Fraudulent claim against me but my policy has increased

[stamarie]

Please could someone give me advice I really don't know what to do.

 

in January I got a letter out of the blue from my insurers

saying I had been involved in an accident and a claim was being made against me.

It asked me to contact them which I did.

 

 

Someone was claiming I went into the back of them even though I was 200 miles away at work at the time .

My case handler said she could tell it was a fraudulent claim and they would deal with it.

I heard no more from them and as far as I was concerned it was dealt with.

 

I received a letter yesterday 5 months later from my insurance broker saying my policy was increasing by £256

as my insurer had advised them of the mistaken identity claim !!

If I don't pay within 7 days they are adding it to my direct debit payments.

 

After spending over an hour being passed from broker to insurers

the problem is my insurer has closed the case as they know it wasn't me

but the third party hasn't closed it so the claim will stay open on my record until they close it.

 

No one can tell me how long this will be

but I'm worried because I can't afford to pay the extra money

nor do I think I should have to as I'm totally innocent

but if I don't pay my direct debit my policy will become void.

 

Please can someone tell me what I can do as I don't have much time .

Thanks

[unclebulgaria67]

Please could someone give me advice I really don't know what to do.

Basically in January I got a letter out of the blue from my insurers saying I had been involved in an accident and a claim was being made against me. It asked me to contact them which I did. Someone was claiming I went into the back of them even though I was 200 miles away at work at the time . My case handler said she could tell it was a fraudulent claim and they would deal with it.

I heard no more from them and as far as I was concerned it was dealt with.

I received a letter yesterday 5 months later from my insurance broker saying my policy was increasing by £256 as my insurer had advised them of the mistaken identity claim !! If I don't pay within 7 days they are adding it to my direct debit payments.

After spending over an hour being passed from broker to insurers the problem is my insurer has closed the case as they know it wasn't me but the third party hasn't closed it so the claim will stay open on my record until they close it.

No one can tell me how long this will be but I'm worried because I can't afford to pay the extra money nor do I think I should have to as I'm totally innocent but if I don't pay my direct debit my policy will become void.

Please can someone tell me what I can do as I don't have much time .

Thanks

 

You don't have to accept them adding it to your Direct Debit payments, if the renewal is not currently due. Register a complaint with the Brokers and Insurers on Monday. If it is obvious you were not involved in this accident, the Insurers could at their discretion maintain the no claims discount at the level it should be and write out to the third party insurers saying that the attempted claim is being rejected due to mistaken identity. I.e their policyholder has provided the wrong information about the party they had an accident with, as our policyholder (you) live 200 miles away and was nowhere near where they claim an accident took place.

 

Have a go on Monday trying to resolve. If they still want to charge this, then shop around for Insurance elsewhere and then threaten to take your business away from this brokers, the brokers should be assisting you with this. Still register formal complaints and threaten to involve the Financial Ombudsman.

[stamarie]

Many thanks.

I renewed with them in February and even at the time I asked what was happening with the claim. I was told there was nothing on my record so not to worry about it.

My no claims hadn't been affected and I haven't lost it so I can't understand why they are adding this money .

[unclebulgaria67]

Many thanks.

I renewed with them in February and even at the time I asked what was happening with the claim. I was told there was nothing on my record so not to worry about it.

My no claims hadn't been affected and I haven't lost it so I can't understand why they are adding this money .

 

The only explanation i can think of, is that the Insurers have paid out a claim under your policy and have notified your brokers of this. Because of this changed status of the claim, a premium loading has been applied if you have protected no claims or if not proected they have reduced your no claim discount plus applied a premium loading backdated to renewal.

 

Insurers would be entitled to apply reduced no claim discount backdated to renewal if they had since paid a claim, but provided they had warned you about this previously. I.e. When your renewal was being discussed they advised you that they would maintain your no claims discount level, but if the pending claim changed to being a fault claim, they would reduce your no claims backdated to renewal and this would mean an increased premium.

 

On Monday you will have to find out what has happened. You can put the matter under dispute and register a complaint for FOS purposes. They should suspend adding the extra premium or cancelling the policy, while the matter is subject to a complaint.

 

If the Insurers have paid a claim in error and you can evidence the error, then they should honour the renewal premium, no claims level and change claim status to non fault. The Insurers would have to accept the loss in regard to the claim pay out in error.

[dacouc]

Have you changed Insurers / Brokers since the accident?

[stamarie]

Have you changed Insurers / Brokers since the accident?

 

No I renewed with the same company but I did ask at the time and they said there was nothing on my file about the claim.