Car insurance policies are fragile and failing to declare basic information could see a policy invalidated and an insurer refusing to pay out on claims. Hiding information about a previous motoring accident from an insurer can invalidate your policy even if this was just a minor incident.
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Your Car Insurance could be invalidated by forgetting to declare this
Even small contact or mini accidents must be reported to an insurer as driving with a damaged car could increase your perceived road risk.
A recent study by Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions revealed just 21 per cent of motorists would definitely or probably report a minor incident.
The survey revealed just a third would report an incident if it involved another vehicle in the collision.
However, failure to notify an insurer could see companies refusing to pay out for claims on future incidents as this may have breached the contract of your policy.
Admitting to being in a previous collision could boost your car insurance prices considerably and many fear of escalating costs if they admit to being in a collision.
Motorists who have never made a claim or not within the last five years were least likely to make any declaration in fear of losing their no claims bonus.
Just 15 per cent of those over the age of 45 revealed they would reveal a minor accident compared to 42 per cent of younger drivers between the ages of 18 and 24.
James Burton, product director of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said: “Consumers understandably feel nervous declaring information that could result in premium increases.
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“This is a real concern as any motorists could be invalidating their policy when instead they need to look at the bigger picture where factors such as the size of the claim, driving history, faulty and policy details more often determine premium increases after claims.”
However, some insurers won’t let information affect overall premium prices unless a proper claim is made by one driver.
Small incidents mean cheaper repair bills and some motorists may decide to not tell an insurer about a collision and pay for repairs themselves.
This will protect any no claims bonus and doesn’t go against your insurance policy record which could prevent premiums being boosted.
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However, you must still inform an insurance company of a collision even if you have no intention of claiming any money on the policy.
This is because the other party involved in the collision could still claim against you at a later date even if they haven’t initially said they would.
Details of small accidents should also be kept for future car insurance applications as these must be declared when applying for a new policy.
Failure to declare all incidents on a new car insurance policy could invalidate your cover later down the line and could even be deemed as insurance fraud which is a criminal offence.
If you’re involved in an accident you must provide details of a vehicle registration number, name, address and details of the vehicle owner.
Failure to stop at the scene of a minor accident and exchange insurance details could land a motorist in serious police trouble.
Not exchanging details could be seen as a failure to stop or failure to report an accident could see police officers slapping a motorist with heavy fines and penalty points.
The penalty could see a minimum of five points on a driving licence but this could even rise to as high as ten points in some conditions.
Motorists could also be hit with a £5,000 fine and in some extreme cases, the offence may even be sent to court.
Forgetting to do this at the scene of an incident is not a problem as long as you exchange these details and report the accident to a local police station within 24 hours.
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