Help, no insurance!

TrickyWicky

mr_rush wrote: »

Good to see the police are hard at work.

You'd be the first to complain if someone you loved was killed by an uninsured driver.

cyclonebri1

DUTR wrote: »

And the issue of not displaying a valid VED ?
But I think it maybe more serious than you think as we could all just change the plates on our vehicles and get off on a technicality.
I'm sure the OP will be back

But the car has the correct (new) registration, will have been fitted with new plates and will have been supplied with a tax disc on the new reg, so the only issue is the insurance, ;)

DUTR

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

But the car has the correct (new) registration, will have been fitted with new plates and will have been supplied with a tax disc on the new reg, so the only issue is the insurance, ;)

You would like to think so, but the VED would only be issued on proof of valid documentation which would include insurance, I get the impression the OP has simply purchased the plates and put them on the car, as all the other features of the process are dependant on each other.

The_Turner

DUTR wrote: »

You would like to think so, but the VED would only be issued on proof of valid documentation which would include insurance, I get the impression the OP has simply purchased the plates and put them on the car, as all the other features of the process are dependant on each other.

In that case they wouldn't have been done for no insurance. It would be no vrm plates. The tax disc would have revealed the true vrm and that would have been checked.

DUTR

The_Turner wrote: »

In that case they wouldn't have been done for no insurance. It would be no vrm plates. The tax disc would have revealed the true vrm and that would have been checked.

This is some os what the OP had posted
"Basically my husband got stopped tonight whilst driving his van. The policemand said it had no insurance. Hubby argued this and rang me who then had to go and find the insurance certificate. Whilst reading the policy number we realised that the insurance cert was on the old reg. I bought my hubby a cherished plate in July and we put it on his van. I'm pretty sure I contacted the ins company as well as dvla etc.
Anyway to cut a long story short, the dvla have it registered with the new plate but the insrance coming up with the old plate, so the van has been compounded and he's being done for driving with no insurance.

I did ask the poilceman whther he could check the database to confirm that the old plate and new one are the same car but he said they would have to ring dvla to confirm and it was shut so they had to tow it off.

I know we're at fault for not checking it was ok but do we have any comeback at all here? It just seems so unfair when we would never knowingly not have insurance, the van has not changes, the driver has not changed, theres nothing different, just the plate. Morrally I would like to think we were insured although I'm sure by law we might not have been."

The OP would have been issued with a new insurance certificate and this may have been subject to some admin charges (and a return of the present certificate), it's been a while since I changed my car, but a neighbour has recently changed hers, and I know the plate changeover had taken a few weeks to complete, this is why I get the impression the OP has overlooked some formalities on the process, depending on how the seargent wants to be will laregly dictate if the OP has a charge to answer.

Hammyman

The law requires them to impound cars showing as uninsured unless the driver can prove there and then that it is.

The_Turner

Hammyman wrote: »

The law requires them to impound cars showing as uninsured unless the driver can prove there and then that it is.

I don't think Section 165 actually states that.

alm721

Hello folks, thank-you for all the reply's, sorry I've not been back. We had a (very rare) weekend aways booked, which is partly why I was so stressed on Friday night/Saturday morning. (Which was fab by the way).
Anyway back to the saga! I rang our insurance company as soon as they opened on Sat morning. The van was still insured under the old number plate. They had no record of us changing the number. I'm fairly certain I did contact them (I changed mine at the same time and mine is ok cause I rang to double check in case I hadn't done it), and think it unlikely that I didn't ring them both.

However, They have said that as far as they are concerned we were covered and would have paid out should we have had a claim, which is a huge relief. They have also issued a new certificate. They said there was no change to the policy itself and did not change us. (It's a business policy) I asked if they could send a letter confirming that we were covered but they said the policy documents will show we were covered as they will show a mid term policy change, which obviously shows there was a policy in place.

They faxed the new insurance cert to the police station on Sat morning and the police accepted this, so we could get the van back. The only problem was that they only faxed the new insurance cert with Saturdays date on it, not all the policy documents showing it was a mid term change so we had to pay to get it back (£150).

TBH we were just relieved to have it back. The lady at the police station said he will still be done though for driving with no insurance. She said even if we take in the 'policy change' document they will prosecute him and he'll have to go to court. She also said that the ins company would be unlikely to write a letter stating we were insured as if it's proved that they were negligent then the courts can fine them?

She said If we could prove the car was insured we could write to the police with evidence and ask for the money back, and if we got it back then they wouldn't prosecute as he was obviously insured?

TBH as much as the money is a pain, I'm more worried about him being prosecuted so I guess my main questions are now this?

1. What counts as evidence that he was insured? Would the policy documents that state 'mid term policy change' count? The insurance company seem reluctant to send me a letter confirming this (which worries me), but have said they will confirm this to the police should they contact them?

2- If they do prosecute and the insurance company confirm we were insured, can they do us for not informing the insurance company of a change to number plate (even though this did not lead to a change in insurance). If so what would the likely consequences be?

3- Do we have any chance of getting the £150 back? It was not the police's fault, oir the insurance company's, mine really as I obviously haven't checked it was changed. For this reason I would not really persue getting the money back, it's really becasue the policewoman told us that getting the money back would stop any futhur action.

Many thanks folks, feeling loads better than this time on Friday.

ps. the tax disc/V5 are all changed to the new number plate, it was just the insurance.

alm721

Hammyman wrote: »

The law requires them to impound cars showing as uninsured unless the driver can prove there and then that it is.

I did take theinsurance certificate but the policeman wouldn't look at it. He said as it was in the old number plate there was no point as it wouldn't make a difference. I did ask could he not check the insurance cert against the van details but he said he couldn't until dvla were open in the monring.

dacouch

Ask your Insurers for a "Letter of indemnity" stating they would have indemnified you for claims at the time you were stopped