Third-Party Insurer Called After an Accident: What to Do

The short answer: you only owe your own insurer a call

If the other driver's insurer has rung you, you do not have to deal with them. You can say you'll be handling everything through your own insurer, and that's the end of the conversation. The same goes for a claims company, an "accident management" firm, or a recovery driver who turned up without being asked.

At the roadside your legal duties are narrow. Stop, and hand over your details if someone with reasonable grounds asks for them. Everything after that is a choice rather than an obligation: signing forms, accepting a hire car, agreeing to a repairer, admitting anything.

Below: what the law requires of you, who is allowed to contact you, and the decisions in the first 24 hours that cost people real money. It sits alongside our guide to running a used car.

What you actually have to do at the scene

The duties come from section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. They apply when an accident on a road or public place injures someone other than you, or damages another vehicle, certain animals, or property.

Stop, and give your details if asked

You must stop. Then, if anyone with reasonable grounds asks, you must give your name and address, the vehicle owner's name and address, and the vehicle's registration. That's the list. It isn't a statement, an account of what happened, or an apology.

When you must involve the police

If you exchange details at the scene, there's no separate legal duty under section 170 to report the collision to the police. Say you don't give your details, because nobody was there to take them or you couldn't. Then you must report it to a police station or a constable as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case within 24 hours. Gov.uk puts it plainly: you must report the accident to the police within 24 hours if you do not give your details at the time.

Those 24 hours are a backstop, not an allowance. "As soon as reasonably practicable" is the actual test.

A separate duty applies if someone was injured. If you can't produce evidence of insurance at the scene, to a constable or to someone with reasonable grounds for asking, you must report the accident and produce that evidence. Section 170(7) gives you seven days from the accident to produce the certificate at the police station you named when you reported it. Doing so protects you from conviction for the failure to produce.

What you don't have to do

Nothing in section 170 requires you to admit fault, apologise, estimate speeds, or explain what happened. Citizens Advice's guidance is blunt about it: do not admit at the scene that it was your fault. Liability is your insurer's job to argue, on evidence, later.

Do tell your own insurer, though, even if you don't intend to claim. Gov.uk states you must report the accident to your insurance company even if you're not planning to make a claim, and most policies make it a condition. Citizens Advice puts it the same way: your insurer needs to know about the accident for their information, even if you don't claim through them.

Say whether it's a claim or information only when you ring. Then follow the call up in writing. Nothing requires that, but it gives you a record of what you told them and when.

Why the other driver's insurer rang you first

There's a name for it. Third-party capture is sometimes called third-party assistance. It is where the at-fault driver's insurer contacts you directly. They offer to sort out your repair, hire car and any injury claim, without your insurer or a solicitor in the middle.

It is legal. Citizens Advice confirms insurers are allowed to do this, then makes the obvious point: you don't have to settle that way, and their insurer isn't acting in your interests. Settle early and directly, and the figure may be lower than you'd have got through a solicitor or a court. You generally have three years from the accident to bring a personal injury claim, so there's no reason to decide on the phone.

The code they're supposed to follow

Members of the Association of British Insurers work to a voluntary Third Party Assistance Code (2021 version). It is good practice guidance, not law. It also doesn't cover injury claims in England and Wales arising on or after 31 May 2021 that belong in the Official Injury Claim portal. Within its scope, it says insurers should:

• make first contact by phone, text, email, letter or messaging, rather than by turning up unannounced at your home, a hospital, or a care home
• tell you that you can seek independent legal advice at any point
• tell you in writing that there's no obligation to accept any or all of the services offered
• respect it if, at that first contact, you make clear you don't want to deal with them directly

That last point is the one worth remembering. The code's wording is that this "must be respected". It is still a voluntary code, though, binding only in the sense that ABI members sign up to it.

Should I sign anything?

At the scene, writing down and swapping names, addresses, registrations and insurance details is fine. That's the exchange the law has in mind. A photo of the other driver's documents does the same job.

Hold off on anything else, particularly:

• A statement or accident report form put in front of you by the other side. Your account belongs in your own insurer's claim file first.
• A settlement acceptance. Accepting is normally full and final for that accident. The ABI code says the paperwork behind an offer should explain that acceptance is in full and final settlement of the claim arising out of the accident, which tells you how permanent it is.
• A hire or repair agreement handed over by a recovery driver or a firm you didn't call. See the next chapter; this is where the money goes wrong.

There is one hard legal protection worth knowing. Under section 6 of the Civil Liability Act 2018, a regulated person must not invite, offer, make or accept a settlement payment for a whiplash claim without appropriate medical evidence, where they know or suspect such a claim is being made. A regulated person means an insurer, solicitor or claims firm. So none of them can legitimately buy off a whiplash injury on the phone before you've been examined.

A recovery truck turned up that nobody called

Recovery drivers listen out for collisions and arrive fast. Whether you have to let them take the car depends entirely on who instructed them.

If you didn't instruct them, you don't have to use them

No single regulator sits over roadside recovery firms. So this is a matter of ordinary contract rather than a rule anyone will quote at you. A firm you didn't instruct has no agreement with you to move, store or charge for your car until you give it one, usually by signing something.

Don't feel rushed. Call your own insurer's claims line first and ask them to arrange recovery.

On the insurer's side, there's at least something in writing. The ABI code says an insurer should write to an unrepresented claimant, meaning someone handling the claim without a solicitor. That letter should say there's no obligation to accept any or all of the services offered, and that includes their repairer and their replacement vehicle.

If the police order removal, that's different

Police can have a vehicle removed under their own powers when it's obstructing or dangerous. The charges for that are set in law. Under the Removal, Storage and Disposal of Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Regulations 2023, removal of a car up to 3.5 tonnes that's on the road, upright and not substantially damaged is £192, with storage at £26 for each 24-hour period.

Higher removal rates apply in the schedule if the car is off the road, not upright, or substantially damaged. After a collision it often is. Those are statutory figures, not a firm's price list.

Credit hire: the "free" car that can land you the bill

This is the trap. An accident management company can supply a replacement car and repairs under a credit hire or credit repair agreement, with no upfront cost, and then try to recover the money from the at-fault driver's insurer. If that recovery works, you pay nothing.

If it doesn't, the agreement is still with you, and you can be pursued for the balance. That bites when the other insurer disputes liability, or argues the daily rate and hire period were excessive. The Financial Ombudsman Service sets out the risks in its guidance on credit hire and credit repair after a "no-fault" accident. You're stepping outside your motor policy into a separate agreement with an independent company, you may have to help recover disputed costs, and you can be asked to cover them when recovery fails.

There's a sting in the tail on complaints, too. Because these are generally unregulated credit agreements, the ombudsman usually can't look at a complaint about the credit hire firm itself. It can consider whether your insurer or broker referred you to the service properly and warned you of the risks.

Are they even allowed to ring me?

Partly, and it depends who "they" are.

Claims management companies are FCA-regulated

Since 1 April 2019 the Financial Conduct Authority has regulated claims management companies constituted under the law of England, Wales or Scotland, or serving customers in Great Britain. A CMC without authorisation isn't allowed to trade. You can check any firm against the FCA's own register before you talk to them.

Unsolicited claims marketing calls are banned without your consent

Section 35 of the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018 inserted regulation 21A into the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, in force from 8 September 2018. It prohibits using a public electronic communications service to make unsolicited direct marketing calls about claims management services. The exception is where you have specifically consented to that caller. Enforcement sits with the Information Commissioner's Office for the calling rules and the FCA for firms' conduct.

The gap: recovery and credit hire firms

Don't read the CMC rules as covering everyone who rings. Credit hire and credit repair are largely structured as separate, unregulated agreements rather than claims management services. That is exactly why the ombudsman's jurisdiction over them is limited. A firm offering to tow your car and put you in a courtesy vehicle may sit outside the CMC regime altogether.

Treat "we're regulated" as a claim to verify on the FCA register, not a reassurance.

They've admitted fault — what happens now?

An admission at the scene is helpful, not binding. The other driver's insurer forms its own view of liability, and it may take weeks. Citizens Advice notes that if the other insurer hasn't accepted blame yet, you may need to claim through your own policy and recover your excess afterwards.

If you were injured, minor road traffic injury claims in England and Wales are handled through Official Injury Claim, the free service run on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. It lets drivers and passengers claim without a solicitor. That's the reason the ABI code carves out post-31-May-2021 injury claims: they belong in that portal.

A claim also leaves a trace on the car. If yours is repaired and returned, or written off and bought by someone else later, that history can show up on an insurance-industry record. That's what our guide to checking a car's accident history is about.

And if your car is written off, you're about to go shopping for a replacement, so the same checks apply to whatever you look at next. Our free car check shows the MOT record and current and historical tax status from the number plate alone.

A script for the first 24 hours

Not a legal procedure. Just the order that keeps your options open.

• At the scene. Stop. Exchange names, addresses, vehicle owner details and registrations. Photograph the vehicles, the positions, the plates and the road. Get witness details. Don't discuss blame.
• Before anyone tows. Ask who instructed them. If it wasn't you, your insurer or the police, you can decline and call your insurer's claims line instead.
• Within a few hours. Ring your own insurer, whatever your view of fault, and say whether it's a claim or information only.
• If the other insurer calls. Say you're dealing through your own insurer. You don't have to answer questions, accept their repairer, or take their car.
• If a claims firm calls out of the blue. Ask for the firm's name and FCA reference, then check it on the FCA register before anything else.
• If you're hurt. See a doctor and keep the records. An insurer, solicitor or claims firm can't lawfully settle a whiplash claim before appropriate medical evidence exists, so an offer made before that is one to refuse.
• Anything you're asked to sign. Read it at home. Ask whether it's a credit agreement in your name.

Common questions