take ownership of the car and take out my own policy, again they said no way. So now I'm left with no insurance company wanting to take me on for an accident that wasn't my fault and for a claim for which no money has been paid and no contact from the third party in almost a year. I've asked axa to close out the claims but they seem to be entirely unwilling to do so. I'm currently going down the ombudsman route to force them to quote me but what would the case be if I just accepted all liability for this accident and asked them to settle? Would they even do that? I've already lost my NCB for "AXA claim investigation fees" so I really have nothing to lose at this point.

To Elland Back

Your last insurer is obliged to offer you a quote, even if the policy is lapsed

If the accident was in 2012, I very much doubt that the 3rd party (having lodged the claim) has not made any contact in a year. I'm sure it is at the negotiation or assessment stage. Either that or they are waiting on a court date.

Finally, you cannot ask your insurers to settle if they do not deem that to be the appropriate course of action and you cannot ask them to close the file. The claim must run it's course.

If you do anything which prejudices the line of defence your insurers are taking, they can technically refuse to provide you with indemnity. This means that they will pay the 3rd party any award due, but reserve the right to seek recovery from you. That is unlikely when there are injury claims but there is nothing to stop them getting a judgement against you for the debt.

Open claims are annoying, but within the Irish insurance system, they are what they are

yer man!

Yeah I was under the impression that they had to offer me insurance if needed but AXA apparently have changed their terms and conditons of insurance now to not cover any driver with an open claim whether they were previously/currently with AXA insurance Ireland. They had been offering me insurance on my own car and indeed on my mothers car in past with these active claims but now they have changed that. I even got quote from them but they then retracted it and refused cover. It's insane like.

coylemj

Lads, would ye stop quoting each other FFS.

yer man!

coylemj wrote: »

Lads, would ye stop quoting each other FFS.

Am, what? (never mind, gotcha haha)

browniepoints

If AXA keeps to play that game you can go to insurance ombusman to sort it out

One car insurance company in Ireland must quote you and allow you to be insured .

If not then all the insurance companies risk to lose their license to operate in Ireland .

So the ombusman can knock heads together and make one insurance company insure you for driving your car or even your mothers cars .
I presume the norm for your type of problem is the last company in this case AXA has to quote and insure you .

If it was me I would contact the company and say if they dont quote immediately you will go to report this to the car insurance ombudsman

Jed

To Elland Back

browniepoints wrote: »

So the ombusman can knock heads together and make one insurance company insure you for driving your car or even your mothers cars .
/QUOTE]

The Ombudsman cannot force an insurer to add a driver on to someone else's policy. The OP's last insurer will be compelled to quote him on his own vehicle

yer man!

I was on the phone to AXA for four hours! On Wednesday. I told them I had logged a complaint with the ombudsman and no less than 5 minutes later my open claim was closed and they said I can move to a different insurer. Happy days! Got quoted with Liberty for far less than what I was paying before. Great result.

browniepoints

Well done you cant beat kick in the nuts to the bad guys thats all they understand

Jed

TSQ

yer man! wrote: »

I was on the phone to AXA for four hours! On Wednesday. I told them I had logged a complaint with the ombudsman and no less than 5 minutes later my open claim was closed and they said I can move to a different insurer. Happy days! Got quoted with Liberty for far less than what I was paying before. Great result.

A friend of mine had an accident while driving his own in France 7 years ago. He was rear-ended on the motorway, totally other person's fault, but police report didn't back him up, no allocation of blame either way (local woman + local cops + France + foreigner, well, what do you expect). He put a claim in for his car, but Insurance Co. said based on police report no blame assigned so they wouldn't pay him. Insurance subsequently told him file was closed He was under the impression that no money had or would be paid out to either party. Given the difficulty of dealing with the situation long distance, he just said goodbye to the value of his totalled car and was happy to be alive at least.

Couple of weeks ago he received a letter from insurance company to say he would lose his no claims bonus as the French branch of the company had paid out 13k to the other party (who had nearly killed him and totalled his car). This is now 6 years and 11 months since the accident.

He had already given up on getting compensation from the driver who had caused the crash, but is needless to say furious at threat of losing no claims bonus.

Can the insurance company withdraw your no claims bonus 7 years after the date of an accident, also after informing you that the file was closed, without updating you that the file had been reopened, and without giving you the opportunity to challenge the decision to award damages to the other party. Seems outrageous. I have told him to get on to the Ombudsman, but would be interested in the opinion of anyone with experience of motor insurance industry.

yer man!

TSQ wrote: »

A friend of mine had an accident while driving his own in France 7 years ago. He was rear-ended on the motorway, totally other person's fault, but police report didn't back him up, no allocation of blame either way (local woman + local cops + France + foreigner, well, what do you expect). He put a claim in for his car, but Insurance Co. said based on police report no blame assigned so they wouldn't pay him. Insurance subsequently told him file was closed He was under the impression that no money had or would be paid out to either party. Given the difficulty of dealing with the situation long distance, he just said goodbye to the value of his totalled car and was happy to be alive at least.

Couple of weeks ago he received a letter from insurance company to say he would lose his no claims bonus as the French branch of the company had paid out 13k to the other party (who had nearly killed him and totalled his car). This is now 6 years and 11 months since the accident.

He had already given up on getting compensation from the driver who had caused the crash, but is needless to say furious at threat of losing no claims bonus.

Can the insurance company withdraw your no claims bonus 7 years after the date of an accident, also after informing you that the file was closed, without updating you that the file had been reopened, and without giving you the opportunity to challenge the decision to award damages to the other party. Seems outrageous. I have told him to get on to the Ombudsman, but would be interested in the opinion of anyone with experience of motor insurance industry.

Fortunately for my case, insurance fraud was uncovered and should a claim ever be reopened my insurer wants to go to court with it.