Claims Through Motor Insurance Bureau?

Midas_Inreverse

Has anyone used the MIB to pursue a claim, please? I am thinking of cancelling my insurance cover and letting them pursue it for me instead as the other driver is bound to deny liability and will be come an "untraced driver" in MIB's terms. Or do I have to let my insurers go through this process first?

Btw, my car was worth about £1000, is bound to be written off and was insured 3rd party, fire and theft.

dacouch

Its not very clear what your intending to do, do you have a claim going through?

Can you explain more

SolicitorMidlands

If you think the person will deny liability I am assuming you know who that person is? They would therefore not be an untraced driver.

The MIB deal with claims ONLY against people who are uninsured and those that are untraced and ONLY after they have made enquiries into whether they can trace the person and/or any insurers. As you can imagine, they will not want to meet any claim when someone else may be able to.

What are the circumstances of this incident?

Midas_Inreverse

The circumstances are that another driver deliberately rammed our car and drove away from the scene. We have the registration number and the numberplate which dropped off their car from the impact. There were no witnesses and the accident was reported to the police immediately.

Our car has sustained a lot of damage (probably a write off), but theirs was a heavy old thing that probably wouldn't have sustained much damage. Their car is insured but we expect the driver to deny liability. Their car was not reported stolen according to the police the next day.

My insurers' solicitors have offered to deal with the claim for uninsured losses but I haven't asked them to do so yet because they won't guarantee my anonymity during the process. They expect me to sign my rights away at the bottom of their claim form, while I maintain that notifying the other driver's insurance company of my name and address is irrelevant to their investigation. I am frightened of reprisals if the other driver learns my name and address, and all I get is "We have to tell the other driver's insurance company". Why? I am thinking of cancelling the insurance policy and using the MIB to pursue the claim instead.

The MIB has offered to contact the other driver's insurers and said they will treat it as an untraced driver if the driver denies liability. I don't know if the numberplate being in our possession is enough to link their car to the scene. I have yet to speak to them about the anonymity aspect. All I want to establish first if if the other driver is going to admit liability or not without revealing to him my name and address. Surely I have the right to deny consent to revealing my name and address to the third party in these circumstances?

I hope you can help.

SolicitorMidlands

I would double check with the MIB - they person you spoke to sounds like they have no idea what they are on about. The whole point of the MIB is to deal with claims against untraced and uninsured drivers. The vehicle is insured - they just don't accept liability.

Unfortunately, you do not have the right to anonymity. Your details must be registered to protect against fraud. The insurers should not pass your address on to their insured. Furthermore, your insurers should not need to write to the Defendant direct with your address. If you do not wish for your name and address to be on any claim form should proceedings need to be issued you will need to make an application to the court. That is likely to be unsuccessful unless you are a police officer.

mattymoo

I suspect there is more to this story than we are being told. Why were you deliberately rammed? Do you have a dispute with the other person or did you just encounter the lorry driver from Duel that day?

Insurers only cover accidents caused through a negligent act or ommision. If there is a suggestion this was a deliberate act where you were targetted then it may be the case the insurers refuse to deal full stop. I'm not talking about a bit of queue jumping that gets out of hand and results in a bump type incident - I'm referring to a pre-meditated decision to ram the vehicle.

Note - I dealt with claims for 7 years and we only took this decision once (out of around 5,000 claims I dealt with) and that was for a gangland type dispute.

As regard anonynimity - a defendant has every right to know the identity of the plaintiff (claimant). Any reprisals suffered would become a police matter.