Letter from MIB claiming we owe them £6.5K

dacouch

Here is some information on the MID and how it may apply to you.

As a Motortrader your partner was obliged to declare certain types of vehicles very basically any permanent cars or stock cars he intended to keep over 14 days.

Most of the cheap and not very cheerful motor trade insurers who cover traders working from home will not pay claims for vehicles that should have been declared to the database and weren't.

The MID database was introduced in Jan 2003 and to start with there was a lot of confusion and the majority of traders who worked from home did not declare the vehicles they should have.

As your partner is a trader and I suspect did not register the vehicle on the MID what has probably happened is the person solicitor or Insurer probably tried to trace who the vehicle was insured with by checking the MID but could not find the Insurer as the car was not registered.

The person who claimed off of you would have had 3 years from the accident date to claim from you for injury claims and 6 years for property claims.

Claims through the MIB take a long time to settle and are often not presented to them for many months often years after the accident.

There is a good chance the Statute Bar will not apply as the date of the debt is very likely to be years after the accident date, as they have recently started chasing you I suspect the settled the claim last year.

I would not suggest you avoid the MIB / their collection agents as they will fully pursue the money (Most of the people they pursue try to avoid paying so they are used to collecting difficult debts).

I would recommend you speak to the MIB and ask them for full details about the accident, advise them you are disputing the debt which should mean they will put a hold on the debt collectors. Also find out who you were insured with and speak to them, he was probably insured by one of the following Motortrade Solutions nee Road Runner, Tradex, Tradewise, MMS, KGM, Bollington or Highway.

If you need further information on how the MID affects motortraders here is a leaflet that explains it http://www.mib.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A0DFD884-48CB-4E51-96B7-CEB39DB8A1C4/0/MotorTradefinal.pdf

Diamonds_2

No we won't ignore anything.

My OH was (is) a motor mechanic, he was working for Peugeot at the time of the alledged accident. His motor insurance was taken out by himself, nothing to do with where he worked. He got the motor traders insurance to ensure that he would have extra cover so that if he drove a customers vehicle across town on road test or whatever, he would be covered fully comp (as long as the customer him/herself was insured iykwim). He is one of those people who would never drive 1 inch without full insurance/tax/MOT, he's totally straight (lol).

My gut feeling is that somewhere out there, there is a person (Mrs R. Begum) who saw our car maybe, took the registration, and used it in a scam to claim (falsley) without our knowledge. Unfortunately for us, we moved address and IF the MIB tried to get in touch with us, they failed (although we did re-direct our mail for at LEAST 6 months after we moved).

I think the next step is to ring the MIB tomorrow, inform them that this is a false claim, tell them he had insurance etc. and that we've heard not a dickie bird about this in 7 years.. then see what they say. In their letter they have said that we shouldn't even contact them (MIB) that it is now passed to the debt recovery people but no way are we being forced to deal with these people when we've not heard a single thing until just before christmas.

Thanks everyone, all comments are going to help me sleep tonight

marlot

Diamonds wrote: »

No we won't ignore anything.
I think the next step is to ring the MIB tomorrow

Make sure you ring them on the 01908 number on this thread, not the number on the letter which purports to come from them!

dacouch

Diamonds wrote: »

No we won't ignore anything.

My OH was (is) a motor mechanic, he was working for Peugeot at the time of the alledged accident. His motor insurance was taken out by himself, nothing to do with where he worked. He got the motor traders insurance to ensure that he would have extra cover so that if he drove a customers vehicle across town on road test or whatever, he would be covered fully comp (as long as the customer him/herself was insured iykwim). He is one of those people who would never drive 1 inch without full insurance/tax/MOT, he's totally straight (lol).

For the record, his own motor trade policy would probably not have covered him for cars that he was driving that were not connected with his own motor trade business but were connected with his employers business. If he was an employee it was the responsibility of his employer to cover those vehicles.

If your husband was working for the Peugeot Garage on self employed basis then his own policy might have covered him.

A Motor Trade Policy basically covered you for your own vehicles and vehicles that are in your own custody and control for the purposes of your own motor trade business.

The_Devil_In_Diamante

Diamonds wrote: »

Right, I've got the paper work now (I couldn't find it until just now)... I have 2 documents.

One is from the MIB stating that my BF was involved in an accident (!) on the 6.4.03 and that the claiment sufferered loss and damage totalling £6383.59 including interest. It say's it believes my BF was driving without insurance (!!!) which is a criminal offense and the MIB has had to pay the claimant this money. It say's that the debt has been passed to Close Credit Management and to deal with them direct.


The second document is from Close Credit Management saying exactly the same as the above (looks almost identical in wording) then at the bottom it say's that payment is due immediately and that it's reached a critical stage.

These two documents were sent together in the same envelope.

My only reassurance at this stage is what esmerobbo has said in that it's over 6 years old so don't do anything?

My friend has just received one exactly the same from an accident he had in 2002. It went to Court and he paid the Lady he crashed into 'x' amount by cheque. He hasn't heard anything since and has now had this letter through.

He hasn't been at this address long either, so he has no idea how they have got hold of his address. Also, he declared himself bankrupt about 3 years ago.....what should he do??? Help...:rotfl:

bluetint

Don't despair! Close Credit Management - apparently they're notorious scare-monkeys. Loads of people have been getting these letters recently, demanding money and threatening court action. I think the MIB have had a clear-out of the bottom draw and sold on old debts to this DCA (Debt Collection Agency). Most debts are statute barred after six years and as I understand the MIB are supposed to allow you the opportunity to defend yourself against a claim. If you know nothing about it until a letter from CCM (demanding money with, if not menaces, then lots of interest accrued over years) then they haven't fulfilled that obligation to start off with. There's a very interesting and informative thread on the Consumer Action Group website about this very subject. Do please read it, it helped me immensely. I'll put the link but if it doesn't work, search the CAG site for 'MIB-Close Credit Management - Claim issued'.
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?287914-MIB-Close-Credit-Management-Claim-issued