Reasons For Reporting Accident To Insurance

Often a car owner hesitates to report an accident, one that has created no more than a dent in the damaged automobile. That hesitant car owner usually fears the extent to which the premiums on his or her insurance policy might increase. At the same time, the hesitant car owner ignores the existence of certain other risks.

There is always the chance for occurrence of a second and larger accident. Following the occurrence of that accident, the car owner might decide to file a claim, with the help of a personal injury lawyer in Collingwood.

Once a claim has been filed, the insurance company will study the damage, and ask about previous repairs. The insurance company’s investigations could uncover facts about the unreported, yet repaired damage, which reflected the corrections made, following an earlier accident.

The unreported accident could have caused a delayed onset injury.

With no record of the accident, it would become impossible to identify the series of events that caused the delayed onset injury. Lacking a way to link the cause to a slow-to-emerge medical condition, it would be next to impossible to substantiate any type of personal injury claim.

The car owner would have no access to guidance, regarding where he or she might arrange to have the damaged vehicle repaired.

Insurance companies often retain information on reliable car repair services. If an accident had not been reported, then the automobile owner and policy holder would not be able to take advantage of that available guidance. As a result, that same car owner might end up using a service where not all of the technicians were trustworthy.

Suppose, for example, that some technician found a credit card in the glove compartment and stole it. Then that theft would need to be reported. If word of the theft got to the car insurance agency, they would wonder why the vehicle owned by the policy holder had been in need of repair work.

The insurance company could take action, if it learned that a policy holder had failed to report an accident.

No law says that an insurance company must continue to guarantee coverage to a policy holder that has failed to report an accident. Some insurance companies actually deny further coverage to such a policy holder. That is an additional risk, that any automobile owner/policy holder takes-on, if he or she tries to hide past involvement in a motor vehicle accident.

Because policy holders invite so many risks by attempting to hide such involvement, it seems silly to make that effort. An effort that invites four different unwanted consequences seems almost useless, even if it appears to have allowed avoidance of a possible increase in the size of the policy holder’s car insurance premium.