Open Claim- Extra Costs

byhookorbycrook

An open claim, where liability was found to be entirely with the other driver has cost me a huge amount over 5 years. I lost my no claims bonus and my insurance company refused to re-insure me.

Only one company takes people with open claims and my premium went from €500 to around €3000 in one year, eventually "reducing" to about €1000 last year. The case has just been resolved and I'm wondering if I can seek re-reimbursement for those additional costs and the loss of my no claims bonus, or is that just my tough luck?

whomitconcerns

Is the claim open or closed now? Have you actually left your original company you were insured with?

Eggs For Dinner

If you can verify that the open claim cost you financial loss, you can claim for it. The difficulty is in establishing the exact amount caused specifically by this and not due to market conditions or your own circumstances. It is well known that insurance increased for everybody in the last few years, so it will be a difficult exercise. You cannot presume your premium at the time of the loss would have held.

As suggested above, it is easier to establish a before and after calculation if you stayed with the same insurer. Their calculations will be on record with regard to the NCB discount

byhookorbycrook

whomitconcerns wrote: »

Is the claim open or closed now? Have you actually left your original company you were insured with?

The claim is closed . Insurance that I had st the time refused to renew the policy the following year .

cruizer101

Thats seems very strange. Normally if you have an open claim you will only be able to get insurance with your current company as no other insurer will accept you and your current insurer has to insure you (though the quote may be prohibitive).

delta_bravo

If you have a stated "claims loading" on your policy you probably have recourse for a reduction and obviously if your bonus has been fully reinstated you should get that back too.

byhookorbycrook

cruizer101 wrote: »

Thats seems very strange. Normally if you have an open claim you will only be able to get insurance with your current company as no other insurer will accept you and your current insurer has to insure you (though the quote may be prohibitive).

The company "no longer offered that type of policy," was what I was told.

Eggs For Dinner

If you settled your claim for damages, that's the end of it

NUTLEY BOY

I agree with Eggs for Dinner that if settled already it cannot be opened again for further losses - accord and satisfaction.

I wonder about the recoverability of those economic losses (insurance costs) incurred by OP anyhow.
Specifically, do such costs fall within the scope of reasonably foreseeable losses or might they be consider too remote from the original act of negligence ?

Side bar, I suppose this is another example of the fact that it is a no claims discount as distinct from a no blame discount.
Insurers probably acted reasonably if there was any real risk of a claim against OP by the other party.
I had a similar situation and my NCD was reduced until I recovered the full amount of my car damage from the other insurers.

Peregrinus

There's a difference, remember, between a motorist who is involved in accidents for which they are not actually at fault, and a motorist who rarely gets involved in accidents at all, because they are good enough drivers to anticipate and avoid the consequences of other drivers errors. Avoiding accidents that result from the negligence of other drivers is of course partly luck, but its also partly judgment, skill and experience. Obviously, drivers who manage to avoid accidents altogether are a more attractive prospect, from an insurance point of view, than drivers who don't cause accidents themselves, but also aren't so skilled at avoiding accidents caused by others.