Accident While Uninsured

SANYO_VCR

Have recently been involved in an accident. Was shunted from behind by a Bin Lorry. Driver denied liability at the scene.

I contacted my insurer on the day of the accident. They asked about the date, time, location of the incident & my version of events. They collected the car the following day to take it to a garage for inspection. Garage have declared car a write off. This wasn't a surprise to me as it's an 18 year old Nissan. It's incredibly frustrating as i'd spent £300 on it this year getting it through it's MOT. My insurer has contacted me & said they are now contacting the TP.

At the time of the incident i was driving to work. I have now checked my cover note & it appears i'm not insured to drive to a place of work. I'd always assumed SDP covered driving to work. I have another car which is my daily driver. Am insured SDP on this & the cover note states that it includes driving to a place of work. I'm assuming some insurers must include driving to work as standard & some don't.

I'm now worrying about my insurer cancelling my policy. If the TP refuses to accept liability & my insurer finds out i wasn't driving in accordance with the policy it may be easier for them to cancel my policy rather than spending money & time chasing the TP.

I can live with losing any payment for my car as it's likely only worth £1000. A cancelled policy though would cost me more in the long run. My policy only has 1 mth to run. I paid the yearly premium in 1 payment. If i cancel the policy would this mean that my insurer can't cancel it retrospectively?

TooManyPoints

There is no reason for your insurers to cancel your policy. They will, if they discover you were not covered for the particular journey, simply decline to meet your claim. If they do, there is nothing to prevent you from pursuing the driver of the bin lorry personally to reimburse you for your losses. 

Herzlos

SDP is Social, Domestic and Pleasure - i.e. everything except commuting.

That said, if your insurer isn't paying you for it, they may not check too closely.

Sandtree

Herzlos said:

SDP is Social, Domestic and Pleasure - i.e. everything except commuting.

That said, if your insurer isn't paying you for it, they may not check too closely.

Not everything except commuting... it also excludes business use, hire & reward etc

To the OP - given you have already given the circumstances of your accident to your insurers and they haven't already declined the claim then its fairly unlikely to picked up now. For future reference you need to buy SDP&C cover if you are driving to a single place of work. If you are driving to multiple places of work or driving between sites during the day etc then you need Business Class 1 - the price difference between SDP&C and Business 1 tends to be next to nothing (or actually nothing) and so some would argue you may as well get the higher cover just in case.

DE_612183

Is the bin lorry your local council - I had something similar and contacted the council - they arranged payment and everything - I didn't need to do anything.

SANYO_VCR

DE_612183 said:

Is the bin lorry your local council - I had something similar and contacted the council - they arranged payment and everything - I didn't need to do anything.

Bin collections are private in my area. Had already informed my insurers before i realised i should have gone straight to TP.

Mutton_Geoff

SANYO_VCR said:

DE_612183 said:

Is the bin lorry your local council - I had something similar and contacted the council - they arranged payment and everything - I didn't need to do anything.

Bin collections are private in my area. Had already informed my insurers before i realised i should have gone straight to TP.

But you are still obliged to notify your insurer of the accident even if you don't intend to claim.