Hi All

I had a car accident in Feb 2007 resulting in a write off. There was no one else involved, I had a puncture on a main A road and hit a streetlight.

The car was a company car, insured by the company I worked for. There was no claim as the car was third party only.

I have been told that I don't need to declare this to insurance companies as the car wasn't insured in my name, it is the policy holder who should declare it.

Is this correct please? I don't want to increase my premiums unneccessarily, but also don;t want to void my insurance should something happen in the future.

Your help and comments would be appreciated

thank you

Only report if the car was specifically allocated to you, as YOUR company car with the Insurance registered as you being the driver.

Some large companies just Insure their vehicles on a bulk basis with no particular driver mentioned against a specific vehicle. If this is the case, then you would be safe not to declare.

A car accident in a car that was registered in your name could be picked up following an investigation, if you had an accident in a private car.

Insurers do ask for ANY accidents to be declared to them, so that they can apply a loading to the premium. So if you mentioned this company car claim some will charge you a higher premium.

you would have to listen to the questions carefully, as I know Direct Line, Churchill and anything underwritten by RBS their sales script asks "have you had any accidents,claims or losses in the last 3 years whether insured or not".

As the car was only TP does not mean that nothing was paid out. They dont put up streetlights for free

Thanks for your replies....

The paperwork has come through and it says -

"Has anyone who may drive been involved in any motor accident or loss, including fires and thefts, within the past 5 years, including pending claims and those not resulting in a claim?"

to which I have answered No

More advice would be much appreciated!

thank you

This is your choice. Technically yes you should declare, but you will pay a higher premium.

If the car was self Insured by the company, I am not sure the Insurers would find out, unless you were subject to any action by Police/Courts. I suppose if you had a claim under the policy, the Insurers could ask you to obtain a letter from your company about any claims or accidents for the relevant period. Insurers are increasingly looking to find reasons not to honour claims, so if they find out about the accident following such a request, you might find yourself in a spot of difficulty.

Perhaps best to phone the Insurers to discuss this with them.

Some puncture! YES absolutely 100% you must declare this collision.If you do not you may find yourself uninsured in a serious and expensive claim - death for example, when they absolutely will dig for anything like the above.

You should declare this. Usually a single claim won't raise the premium a lot anyway. If you injure someone critically and then find that your insurance won't pay out as you did not decalre an accident then you will massively regret it. Accident reports are logged to a central database, and insurance companies are very good at finding out that sort of thing if a large claim is on the way.

Honestly I think if you don't declare it as a yes you might as well save yourself a few more hundred quid and not bother to get insurance at all.