Help!! Small accident and MOT has expired!!

Edinburgh123

Good afternoon

I appreciate the 'no MOT I've been in an accident' post has been done a few times, and whilst I've read nearly all of them, I think I still need some advice. If you think there's a post that already covered my concerns I'm happy to read through that instead.

So, I was in a small bump on Tuesday (18/07) I believe it was the other drivers fault as he has nudged my left rear wheel arch whilst trying to come into my lane on a roundabout. I was in the right hand lane, he in the left, the exit I was trying to make has a 2 lane exit. His lane is labelled as 'left and straight on' so technically he is allowed to go round the roundabout. However I believe he didn't indicate, and I definitely did indicate. He's arguing the toss and is taking this through the insurers.

The problem is I realized after the bump that MOT expired on the Monday!! (17/07) I honestly feel sick to my stomach right now that I've been so stupid. I've not informed my insurers yet that it expired but if they ask me to prove anything, I won't lie.

It gets complicated because my car is quite old (1999 Peugeot 206) I didn't want to claim anyway as I was genuinely thinking of getting a new car. So I informed my insurers as soon as it happened, provided pictures, and informed them I wouldn't be claiming but it appears the other party will do. My frustration at this point is the truly minimal nature of the damage the other car received, it's the slightest of bumps to his front left bumper, and a black mark with a few scratches, honestly a bit of t-cut and he'll be fine, but I do think he'll claim!

My worry here is that it will take my insurers 2 seconds to find out I've not got a valid MOT. Also I took my car in for it's MOT today (21/07...this was booked on Monday) and it's failed it's MOT. The car is really old so it's failed it's MOT the last 3 years, and I've just paid to have it pass the MOT. However this year the cost is too much so I just want to get rid. The failures on my MOT have nothing to do with the accident...but a certain part of my brakes failed the MOT. So my major panic is that my insurer now also has proof that my car isn't roadworthy? Which I fear will invalidate my insurance?

Any direction anyone could offer me on this would be GREATLY appreciated.

Aretnap

There's a general principle that says that insurers can only refuse to pay a claim on the grounds that you've breached the terms of your policy if the breach was material to the claim.

So, for example, if your home insurance had a clause which said that you had to lock your doors when the house was unoccupied, your insurer could refuse to pay a claim for a burglary which happened when the house was left unlocked. However if you had a subsidence claim, they wouldn't be able to refuse it just because they found out that you don't always lock your doors when you leave the house.

Similarly if your car insurance has a clause which requires your car to be roadworthy your insurers can only decline a claim if your car had a defect which caused, or at least significantly contributed to, the accident. The fact that it had a defect is not enough by itself.

So the insurer would have to show (a) that the defect would have materially affected the car's braking performance and (b) that the poor braking performance somehow caused someone to collide your rear wheel arch. It's not obvious how they'd do this (particularly the second part), so you should have no problems.

Edinburgh123

Thanks for your swift response Aretnap, much appreciated. I agree the insurers would have some difficulty coming to the conclusion that the car defects caused the crash, particularly because he crashed into the back left side of me. My hope is that he comes to his senses and realizes how little the damage is and just forgets it. But if he claims, the fact that I'm not claiming hopefully should protect me from my insurer looking into my MOT anyway. We'll see!

Quentin

Your failed MOT today is irrelevant.

The only issue is whether or not your car was roadworthy at the time of the incident (nothing to do with failing an MOT - as you will know from reading up on this, a current MOT is irrelevant - you must keep your car roadworthy)