car insured-driver uninsured

sunsun

Hi,
Hope to get some advise for my friend who is worried and screwed tbf.
He is a new driver, have license and first car for about 8 months. However stupidly he decided to make a favor to our other friend and lent his car for few hours. Surprisingly, the guy made a small accident on a roundabout ,changing lane without indicating and slightly scraped another car`s bumper and door. The damage is minor,however the other party claimed against my friend`s insurance for car damage and personal injury (which is not possible no way that the injury was done at 3-5 mph) As my friend has third party insurance, it does not cover any other drivers.
So at the end his policy got cancelled as per policy other person is not able to drive the car and the insurance is still dealing with the case, however he has been told that the insurance will bill HIM for all the claim costs plus as the policy is cancelled he has to pay the annual outstanding balance
Has someone been in similar situation and can give some advise or let us know how to deal with this ?
My friend needs to get his car insured again, but now it`s a problem as the policy is cancelled and the claim not settled so he does not know how to complete the quote...

ObsessiveOverThinker

So does the guy who had the accident have any insurance at all? If he did, would it have covered him to drive your friend's car under DOC (driving other cars)?

If not, unfortunately your friend made a silly decision in lending his car to someone not named on his own policy and with no valid insurance.

It's a breach of the policy terms and conditions so the insurer is entitled to:

1. Not pay your friend's damages
2. Retain your friend's insurance premium
3. Recover any costs paid to the third party from your friend.

He's the contract holder and the responsibility falls on him to ensure that anyone driving his vehicle has cover.

He could always ask them to justify why they are keeping his insurance premium, but they'll probably say it's to try and offset those Third Party costs.

In regards to getting new insurance... he needs to declare the incident. Also, he'll need to answer correctly that question that asks if he's had any policies cancelled.

Either way, it's a learning curve for your friend who will hopefully never lend his car to an uninsured driver again.

MovingForwards

Needs a decent broker, expect to pay aarge premium due to the cancelled policy etc.

Also, yes his former insurance company have the right to recover any payment they make from your friend and they will instruct their panel solicitors to issue proceedings if he doesn't come to an agreement with them to settle the money.

sunsun

Hi,
Thanks for your response. They guy who made an accident does not have insurance as he currently didn't have a car, only driving licence. He takes all responsibility,but the car owner`s insurance saying that they will have to deal with 3rd party claim and they will send the car owner the bill of claim costs. Also He is now very worried of getting penalty and getting his driving licence cancelled.

csgohan4

he will find getting insurance incredibly difficult or very costly. Expensive lesson I am afraid. I bet the person who borrowed the car isn't going to pay any costs, as clearly they can't afford to get their own car and insure it and needs to borrow your friends.

angrycrow

Let's hold on a moment, either we are not being told the full story (very likely) or the insirer have overstepped what they can do.

The insurers are obliged under the terms of the Road Traffic Act to meet third party claims whe. The vehicle is driven by an identified uninsured driver.

If the policy holder allowed another uninsured person to drive without checking for insurance first they are liable to repay the insurer the full cost of the claim but they share this liability with the uninsured driver.

This situation does not give the insurer the right to cancel the policy. So unless there is something else going on such as the policyholder fronted the policy to enable the uninsured driver to use the car or the policyholder failed to disclose pertinent material facts when taking out the policy they should raise a complaint to the insurer about the cancellation.

Barny1979

Are the Police involved too? As the driver was driving uninsured.

Rainbowgirl84

angrycrow wrote: »

Let's hold on a moment, either we are not being told the full story (very likely) or the insirer have overstepped what they can do.

The insurers are obliged under the terms of the Road Traffic Act to meet third party claims whe. The vehicle is driven by an identified uninsured driver.

If the policy holder allowed another uninsured person to drive without checking for insurance first they are liable to repay the insurer the full cost of the claim but they share this liability with the uninsured driver.

This situation does not give the insurer the right to cancel the policy. So unless there is something else going on such as the policyholder fronted the policy to enable the uninsured driver to use the car or the policyholder failed to disclose pertinent material facts when taking out the policy they should raise a complaint to the insurer about the cancellation.

Deliberately permitting an uninsured driver to use their car would in my opinion be a good enough reason for cancellation.

sunsun

Barny1979 wrote: »

Are the Police involved too? As the driver was driving uninsured.

no , police was not involved. The third party claimed to insurance.
My mate returned the car to my friend and explained the situation.

ObsessiveOverThinker

The insurer is 100% able to cancel the policy, as the friend allowing an insured person to drive their vehicle is a poor risk.

The policy terms and conditions will have something advising they can cancel the policy.

sunsun

angrycrow wrote: »

Let's hold on a moment, either we are not being told the full story (very likely) or the insirer have overstepped what they can do.

The insurers are obliged under the terms of the Road Traffic Act to meet third party claims whe. The vehicle is driven by an identified uninsured driver.

If the policy holder allowed another uninsured person to drive without checking for insurance first they are liable to repay the insurer the full cost of the claim but they share this liability with the uninsured driver.

This situation does not give the insurer the right to cancel the policy. So unless there is something else going on such as the policyholder fronted the policy to enable the uninsured driver to use the car or the policyholder failed to disclose pertinent material facts when taking out the policy they should raise a complaint to the insurer about the cancellation.

The story is that the car was driven by uninsured driver, the driver who drove the car was not on insurance policy and made a small accident. The Third party claimed to insurance, insurance now saying that my friend who is the owner of the car will be billed for all the claim costs. His policy has also been cancelled now due to permitting to drive a car for an uninsured driver. The case is ongoing , my friend is very stressed also not to lose his driving license as he heard that due to this he can get up to 8 points, which leads to his license being cancelled as he is new driver. What a horrible situation