Kwik-Fit insurance.

[fulgent]

hi guys. sorry to have to put you guys thro' my misery.

i got into accident roughly 2 weeks ago. The car in front of me sped to go into the roundabout but then had to slam his brake when he saw oncoming traffic. I was behind him and could not brake in time. I then asked him how much it will cost for him to repair his car (minor damage, scratches) and he told me something like £598 but will do with £500. As a student of coz i could not afford it, so was thinking to ask him to go thro' insurance. My question no 1 is whose fault was that? (i know i m partly to be blamed but since he slammed his brake immediately?)

Then i tried to check with my insurance company that my policy is basically good and wont let me down in the midst of the £500 compensation battle. But then the CS tried to find mistake in my policy and confused me and said to me suddenly: 'well, i have to cancel your insurance'. Fuming and disbelief, I argued back. Up to this point I have not told the insurance company that i got into accident, my conversation was so far about checking my insurance status and try to understand the small prints in the booklet. OK back to the CS; after much exchange of words and wasted half day of my life, she then said they will have to charge me extra £400 for my 'amended' insurance and it wont be cancelled and even if cancelled they will charge me something like £50 (How dodgy!!!). The core of the problem is regarding my residency status. I am a student and in UK with student visa and when i bought my insurance i told them that i am an indonesian student and have been living in this country since 2004. She said to me at that time it was fine and sorted then... but today they tried to extort me from my 'innocent call' to check my insurance status. There is your most anticipated no2 question, whose fault is that? (I have been really honest with them all along but have to suffer from their cock-up)

Lastly, even if i pay the £400 tomorrow, can they still argue (when the other party claim the £500) that the accident occurred 2 weeks ago when my insurance policy was still under the 'wrong' or 'invalid' information which basically mean that they wont pay the compensation during time before the 'new £400 term' is came to force?

thanks a lot for your time, really appreciate it!


cheers.... (2nd dodgy encounter of dodgy companies in less than 3 months..God... what a misery!!)

[revolting peasant]

What a mess!

Firstly, the accident was your fault. You must always maintain a safe stopping distance from the vehicle in front so unfortunately no arguments there.

If you told them at the time of your original proposal exactly what your residency status in the UK is and they accepted your premium then they have entered into a contract. The only reason for them to apply terms or void the contract would be if you failed to disclose a material fact.

Do you have a copy of the original proposal that you signed when first taking out the policy?

[barracad]

If you hit the other car from behind it will be deemed as 100% your fault, as you should allow a safe distance so that if the vehicle in front braked suddenly, as in this case, you could brake in time.

I'm not entirely sure what exactly you have omitted to tell your insurer, perhaps you could clarify? If it is something significant then yes, they could argue that your insurance was invalid at the time of the accident and refuse the claim.

[fulgent]

To revolting peasant:

I bought it thro internet then the lady called me and explained/asked me a few questions.

To barracad:

When i bought my insurance, the lady nvr explain to me what she meant by residency. She asked me and i can still remember vividly, are you a resident of this country (without telling me anything else), of course for me, resident means that someone that lived in a country for quite sometime and i have been living here since 2004 on student visa and will be here for good few more years till i finish my uni and internship. There was no info regarding this can be found in website of the insurer nor had i been explained properly.

What should i do then? (Panicking!!)

......................

[Helford]

I agree with other comments made to the original poster; you are 100% responsible for the accident having failed to have kept a safe stopping distance.

As I understand your scenario;

If when you took out the insurance you incorrectly stated that you were an Indonesian national, but had resided in the UK permanently for the last 3 or 4 years and this is not actually the case then this amounts to a false statement and the insurance could be considered void from inception (Ab initio). Insurance relies in 'Utmost good faith' on all parties.

It appears that the additional premium is to put the insurance on the correct basis, whether from inception (Retrospectively) or from the time of you speaking with the Underwriters is not clear.

Bottom line, you appear to need to pay up and ensure the insurance is on the correct basis and report the road traffic accident; whether they chose to deal (Probably will in view of Road Traffic Act implications) or repudiate remains to be seen.

H

[sang33ta]

Round-a-bout accidents from "fail to go" are very common. You think they have gone and look right to see whats comming only to realise they changed their mind and stopped. It is unfortunatly deemed your fault.

£500 is typical for a painted bumper repair.

Too me it sounds like the other side has already informed their insurance who has informed yours. £400 + £100 excess sound familiarly like £500 to me -.-

I have had major problems buying insurance on the internet because there are often 2 middle men between you and the insurer and the information does not get passed full on to the policy provider at the end of the chain.

You think you are getting a good deal only often to find you are underinsured. Who to blame? Well I would say the company who took your money. They offered you one contract but sold you another. You would have to take it through the small claims court to get back the £400 or so.

[fulgent]

Thanks guys for all your help! You guys are legend!

OK...so it is my fault and i have no problem in paying the other party.

Now...it will be the problem with my insurance company then. Is there anything that i can do to make my insurance company pay up for my accident (i m full comp) ? The argument that I expect is that they will not want to pay for any claim that occurred before the '£400 new term' comes to force.

Is there anyway i can force them to pay? or anyway i can avoid paying the excess £400 they force me to pay? Or even better for both?

As my understanding for small claim court, most company will not want to 'argue' as to seek legal representative to fight a case that is not 'worth' it. I believe that they will have to pay even more to get legal representative for £400. Dont you think so? It is not that I am afraid to argue my case but I just dont have the time.

Again, thanks so much for the help guys!

[revolting peasant]

This seems to be a matter of interpretation of the question about residency. On the one hand, you live in the UK therefore you are "resident", on the other hand you are on a student visa so you do not have residential status. You are in effect a visitor to the UK, regardless of how long you have been here.

I think you need to go back to Kwik-Fit and establish whether the £400 additional premium is from inception (the beginning of the policy) or from the date on which it became apparent there had been an error. If it is from the inception date then it would be reasonable to expect them to pay the third party claim once the AP has been paid. If the AP is from the date on which you informed them of your status then you will end up paying both the additional premium and the TP claim.

Ultimately, there was no intention to defraud the insurer but it is VITAL that you make sure that you have valid insurance before you take your car back on the road. At the moment it is unclear as to whether you would be indemnified in the event of a further accident and to drive the car without valid insurance is an offence.

That said, I have not practiced in insurance for several years so any other comments would be appreciated as I may be a little rusty!

[revolting peasant]

Originally Posted by sang33ta

I have had major problems buying insurance on the internet because there are often 2 middle men between you and the insurer and the information does not get passed full on to the policy provider at the end of the chain.

You think you are getting a good deal only often to find you are underinsured. Who to blame? Well I would say the company who took your money. They offered you one contract but sold you another. You would have to take it through the small claims court to get back the £400 or so.

No offence sang33ta but that is complete cobblers. In this case there may have been a misunderstanding between the OP and the insurer but what you seem to be suggesting is that they deliberately disregarded his residency status in order to obtain his business. I don't know of any insurer that is so desperate for customers that they would even consider such a thing.

The online search engines use a couple of standard forms to obtain basic information to provide quotations, the most common being the RBS designed pro-forma but at the end of the day it is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that all questions are answered correctly.

[fulgent]

So do you reckon that i should bargain with them so as to include it as from inception?

Beside, i kindda believe that they will check with me first whether i have any outstanding accident or claim and if i tell them truthfully then they will definitely turn the 'from inception' idea down? The person i hit has not claimed thro' insurance tho' . What should i do?

And worst to worst, if i take them to small money claim court for EITHER the £400 issue or the £500 claim payment, do you think i will have a reasonable chance of winning?

I dont have £900 at this time as I m a student and no way I can find this quick money in such a short time.

cheers....

[revolting peasant]

No, I didn't say bargain with them I said clarify with them. At this time the most important thing for you is to be sure that you have valid insurance for your car BEFORE YOU TAKE IT ON THE ROAD. If you don't you are commiting an offence.

[fulgent]

As far as i checked with them yesterday, my insurance is still valid but they put the £400 as outstanding and i will be contacted (by tomorrow) by their customer service dept to discuss my complain of the £400 further.

So i am currently still on valid insurance as far as the lady told me yesterday since she had already amended the info on their system.

[revolting peasant]

Just out of interest, do you hold a full UK driving licence?

[fulgent]

nope. hold international license but i did inform them since the beginning and they have full knowledge of it.

Any idea what can i do if any at all?

I am distress with this £900 ...

cheers..

[revolting peasant]

I have just looked at the DVLA website and if you have been here since 2004 you should by now have taken a UK test as your IDP is only valid for 12 months after your date of arrival.

I think you need to look carefully into your entitlement to drive in the UK. You may have a bigger problem than the one you first thought you had!

[fulgent]

True i do agree with you on that part. But my international license was first issued to me last year sept. Prior to that, I was not driving in UK and I will convert it to Full-UK this coming summer. I am fully aware of it.

[fulgent]

Ok guys...here is the update to my latest encounter.

Basically, i emailed DVLA regarding my resident status and they told me that I am currently considered as a resident, meaning a resident for 3.5 yrs since I first entered this country. I rang up Kwik-fit and told them this but their thick ear just wont listen and informed me that they would go ahead charging me £400 because the NIG said that they could not put 3.5 yrs into their system because I am using international license to drive (as int license only valid for a year, so there would be a sort of clash of data). But they offered me to cancel my insurance if i wish to without any charge.

Ok...now back to the good old problem. So do you guys agree that basically I have not given them any 'wrong or misleading' info from the beginning based on this DVLA email (anyway, I was not and did not at all intend to mislead them)? So my insurance prior to the 'new £400 term' was still valid then?

To make sure my latter question was answered, I did ring the insurance up and asked them to confirm it and they did and I even went further to ask them a hypothetical question what if my car was stolen a few months ago (prior to this £400 term) and the lady confirmed that the insurance will pay. So considering that the phone conversation was recorded by them, do you think I will win the case if they suddenly decide not to pay for the accident?

A new problem soon arises after I solved one (hopefully). I do not have enough money to pay the guy i hit £500. So I informed that guy to just proceed with insurance but he then told me that I will have to pay him by cash because he has repaired his car (and he repaired his car without my knowledge, not even a text saying something like i will repair my car today or tomorrow and no courtesy to supply me with a receipt) and he then asked me how much i have with me now and to hand my money to him and then i can pay the rest later. What do you think I should do now? (if i really have the money i am more than willing to pay him!!). Can he claim it through court? I always think that the court will throw his case out since I have a valid insurance? Beside, I also did mention to that guy that the £500 was not an admission of liability of my part but as a goodwill (which at that time i agree to that amount with the mindset that even if i cant find enough money, i can still ask my insurance to pay him that amount if everything is OK with my insurance). I know it sounds like i am trying to avoid paying up but this is not the case, i just do not like to make matter more complicated with court etc etc.

Moreover, what can he do to get the money from my insurance so that i can send him a text to help him out? I sent him a few more texts asking whether he has contacted mine or his insurance company but heard nothing from him for a few days now.


confused is simply an understatement.

cheers