Claim coming up to affect insurance after 5 years?

[6o4__boi]

Probably gonna be a long read but I'll try to keep it short.

Five years ago (in April 2008), I rear ended someone at a very low speed with my mom's vehicle, 1994 tercel hitting an EG civic at less than 5km/h, hell probably at 1km/h, cus i had lifted my foot off the brake pedal to reach for something in the back of the car. my foot never actually left the pedal so the tercel more or less TAPPED the civic. So we got out, exchanged info, took a look at each other's cars and came to a conclusion that it was such a slight collision that it wasn't worth calling in. There was no paint chip, nothing, not a single sign of a collision. I left it at that (I probably should have called a claim in too), but got a call from ICBC a few days later saying there was a claim from that collision and that this person was now trying to claim injury. ICBC told me to bring my mom and the car to an adjuster to assess the damage on the vehicle. They did their thing, took a look at the car and the adjuster concluded that there was no sign of any impact on our vehicle and their vehicle and that the the driver of the other vehicle may be trying to fake injuries. The adjuster said that he would keep in touch through phone/mail with regards to the status of the claim, and that it would affect my mom's insurance policy if the claim was ever concluded.

Fast forward to today (September 2013), I tried to insure my car. I had transferred this car's policy to another vehicle and it was sitting in storage for a few weeks. I was going to get a whole new set of plates for it but noticed that my discount rate wasn't what it was supposed to be. I pressed the broker to question ICBC why this was so, and when the broker got ahold of ICBC, they brought up this old claim from 5 years ago, supposedly it was now a >$6000 injury claim and it was dragging down my discount rate. The broker said something about this claim hanging onto the system and just coming down now. I'm totally confused as to how something like this can happen. First off, not a single document from ICBC with regards to this claim, not even a follow up letter/phone call after that initial meeting with the adjuster when the car was first inspected. Second, I had just transferred the policy and paid the differences between the transfer roughly two weeks ago and nothing like this came up. I plan to have a lengthy discussion with the adjuster who is supposedly in charge of this claim. I still clearly remember this "accident" and I'm a 100000% sure that the other driver was a POS trying to milk the claim. I'm annoyed as fuck considering the fact that there was no communication whatsoever between my mom and I and ICBC with regards to this claim. Not a shred of document. It's a bolt out of the blue. When we left the adjuster's office and the inspection facility, the adjuster gave us the impression that this was such a minor thing that it should be over before it starts. The car has since been sold (2+ years) ago. I've been insuring my own vehicles without a problem since then. So this is a bit of a ZOMFGWTFBBQSOYSAUCEAREUTALKINGABOUT surprise when the broker brought this up. I've had previous minor claims against me but there was very clear communication between ICBC and myself and it was resolved easily.

What are my options here? This doesn't even make sense to me...There's no documents or anything from that time. I could barely remember which one this was until ICBC mentioned which cars were involved. The adjuster did say that it was my mom's policy that would be affected and not mine, so how the hell did it suddenly roll over to me. After 5 freaking years, no documents, no phone calls, no nothing and this just pops up out of nowhere.

Any help/insight would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

[!LittleDragon]

How attached are you to your current car? Reason why I ask is I think you get full discount on your second car...

I t-boned a red light runner and was found at fault for some dumbass reason and was paying the higher rate. I was supposed to be working my way back down to my original discount but I decided to get a new car. I got the car and when I was doing the insurance, they told me I had highest level road star. I was paying insurance on two cars for a month before I cancelled the policy on the old car and garaged it. 4 years later, I still have the discount.

Wasn't looking to beat ICBC, I just wanted a new car and that's what happened... lol I actually calculated for higher rates before I bought the car because it's newer and more powerful than the old car so I was quite surprised.

[Blayde]

Originally Posted by !LittleDragon

How attached are you to your current car? Reason why I ask is I think you get full discount on your second car...

I t-boned a red light runner and was found at fault for some dumbass reason and was paying the higher rate. I was supposed to be working my way back down to my original discount but I decided to get a new car. I got the car and when I was doing the insurance, they told me I had highest level road star. I was paying insurance on two cars for a month before I cancelled the policy on the old car and garaged it. 4 years later, I still have the discount.

Wasn't looking to beat ICBC, I just wanted a new car and that's what happened... lol I actually calculated for higher rates before I bought the car because it's newer and more powerful than the old car so I was quite surprised.

This doesn't sound like the norm.....you probably lucked out somehow, as ICBC doesn't care how many vehicles you have, you'll have the same discount on all of them...

[nabs]

^^^
nope what !LittleDragon says is correct. Your claim/accident history only attaches itself to the FIRST car you insure after the incident.

To the OP...

It happened to me, almost exactly how you explained it. Except we were on a hill and their car slid "reversed" into my front bumper, and I was given fault . Same thing personal injury all that BS... 4 years later I go to insure my vehicle... I find im at 70% surcharge! im totally what the shit about this... call ICBC make them spend 2 hours on the phone with me explaining EVERY DETAIL in how this is possible after 4 years and not hearing anything about the claim and there being no damage and how the system works. Wrote down every detail from when I first got my drivers licence and kind of figured out how their flawed system works. Still didn't satisfy me to how i was at 70% surcharge though, however since no where else I could turn I had to bite the bullet and pay it. My second car however which I insured 2 months later was at my regular discount rate.

My thoughts on this if you have a claim/surcharge that you know about...

1) find a friend/family member with a cheap car they can lend you for a month
2) insure said cheap car under your name (all your claim amounts will now be attached to this insurance)
3) week or so later, insure the car you intend to insure at your normal discount
4) week later, remove insurance from friends car (costs 50 dollars iirc)
5) drive your car

it may seem like a hassle but it will save you hundreds... in my case saved me thousands.

Spoiler!

Sooner or later it will catch up to you though, so you are basically just putting off the inevitable

[dai3yuen]

Originally Posted by Blayde

This doesn't sound like the norm.....you probably lucked out somehow, as ICBC doesn't care how many vehicles you have, you'll have the same discount on all of them...

Wow, so wrong...this is how people get confused by mis-information.

Claims can only affect ONE policy, so if you own 5 vehicles, only one of them will be affected by an at fault accident, not all of them.

[dai3yuen]

Originally Posted by 6o4__boi

What are my options here? This doesn't even make sense to me...There's no documents or anything from that time. I could barely remember which one this was until ICBC mentioned which cars were involved. The adjuster did say that it was my mom's policy that would be affected and not mine, so how the hell did it suddenly roll over to me. After 5 freaking years, no documents, no phone calls, no nothing and this just pops up out of nowhere.

Any help/insight would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Claims can only affect one person / policy at a time. I would suggest calling ICBC Customer Service @ 604-661-2800 as they will be able to give you details of why / how the claim is now affecting your insurance.

ICBC | Contact us

[Marco911]

Originally Posted by nabs

^^^

My thoughts on this if you have a claim/surcharge that you know about...

1) find a friend/family member with a cheap car they can lend you for a month
2) insure said cheap car under your name (all your claim amounts will now be attached to this insurance)
3) week or so later, insure the car you intend to insure at your normal discount
4) week later, remove insurance from friends car (costs 50 dollars iirc)
5) drive your car

it may seem like a hassle but it will save you hundreds... in my case saved me thousands.

Spoiler!

Sooner or later it will catch up to you though, so you are basically just putting off the inevitable

[/QUOTE]

Yes, the next time you renew your insurance, the higher rate will apply again.

[Marco911]

1) You were deemed at fault
2) ICBC paid out a claim
3) Your mom sold/cancelled the insurance on that vehicle so the claim attached to you.
They should have sent you a letter notifying you that you were found at fault, and perhaps they did 5 years ago. ICBC has always worked that way. BTW, people who make fraudulent claims should be banned from buying insurance.

The billing practice I found unethical and perhaps should have been legally challenged was when ICBC changed their claim rated discount scale from 10%/yr following a collision to 5%/yr. They made this policy retroactive to customers that had claims in years prior to the policy change. Since a claimant has a contractual legal agreement with ICBC for a 10%/yr discount scale following a collision, this policy should only have applied to people who made claims after the new policy came into effect.