Car hit - insurance (etc) advice sought please

Valli

This morning DD's car was hit while parked. Police left a note on the car. The driver of the other vehicle appears to have been detained by the police.

She's notified her insurer (policy ends tonight would you believe and she has a new policy in place from midnight) and is awaiting details of the driver from the police.

It's possible (we're not certain yet) that the driver was being chased by the police at the time, and turned into her quiet, one-way side road having taken a wrong turning in his efforts to get away from them. I'm under the impression that if the other driver was committing a criminal offence (ie DUI) his insurance (should he actually have any) may not cover him. Am I right?

Anyway, what else does she need to do?

Car_54

Valli wrote: »

It's possible (we're not certain yet) that the driver was being chased by the police at the time, and turned into her quiet, one-way side road having taken a wrong turning in his efforts to get away from them. I'm under the impression that if the other driver was committing a criminal offence (ie DUI) his insurance (should he actually have any) may not cover him. Am I right?

No, you needn't worry about that. His insurer (if any) still has to cover 3rd party claims.

Valli

Interestingly her insurance company will not accept the crime number etc to process the claim - they have said she MUST have the details of the driver or it will be claimed against her own insurance.

Angus_Og

She will just need to let this work its way through the system.

In the meantime she could ask the police (again?) if they have the drivers details.

neilmcl

Does she have the registration details, if so she could go to Askmid.com and trace the TP insurance company from that and make a claim directly from them. This is assuming that the driver has insurance for the car in question.

Valli

She came out of her house to find her car stickered by the police; one of her housemates had spotted it.

Quentin

She must inform her new insurer about this ASAP

She should be prepared for a possible premium alteration because of this

ratrace

Quentin wrote: »

She must inform her new insurer about this ASAP

She should be prepared for a possible premium alteration because of this

This unfortunately is the sad part of the whole thing really, an innocent individual has car damaged due to no fault of thier own which is bad enough, and could have spent £'sss the week before keeping their car well maintained etc... and because of some clown damaged it now she has to face potentially higher premiums for the next few years

unbelievable

Aretnap

Valli wrote: »

I'm under the impression that if the other driver was committing a criminal offence (ie DUI) his insurance (should he actually have any) may not cover him. Am I right?

All drivers who cause car accidents are committing criminal offences - careless driving if nothing else - whether or not they actually get prosecuted for them. So if that were the case there would be no point having insurance as it would stop coveing you the moment you did something silly and caused an accident.

Some policies do have specific exclusions about drink driving, but even they still have to cover third party liabilities - the insurer can just pursue the driver for what they paid out to the third party afterwards.

So if the driver did have insurance, the fact that he was drunk, speeding, fleeing from the police or otherwise driving like a pillock won't affect DD's right to claim. If he didn't have insurance it's another matter of course...

Valli

ratrace wrote: »

This unfortunately is the sad part of the whole thing really, an innocent individual has car damaged due to no fault of their own which is bad enough, and could have spent £'sss the week before keeping their car well maintained etc... and because of some clown damaged it now she has to face potentially higher premiums for the next few years

unbelievable

and did - she'd just put it through it's MoT and had some work done. She's in a graduate job; started there in January.

ratrace

Valli wrote: »

and did - she'd just put it through it's MoT and had some work done. She's in a graduate job; started there in January.

Sorry she has to deal with this, typical as soon as you get work done this happens, and if her car is written off they will only offer her the market value, so not only will she lose of possibly not getting enough money back to find a replacment plus all the money she has just spent she wont get back and may be pay higher premium for the next fews years all due to someones negligence/fault

Now how is that fair, if it was her fault the fair enough but as she was not even in the bleeding car yet she still has to take a hit . i dont conde this but is it any wonder why people like to settle private and not get insurance companys involved when there is a minor bump and you cant blame them when this is what we are up against just legalized theft really