Auto Insurance Claims: Past Auto Accident Holding Up Registration of Car, minor fender bender, ny state department of insurance

Question
I was involved in a minor fender bender in New York State in 2007. Both the other driver and I agreed that we would not report the accident and would pay the damage out of pocket. We exchanged information and phone numbers, but the other driver never called me
This past summer I went to renew my car registration and was blocked from doing so. After months of battling the DMV to find out why, it turns out that the other driver in 2007 did file a claim with his insurance, but since I never filed a report with mine, my insurance company at the time denied the claim, and it is now being handled by the insurance company's law offices.

I contacted the law office by phone and followed up with a registered letter three weeks ago requesting that the information about the case be sent to me but I have not heard back. How long does the law office have to respond to my request?

Answer
What you relates doesn't make total sense.

If your carrier was contacted by the other party or his/her carrier about this accident the first thing your carrier should have done was to contact you to confirm that in fact there had been an accident and the facts surrounding same.

I would follow-up with your carrier or their law office(?)and see what the deal is.  Acknowledge that you did not initially report the accident and why and ask them why they never contacted you when the matter was reported to them by the other car or their carreir.

In NY as in most states you don't have to report a loss to the State via the applicable form unless there are injuries involved (there weren't) and the property damage exceeded a certain amount.

Suggest you contact the NY State Department of Insurance and run this by them and ask them how best to proceed.

I think what you need to do is to get a form (SR21 or something like that) affirming that at time of accident you were properly insured and that should lift whatever block you have on your registration effort.

Hope and trust that the above helps.

Get back to me with any follow-up issue(s) re this matter.

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