Not always in a traffic accident, in which one is involved, the complete blame falls on someone else. In many cases, you may also be responsible for the damage you have suffered. What this can mean in detail for financial consequences.
If you as a driver are partly to blame for a traffic accident, this affects the compensation you can claim from the other party for the damage you have suffered. However, it also affects the amount of compensation that one's own car insurance company has to pay to an injured party in an accident. This can lead to a worse position of the own no-claims bonus of the car insurance, namely to a higher classification, which takes place to the next year.
If an other party is injured in a car accident, the motor vehicle liability insurance of the car with which the accident was caused assumes the resulting personal injury and property damage of the innocent other party. The person responsible for the accident, who is solely responsible for the accident, remains completely on his own damage costs incurred to his car.
However, if the person who caused the accident has comprehensive motor vehicle insurance, this will also cover accident damage to your own vehicle caused by yourself, provided you did not cause the damage intentionally or through gross negligence. However, some motor insurers also offer optional coverage for comprehensive damage caused by gross negligence. However, there are also accidents in which not only one party involved in the accident is solely to blame, but two or even more road users are partly or jointly to blame for the accident.
Settlement of claims in the event of a partial debt
Contributory or even partial negligence is possible, for example, if two drivers do not obey the traffic rules, such as disregarding a right of way or an applicable speed limit. Even gross driving errors can lead to contributory negligence. For example, in the event of a rear-end collision in which a driver brakes heavily for no good reason and the car driver behind has not maintained the required distance and is therefore unable to brake in time, each of the parties involved in the accident is often partially to blame.
Depending on the proportion of (partial) fault that a party to the accident has in the accident, the motor vehicle liability insurance of the car with which the party to the accident was involved in the accident will pay a proportion of the amount of the damage to the other party to the accident. If you are 50 percent to blame for the accident, you have to pay half, i.e. 50 percent, of the damage caused to the other party in the accident, or the motor vehicle liability insurance takes over this 50 percent damage payment. The other half is not replaced to the injured accident opponent.
If you are 30 percent at fault, your own car insurance must pay 30 percent of the other party's damages. The other party to the accident is thus left to pay the remaining 70 percent of his or her damages. However, even the driver who is partly to blame for the accident will only receive partial (pro rata) payment for the damage to his own car and will have to pay the remaining costs out of his own pocket. Cost protection is also provided here by an existing fully comprehensive insurance policy. Among other things, it pays for accident damage to the vehicle for which another party is not liable or only proportionally liable.
Deterioration of the no-claims bonus ..
If the own motor vehicle liability insurance must pay, because one with the insured motor vehicle an accident completely or also only proportionally is to blame for, it comes in the following calendar year to a worse position of the no-claims bonus (SFR) and thus often to a premium increase.
The same applies to comprehensive insurance: anyone who makes use of it and has their own damage, which occurred in an accident they caused themselves or in an accident for which they are partly to blame, reimbursed, must reckon with a higher SF class rating and thus a higher vehicle premium next year.
The extent to which it makes sense to take out one's own comprehensive insurance in view of the resulting increase in insurance premiums depends on the amount of damage and the level of premiums, which is determined by the SFR upgrade. Whether it is more favorable to pay for (residual) damage to one's own car out of one's own pocket can, if the worst comes to the worst, be inquired from the comprehensive insurer or from the broker.
… and how to possibly avoid this
But you can also avoid a higher SFR in the motor vehicle liability insurance due to a (co-)caused accident if you reimburse your own motor vehicle insurer for the damage paid to the other party in the accident after the claim has been settled.
Some insurers inform their insurance customers when the claim settlement has been completed and the amount of damage, for example, does not exceed 500 euros or 1.000 Euro was. In this case, the policyholder usually has six months, or longer depending on the contract agreement, after this notification to repay the claim and thus avoid an SFR increase.
Reimbursement may be worthwhile even for higher damages, depending on the circumstances. Who would like to know whether a damage repayment after a motor vehicle liability and/or comprehensive damage is profitable, can inquire with the insurer or mediator.