Sold my car and now been told it's caused an accident. Help!

Eeasp

Panicking so much about this. I don't know who's telling the truth and who actually knows what's happens in this situation.

My boyfriend and I sold our car over a month ago and have a copy of the signed bit of paper to prove it, the one you send the DVLA when you sell a car. Yesterday we were contacted by our car insurance company to say that it had been involved in an accident and because we forgot to cancel our car insurance we could be liable for the insurance claim if they can't find the new driver or if the new driver was uninsured!

Surely this isn't true?! We had nothing to do with the accident, it wasn't even in a place we've ever been to before and even the DVLA states that we don't own the car.

What can I do?! We simply cannot afford this

GwylimT

Do you have proof of postage?

Have you received any info from the DVLA?

RS2000.

Eeasp wrote: »

Panicking so much about this. I don't know who's telling the truth and who actually knows what's happens in this situation.

My boyfriend and I sold our car over a month ago and have a copy of the signed bit of paper to prove it, the one you send the DVLA when you sell a car. Yesterday we were contacted by our car insurance company to say that it had been involved in an accident and because we forgot to cancel our car insurance we could be liable for the insurance claim if they can't find the new driver or if the new driver was uninsured!

Surely this isn't true?! We had nothing to do with the accident, it wasn't even in a place we've ever been to before and even the DVLA states that we don't own the car.

What can I do?! We simply cannot afford this

How can you forget to cancel the policy?

Have you not insured you new car or can you afford to throw money away?

If your insurance company are saying they'll pay out there's not much you can do about it.

arcon5

I think what's happening is they are legally obliged to meet a third party claim and they are looking to pursue you for breaching the contract.

Moto2

The liability cascades down until a valid insurance policy is found.
It's happening a lot more now that all policies are on a national database

Eeasp

RS2000 - We just forgot to tell our current car insurance company that we no longer had this car as we have a multi-car policy. People forget to do things and unfortunately that's what we did and now they won't let us cancel it as there's an ongoing claim which isn't even us!

GwylimT - I have the code for the signed for delivery to the DVLA and also emailed myself a copy of the slip before sending it to the DVLA. And yes, we had received a letter from the DVLA saying it's not ours anymore.

How can I be in breach of contract if we didn't own the car anymore? We sold the car and as soon as the other person has signed the slip we had no vested interest in the vehicle so I don't understand why the insurance company are saying we can still be liable?!

I can't afford this

RS2000.

Eeasp wrote: »

RS2000 - We just forgot to tell our current car insurance company that we no longer had this car as we have a multi-car policy. People forget to do things and unfortunately that's what we did and now they won't let us cancel it as there's an ongoing claim which isn't even us!

GwylimT - I have the code for the signed for delivery to the DVLA and also emailed myself a copy of the slip before sending it to the DVLA. And yes, we had received a letter from the DVLA saying it's not ours anymore.

How can I be in breach of contract if we didn't own the car anymore? We sold the car and as soon as the other person has signed the slip we had no vested interest in the vehicle so I don't understand why the insurance company are saying we can still be liable?!

I can't afford this

Because you didn't take the car off cover.

Marktheshark

I am afraid it is very true, if you had an insurance policy in force on the car, in the event of no other insurance covering the loss, it will be your policy that pays out under third party liability.

Failing to cancel the insurance could be become a very expensive mistake indeed.

Unless some other insurance is in force, you are going to have to bite the bullet on this one.

straighttalker

As RS2000 has said, you didn't cancel the insurance on the vehicle when you sold it. This means that your insurer were still on cover at the time of the accident notwithstanding the fact that it was sold to someone else.

If you're lucky, maybe the new owner does have insurance and both insurers were contacted and it will be determined which one is definitely on cover.

If there isn't another insurer, your insurer will have to deal with any third party claims and will seek recovery of their outlay from either the driver of the car you sold at the time of the accident or yourselves.

Eeasp

I really, really, really hope that they got insurance but I have a niggling feeling they have not as otherwise I wouldn't still be on the motor insurance database as the insured person surely?

If I do end up having to pay out will I end up paying for everything or just my excess? How will this work?

Fingers crossed SO HARD that they were insured

Nodding_Donkey

Unfortunately your insurance company can claim back everything they are forced to pay out from you. Of course you could then claim that from the person you sold the car to but if they are the type to not bother with car insurance what are your chances of getting anything from them?