3rd Party Car Ins Claim £13k I'll have to pay

scarletfan

Hi folks
Basically, my car spilled oil on a toll road then a biker came off on the oil and damaged his bike beyond repair but was fortunately un-unjured. The police's opinion was that his accident was my fault, fair enough as it spilled a lot of oil and he was right behind me.

The problem; my insurance company, I have discovered, do not cover me for driving on this particular road (and there's no way around this, i've checked) but they have to pay the biker out as a 3rd party claim under EU law. This looks like its going to be around £13,000 with everything. They will then seek to reclaim this money from me.

Questions;
1. If you owe an insurance company a large sum and have no means to repay it (already on debt management plan and in rented accomodation) what would they do to get their money back?
2. If the above happened would i be able to get car insurance again? I guess it would increase a load and obviously I'd lose my no claims.
3. If there was some problem with my policy that was already in effect before the incident that would invalidate my insurance cover, would they still have to pay the 3rd party claim?

While I appreciate that this shows the biker as the injured party (I agree) having to meet this claim personally will set me back 5 years hard work paying off my debt plan plus I have no means of getting a loan and nothing of value to sell. The old lesson of read the small print strikes again :embarasse
Any help greatly appreciated.

Immers7

1. It depends on insurer to insurer. Some will take a pragmatic point of view and wont bother pursuing you as it's not worthwhile them throwing more bad money after bad money.

Others wont and will get a court judgment against you and then look to enforce the same(you can still argue that you can only payin small instalments).

Best bet is probably to let the insurers know of your financial position and agree a payment plan with a small sum every month.

Dont get a loan to pay it off.

2. I dont know the answer

3. It's not EU law its within the Road Traffic Act and yes they do have to deal with the matter and pay out.

forgotmyname

How does your insurance not cover you for a toll road?

Do you mean some other road like a racetrack or something? Trackday or dragracing?

Quentin

Have the insurers cancelled your policy over this? If so you will have problems finding cover in future as a cancelled policy must be declared for evermore to other insurers.

If not, do some dummy quotes online with this claim against you and no ncd and see what the premiums are like.

scarletfan

The toll road in question is also used as a race track but they have public sessions where you can drive around as its classed as a public toll road open to any vehicle.

My policy is not cancelled at the moment as they are currently unaware of the situation. I am conscious that I need to tell them ASAP but have been gathering together as much info as I can first. The best solution may be to pay the biker directly and keep the insurance company well away from it all which I would do if it was a couple of grand.

BertTheRaccoon

Would this toll road be the Nurburgring?

forgotmyname

Not a toll road as such then.. Its a race track you pay to take your car on the track, Not a toll but a fee where you pay per run or for an amount of time.

Not exactly the M6 toll. Which is what i thought originally. Although the speed limit on that road does seem to be rather variable.

thelawnet

BertTheRaccoon wrote: »

Would this toll road be the Nurburgring?

:rotfl: :T

vaio

how did the oil get out?

dacouch

BertTheRaccoon wrote: »

Would this toll road be the Nurburgring?

Raskazz discussed this potential situation some time back, his opinion was that a number of Insurers who specifically excluded the Nurburgring had used the wrong spelling / official title of it in their policy wordings. As such he felt it would be worth arguing with such Insurers.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2219361

molerat

From Wiki .........

Drivers interested in lap times often time themselves from the first bridge after the barriers to the last gantry (aka Bridge-to-Gantry or BTG time) before the exit.In the event of an accident, the local police are known to make note of any timing devices present (stopwatches, etc.) in the police report.The driver's insurance coverage may consequently be voided, leaving the driver fully liable for damage. Normal, non-racing, non-timed driving accidents should be covered by driver's insurance, but it is increasingly common for UK insurers especially to insert exclusion clauses that mean drivers and riders on the Nürburgring have third-party coverage only or none at all