Consent and Indemnity Agreement

poolech

Help! Looking for some advice on Car Insurance.
Unfortunately l have been naive and lent my car to a friend who l believed had car insurance, he was involved in a accident involving a young cyclist, police was called out and l have been informed by the police that the accident was caused by the young lad on the cycle, luckily the young lad was ok apart from a few bruises and a broken finger, my car was damaged, but my so called friend gave a false name and address, l have since made a statement to this effect, and found out that my friend does have insurance but his insurance are saying that he was not insured to drive any other car, my insurance company have had a claim put in against my insurance by the young lad, and are now asking me to sign a Consent and Indemnity Agreement. What does this mean for me? am i expected to pay comp to this young lad? Can anyone advise me what my position is in this situation?

InsideInsurance

The police only deal with criminal matters, fault/ liability for an accident is purely a civil matter and something that the police have no training in (and in most cases very little experience).

Your insurance company is the RTA insurer of the vehicle. As there was no other insurance in place they are legally required to manage the third party claim against the driver of the vehicle and if needs be to pay the claim. As this is a breach of the terms and conditions of your policy they are asking you to sign a form to say you will repay them the costs they incur as a result.

By signing it you allow everything to progress as if it were a normal claim and you just get a bill at the end.

The alternative is to refuse to sign it in which case the third party would most likely issue Part 7 claim against both the driver of the vehicle at the time (if they are traceable) and your insurance company. If the driver cannot pay then the insurer will have to pick up the bill, they will then instruct solicitors against you, potentially, to recover that cost. This route reduces your chances of having to pay (depending on how well off your "friend" is) but will increase the amount you have to pay if you do have to pay.

Given it is a driving offence to allow someone to drive your vehicle without insurance you may want to see if the police are planning on charging you - it carries 6-8 points from memory.

poolech

Thanks for that, l have given a statement to the police stating that l believed he had insurance seeing as he's been driving his car to work for that past 4 yr s I've known him, they said that if l didn't make a statement that l could be charged, but seeing as l did make one that it would not be taken further. My friend is not well off, neither am l !! Since then he has had his car taken off him by the police. But why am l being chased for this when the police said that it was the cyclist fault !!!

Quentin

You aren't yet being "chased".

Nevertheless, if your insurer is put to any cost over this, then they (correctly) intend to then "chase" you to reimburse them.

It is not for the police to decide on the liability issue. (They can only decide whether or not a crime may have been committed).

The liability issue will be decided by the insurers. (Or in a civil (county) court if the insurers fail to agree)

InsideInsurance

Again the difference between criminal and civil law unfortunately.

The RTA Section 151 states:

Where an insurer becomes liable under this section to pay an amount in respect of a liability of a person who is not insured by a policy or whose liability is not covered by a security, he is entitled to recover the amount from that person or from any person who—(a)is insured by the policy, or whose liability is covered by the security, by the terms of which the liability would be covered if the policy insured all persons or, as the case may be, the security covered the liability of all persons, and
(b)caused or permitted the use of the vehicle which gave rise to the liability.

As you permitted the use and are the insured and have a contract which almost certainly states something like the above it is against you that they would pursue.


Re the cyclists fault - as I say the police are not trained in liability and frequently give really bad advice on it. If you want a judgement on whos fault it is you would need to give both your friends and the cyclists versions of events.

poolech

Thank you all for your advice

Quentin

Maybe you can get your friend to sign a similar agreement for you (so that you can chase him to reimburse you all your costs over this episode)