Unintentionally uninsured car & the MIB

msallen

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone here can offer some advice.

In Jan 2012 I bought a used car from a main dealer which came with a seven day cover note. The cover note was due to expire on 24th January 2012. I purchased a year's insurance over the next few days.

I was then involved in an accident in early February, and it was only when I came to report this to the insurer that I found that my new policy had been started from 24th Feb instead of 24th Jan. I have to assume that I selected the wrong month on the insurers web site (as I can't prove otherwise).

This of course meant that I was uninsured at the time of the accident. The police completely accepted my story and recommended that the CPS not prosecute me for driving without insurance.

A few weeks later I started communication with a company called ClaimFast which were seemingly acting on behalf of the other party's insurers. I explained the situation to them, said that I was happy and willing to pay for the damage to the other car (which as it was a < 5mph bump, and the car was a <£1000 15 year old Micra, I wasn't expecting to be too much). Shortly afterwards they sent me a demand for £1500 to cover the cost of a rental car while the other party's car was off the road. I asked them to justify spending more on the rental than the car was worth, and they treated this as a formal complain on my part, which lead to the actual insurers getting in touch with me (Saga). I spoke to a Saga representative on the phone, again explaining everything and he said that ClaimFast would be back in touch shortly.

That was it for over a year, until a few weeks ago, when a solicitor acting on behalf of the MIB wrote demanding >£20,000. I told them that I rejected this claim and asked them to itemise/justify how they got to this total. They have basically said that it is made up of c£15K for the settlement and c£5K for expenses, and that they intend to take me to court for this.

What options do I have here. I am perfectly willing (and indeed waiting) to pay the appropriate amount for the damage to the other party's car, but I'm not about to be bullied into paying some outlandishly inflated amount. Citizens Advice Bureaux were a waste of time when I asked them.

Thanks for reading.
msallen

Quentin

You need to get proper legal advice.

The mib will pursue you for this money. Meaning a ccj if you don't pay.

They must consider the third party claim acceptable otherwise they would not have paid out.

spacey2012

Basically is not good enough, write back stating that they must provide proof of claim in a full breakdown or you will fight the claim on that basis.

vaio

were there people in the car you hit? Did they claim for PI?

forgotmyname

I thought the same a bucket full of personal injury. Plus £1500 for the hire car, Plus repair costs.

msallen

Thanks for the replies.

I think PI is the likely cause of the large claim - the policeman who came round to take a statement did hint that the other party's husband seemed keen that she (the other party) "made the most of it".

If this is the case though, given that I had already stated that I would be settling the claim myself rather than my (non-existent) insurance company, shouldn't I have been notified of this and given the chance to challenge/request a medical? Indeed shouldn't everything have come to me for payment rather than the MIB (who I understood to only cover cases where the other driver hadn't stopped and was therefore unknown)?

forgotmyname

Its for unsisured drivers not just those that don't stop.

Have you notified your insurance of this incident/claim against you?

Whether its all genuine or swinging the lead a bit, You will never know. Unless you have the funds to pay a very expensive legal team.

I wonder if this is one of those debts that will stay with you forever, Not even bankruptcy will clear it?

bav007

Hi msallen!

Just wondering if you made any progress with this issue as im expecting to go through the same thing as you..

forces836

MIB are not clear on the way they come up with the total demand I had the same mine was originally for £25,000 reduces to £20,000 agaian a 5 MPH bump and no cost for any damage to their vehicle on for so called injury
This happened to me 9 years ago whilst serving in the army i had just got back from a tour and jumped in my car to travel to manchester from surrey for my stag weekend
traffic on M6 was bumper to bumper crawling at no more than 5 to 10 MPH i ran into back of another car stopped checked any damage was minimal and swapped insurance details no police called
once in manchester i phoned insurance company Churchill and reported accident they responded by saying my insurance hadn't renewed so i wasn't insured i explained i was on automatic renewal they looked into this for me 24 hrs later still hadn't heard back so phoned them again they said there had been a missed monthly direct debit they had wrote to me i hadn't received this letter as at time i was away from country but admitted this could have been the case as i was experiencing a few money problems i asked what i had to do now ? they responded by telling me if i paid the missing monthly direct debit payment they would reinstate my insurance which they did as a brand new policy which in turn didn't cover the RTA
I was taken to court and found guilty of driving without insurance i explained the situation and was advised i could take it to a magistrates court but it could be expensive so i decided not to bother and excepted my fine and points
3 years later i got a letter from Mib stating i had to pay out 25,000 in injury claim compensation i was in Shock and quite angry when i phoned them and pointed out i had never been invited to court over this apparently they can get someone to represent me in court ?
I sought legal advice on this and nobody seemed to want to take it on as i was the CRIMINAL driving without insurance (not knowingly}
The amount was reduced to 20,000 which has got me into much financial difficulty and im now with a dept management plan
My question is 1. WHO IS MORE GUILTY HERE MYSELF FOR UNINTENTIONALLY DRIVING WITHOUT INSURANCE FOR APPROX 1 WEEK OR THE 3 RD PARTY WHO HAS MADE A BOGUS INJURY CLAIM NO WAY CAN SOMEONE GET THAT INJURED FROM A MERE 5 MPH BUMP
2. IS IT TO LATE TO STILL FIGHT THIS ?

huckster

Difficult but not impossible to fight actions of MIB. I have heard of people managing to not pay anything, because they found problems with the way MIB dealt with the third party claim.

Starting point is a Data Protection Subject Access Request to MIB for a complete copy of their file related to the accident claim. If you search online for Data Protection Subject access request template letters, you will find them. You would have to pay MIB £10 as the admin fee due for such requests.

See what they come back with. You could enter into dispute with MIB about how they handled the matter and that they failed to act with due dilligence in assessing the third parties claim. The dispute is registered, so if this ever gets to a court, at least you have evidence of registering a dispute. The subject access request allows you to be more forensic.