Acquaintance crashed our car - who's liable?

CashConserver

After an evening out a few months ago, my partner (stupidly) gave his car keys to an acquaintance who had supposedly stopped drinking hours before after having 2 pints. My partner, the acquaintance and two friends got into my partner’s car with the acquaintance driving. The driver lost control of the car and they crashed into a footbridge. A nearby telegraph pole was also damaged due to the ferocity of the fire that ensued. Needless to say, the car was a write off. All suffered injuries – the driver and the front passenger (not my partner) were the worst off, but thankfully all are on the road to recovery.

My partner’s full comp insurance will not cover the cost of the car, nor the retrieval costs, as he was not the driver and the acquaintance was not a named driver on his policy. My partner has paid the retrieval costs out of his own pocket and has since cancelled the insurance.

The driver has his own fully comp insurance for his own car, but we believe that he would only be covered 3rd party in my partner’s car. We have also since learnt that despite the driver being breathalysed a few hours after the accident and coming back green, his blood test showed he was over the limit, so we believe his insurance will be invalidated.

We realise we have lost the value of the car (about £2000). The driver has apologised for what has happened to my partner’s car, but has never made any offer to help pay for some of the loss. However, today we have received a council bill for £900 to pay for repairs to the footbridge. My partner phoned them to state he was not the driver of the vehicle and asked them to obtain the driver’s details, but the council insist that my partner is liable.

Therefore, after this long spiel of background information (apologies for this!), my question is - who should liable for the £900 repair bill?

Also, is it worth pursuing a claim for at least half the cost of the car (I feel both are to blame as my partner should have never given the keys to someone else not on his policy, but equally the driver should have not accepted the keys and driven knowing full well he was only (we suspect) 3rd party?

Many thanks for your assistance – and I hope our story saves someone from offering to lend their car keys, when the driver is not fully insured, and therefore avoid the difficulties we’ve encountered afterwards.

raskazz

You should give the council the details of the insurer of the driver. Assuming he was covered to drive other cars on a third party basis they should pick up the tab. The blood test should not be an issue - hardly any policies have a drink/drugs clause (and even when they do, it usually only relates to damage to the insured vehicle, not third party liabilities).

If the council don't obtain the driver's insurance details, it could well end up going to court (where it gets complicated) but essentially your partner's insurer could then be liable to settle the council's claim - it could then look to recover the money from your partner.

As far as the car is concerned - you cannot claim for the damage off either your partner's insurer or the driver's insurer. You'd have to deal with it as a civil claim against the driver.

System

expect a bill for the telegraph pole !

Class_1_Driver

Your 'friend' was driving your car on his third party insurance. That means exactly what it says on the tin. Third parties, in this case the council, may claim on your friends insurance. It makes no difference that it was your partners car or even that your partner was in the vehicle at the time of the accident. Supply the details of the driver at the time of the accident to the council. They need to pursue the driver for their claim.

sarah_elton

Class_1_Driver wrote: »

Your 'friend' was driving your car on his third party insurance. That means exactly what it says on the tin. Third parties, in this case the council, may claim on your friends insurance. It makes no difference that it was your partners car or even that your partner was in the vehicle at the time of the accident. Supply the details of the driver at the time of the accident to the council. They need to pursue the driver for their claim.

Exactly correct. Your friend who was driving was insured (on his policy) for damage done to others. Give the council the driver's details and they should talk to him, and he should contact his insurers.

You were correct that the damage to your car is not covered. When your friend was driving, it was exactly the same as if you were driving your own car with only third party insurance. As someone posted earlier, you could try sueing your friend for the cost of the car but I don't know what your chances of winning would be and it's likely to cost you a friendship. Although I have to say if it had been me driving I would have offered to pay at least something towards the car as I would have felt so guilty about it.

lisyloo

Personally I would pursue the friend for your costs.
I wouldn't worry about the friendship as he has proven to be not much of a friend.

If he has a house/job then you should be ok, because a judgement can be enforced (ultimately the balliffs can go in or the courts can order his employer to deduct payments from his wages).
If he has no home, no money and no job, then I'm afraid there is no point and your partner has to take some responsibility for who he gives his keys to.