Car accident - Driver not insured - Advice please

marie43read

Hi , Family member borrowed my car to get petrol during petrol shortage , advised me their insurance enabled them to drive mine. Went into the back on another car ( a very bright dazzling day) , wrote my car off and caused some  damage to other-  and  then it turns out they were not insured to drive another car. ( They have accepted responsibility).
Anyway my insurance company have advised me they pay the amount claimed from other driver insurance company ( after mitigation) and then come after me and my family member for the total cost. Whenever I call my insurance company for an update  they tell me nothing , they just say will give me/us  the bill when case settled.
I just wondered, under these circumstance am I not allowed to be more involved in what is being claimed, or question  it and question time spent in sorting out the claim. ( been 28 days so far) For example if the person is using a hire car this could cost hundreds a week - am I liable for this cost too?  Also if their car is written off, could I not request to buy the old one as before the other driver realised that they could still claim from my car insurance and thought there was no recourse to insurance funds was agreeable to getting their partner who owned a body shop repair business to do the work and get my sister in law to pay that, so obviously did not think it was a write of. 
any advice would be gratefully received 
thank you 

neilmcl

Your insurance is only liable to pay for the third-party cost, not to reimburse you for the damage to your car, and yes you will get a bill for all costs to the third party.

Who is saying your car has been written off? As far as your insurance is concerned you do not have a claim for your own car.

TooManyPoints

You could always ask your insurers not to meet the claim and deal with it yourself. That way you could be 100% involved.

Even if your relative had been insured to drive your car it would almost certainly have been for Third Party risks only, so you would still have not been covered for the damage to your own car. Whatever you do, make sure the police do not become  involved as you may find yourself on the wrong end of a charge of permitting your car to be used without insurance. This carries six points.

Ebe_Scrooge

As above - the bottom line is that your family member was driving without insurance.  Your insurance company will pay the third party for their damages, and seek to reclaim their costs from you.  Any damage to your own car is your problem, I'm afraid.  Added to which, I would expect your family member to also be hauled up for driving without insurance.

Incidents like this are a harsh reminder to always check someone is insured before you let them drive your car.  It used to be the case that if you had a fully-comp cover in your own name, this would pretty much always cover you to drive another car (albeit with only third-party cover).  These days it's not so widespread - lots of policies will cover you to drive other cars, but a lot won't, it's not so much of a "given" as it used to be.  You must always check the small print carefully.

Grumpy_chap

marie43read said:

Hi , Family member borrowed my car to get petrol during petrol shortage , advised me their insurance enabled them to drive mine. Went into the back on another car ( a very bright dazzling day) , wrote my car off and caused some  damage to other-  and  then it turns out they were not insured to drive another car. ( They have accepted responsibility).
Anyway my insurance company have advised me they pay the amount claimed from other driver insurance company ( after mitigation) and then come after me and my family member for the total cost. Whenever I call my insurance company for an update  they tell me nothing , they just say will give me/us  the bill when case settled.
I just wondered, under these circumstance am I not allowed to be more involved in what is being claimed, or question  it and question time spent in sorting out the claim. ( been 28 days so far) For example if the person is using a hire car this could cost hundreds a week - am I liable for this cost too?  Also if their car is written off, could I not request to buy the old one as before the other driver realised that they could still claim from my car insurance and thought there was no recourse to insurance funds was agreeable to getting their partner who owned a body shop repair business to do the work and get my sister in law to pay that, so obviously did not think it was a write of. 
any advice would be gratefully received 
thank you 

Yes, you (or your family member) will be liable for the full costs, including hire car etc., of the third party.  Probably better from that point of view that your insurer is dealing with it and not a claims management company (where the costs of hire car really would escalate).

What exactly was your relative doing, on a simple and presumably not particularly long trip to get petrol, that they managed to drive into the back of another car at more than a small bump?  You seem to suggest that both your car and the other car may have both been written off - that would have needed some fair level of impact unless both cars were very old and of low value.  At least that latter scenario (older, lower value cars) limits the amount of any claim.

knightstyle

Good advice above.  Make sure you act quickly as the car is probably attracting storage costs now!  Plus get an independent garage to quote for getting the car back on the road, this may be the bast option.

Grumpy_chap

Probably a lucky escape that no-one was injured and no prosecution pending.

caprikid1

Grumpy_chap said:

Probably a lucky escape that no-one was injured and no prosecution pending.

Still time I suspect for a prosecution

Keep_pedalling

caprikid1 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Probably a lucky escape that no-one was injured and no prosecution pending.

Still time I suspect for a prosecution

And for an injury claim!

Herzlos

Unfortunately, as you weren't insured at the time the insurance company don't really need to do anything for you. They'll settle the 3rd party claim and send you the bill when it's settled. You can't really do anything about the other party now so best not to get involved.

They won't cover any damage to your car, so you need to get that sorted yourself. Do you have possession of it?

Then you and family member can focus on figuring out how to pay for it all, or prepare to go bankrupt.

k12479

TooManyPoints said:

You could always ask your insurers not to meet the claim and deal with it yourself. That way you could be 100% involved.

Not sure that could be done, could it?

This is one of the things that fall under the typical "Recover from you the amount of any claim that they are required to settle by law which the insurer would not otherwise have paid under this policy." wording. The third-party can claim from the insurance company, I doubt the policyholder can alter that right - likely increasing the effort involved and risk of non-payment in the process.