Escaping Liability By Reporting Car Stolen

Midas_Inreverse

I have 3rd party, fire and theft car insurance. The policy also covers recovery of uninsured losses. My car was damaged by another car that deliberately drove into me, causing me to crash into a bollard. After looking at the damage they had caused they laughed and drove off. I know the registration number of their car. My car may have to be written off.

The other car is insured but we are waiting to find out if it's been reported to the police as stolen. My insurers say they won't pursue a claim if the other car was stolen, even if it was insured at the time of the incident. But someone else has told me that it is the car that is insured, not the person, so I could claim off the policy for that car, so I am really confused.

If all a driver has to do to escape liability is to report their car as having been stolen before the time of the incident, even if they don't report it until after the incident has occurred, this appears to be a massive loophole, and we would have to pay for all the repairs even though it was their fault.

Have any of you come across this before? Would it have made a difference if my insurance had been fully comprehensive?

dacouch

You are indeed right the Insurers of the Stolen Vehicle are respnsible for any damage the vehicles does whilst it was stolen. The basic idea of the Road Traffic Act in relation to Insurance is that if a vehicle is on the road it has to have Insurance against damaging other property or injuries / death to people.

Have a read of this link

http://www.mib.org.uk/MIB/en/AboutMIB/FAQ/FAQGFUKDAMCAUSED.htm

Why do you suspect the vehicle was stolen as just because they drove off does not mean it was stolen? Either way if the damage to your vehicle was the other vehicles fault the other vehicles Insurers should pay for it. If there is no insurance in place you can try and claim off the Motor Insurance Bureau.

Your legal protection policy should be helping you out with all of this, they can check the Motor Insurance Database to establish whether the vehicle was insured or not it should take them less than 48 hours to do this. Get onto them and get them to sort it out.

Out of interest which Insurance company are you with

SolicitorMidlands

Doesn't matter whether it was stolen or not. Vehicle is insured and that means the insurers will have to pick up the tab. the MIB will only deal with uninsured vehicles.

raskazz

SolicitorMidlands wrote: »

Doesn't matter whether it was stolen or not. Vehicle is insured and that means the insurers will have to pick up the tab. the MIB will only deal with uninsured vehicles.

Er, no. The MIB also deal with claims where the driver cannot be identified, under the Untraced Drivers Agreement. If the driver of a stolen car at the time of an accident cannot be identified then it is the MIB who will deal with the claim, not the insurer (unless there's a joint enterprise and the occupants of the car are identified but it can't be proven who was actually driving).