Advice needed please? Bus crash..

bottay

Hi, just wondered if anyone has any advice on this nightmare situation.

A couple of days ago my boyfriend returned from work to find a note on his windscreen where he had parked...along with a few back end pieces of a bus lodged in his wheel arch and red bus paint all down the side of his car.
The note was kindly written by the witness who seen the bus driver crash into my boyfriends parked car and drove off. Bless him for chasing the bus and actually getting the reg number.
My boyfriend called the witness and he filled him in on what had happened. Following this he called the police to report the crime and then called his insurance to report it... this is where it all goes pear shaped.
My boyfriend found out that he has no insurance and has not had for the past month!!! He was completely distressed by this, obviously questioning why his insurer had not notified him etc, god only knows what would have happened had he had an accident. Turns out, the insurance company had emailed..my boyfriend rarely checks emails. (I have told him off for this lol)
As soon as he realised that he did not have insurance, he got some.
The problem now is that obviously his car is completely ruined. He originally contacted the bus company and complained and they have said to send all photos etc off but we are worried where he stands here as he was uninsured at the time. It still seems unfair that the driver has done such damage and driven off. In a way this was a blessing as it was the only thing that alerted us to the fact that he was not insured and we're counting our blessings that it was not worse. We have never ever been the sort to drive around with no tax, MOT or insurance so this was a huge shock.
Can anyone advise what the best steps to take are. If he was to continue with the claim through the bus company, would it only land him in trouble? The driver was still in the wrong for what he did.:(

InsideInsurance

Being uninsured is irrelevant to the incident and the claim from the Third Party/ TP Insurers. The only downside of cause is that it means he either has to do everything himself or use an accident management company.

You seem to be progressing reasonably with the bus company and so it is probably best going down that route. If that does run into problems before anything much happens then you can look into contacting a Credit Hire company who will do both the repairs and a hire car on credit and recover the money from the TP - obviously they'd need to know the problems you've had and that may mean they wont take on the case.

Obviously this is a form of credit and you need to read the small print about what happens if they cannot recover all their money. Some have the option of buying a relatively low cost insurance policy to prevent you being liable for any shortfall but this cost is unrecoverable from the TP/TPI

bottay

Thank you for responding so soon. I am just worried that if he were to go through the bus company and they then find out he was not insured at the time of the accident, would this lead to him getting in trouble with the police? At the moment he's looking at just taking it on the chin as things could have been a lot worse and he's thankful to have not been in a serious accident or caused harm to anyone else. Would you happen to know how much would it cost typically to go through a credit hire company?

InsideInsurance

The civil issue of damage to your vehicle and the criminal matter of driving without insurance are two totally separate issues.

There is no requirement for you to disclose to the TP that you have no insurance and they are unable to check (legitimately anyway). Obviously if you tell them then they may chose to tell the police etc but generally companies arent that vindictive.

Out of curiosity, what happened to the old policy? Did it lapse or was it cancelled? If it was cancelled, did you inform your new insurers you've had insurance cancelled? If not you may find yourself without insurance again!


Credit hire/ repairs is only applicable for making claims against a TP and therefore it shouldnt cost you anything. It is not available for you if your wanting to settle the claim yourself, you'd need to get your credit in the form of a credit card or such for that. They charge the TP/TPI a significantly higher than normal rates but these are all pre-agreed with the ABI

bottay

Thanks again
That's made it a lot clearer to me.
His insurance just expired last month and he hadn't realized as it would usually just renew..for some reason this did not happen.(apparently he opted out on the "auto-renew" when he bought the insurance last year) My boyfriend actually reported the accident himself before he found out that his insurance had expired so this was my worry as I am concerned if they will follow up on it and then find out he was not insured at that moment.
So as it stands, if he was to continue with the claim through the bus company, there shouldn't be any problems unless they report to the police? Or would they need to contact his new insurer and then they would find that he was only insured after the incident..god this is such a mess.

InsideInsurance

There still wouldnt be a problem with the claim even if they do contact the police. The two are totally independent.

Obviously from your perspective the driving without insurance charge would be a much bigger problem than the damage to your car,

ukmike

It could of been a friend who was insured driving his car that day. ;-)

BertTheRaccoon

ukmike wrote: »

It could of been a friend who was insured driving his car that day. ;-)

No it couldn't because for Driving Other Cars extension to work on a friend's fully comp policy, the car you borrow has to have insurance in place in the first place.

rs65

BertTheRaccoon wrote: »

No it couldn't because for Driving Other Cars extension to work on a friend's fully comp policy, the car you borrow has to have insurance in place in the first place.

Not all policies require that.

rs65

bottay wrote: »

His insurance just expired last month and he hadn't realized as it would usually just renew..for some reason this did not happen.(apparently he opted out on the "auto-renew" when he bought the insurance last year)

You might not realise but auto renew is a regular topic of discussion with some for and some against.

Sorry to say that your boyfriend's experience is a resounding reason why auto renew is a good thing.

rs65

ukmike wrote: »

It could of been a friend who was insured driving his car that day. ;-)

But it was parked up and in breach of CIE rules anyway.