Potentially Hit by Uninsured Driver

7chb

Last week a car failed to perform a hill start and instead roll back into my car.

As it was low speed the damage is light but I have a scratched bumper and slightly damaged number plate.  At the time of the incident, the lady who hit me rang her boss - they were speaking in Polish so I couldn't understand how the conversation went, but when she got off the phone she said her boss would contact me to pay for the damage and to not go through insurance (which raised red flags).

I was subsequently contacted by her boss, however I informed them that I wanted to get a quote for the damage before agreeing to any money for the repairs, which I subsequently got and forwarded, only to be met by silence.

Due to this I have since informed my insurer - my question however is when would the insurer find out that the other party isn't potentially insured? I don't want to carry out the repairs etc to then find I've got to claim on my insurance and pay my excess when the reality is someone I know could probably repair the damage at a fraction of the cost.

7chb

UPDATE: I've paid to perform a MIB check which appears to show the vehicle is insured with Admiral - but if the driver isn't insured or registered on the car how will this impact any potential claim?

cw8825

firstly - why have you paid for the check? your insurers would have done that anyway if you claimed through them

you currently have a few choices
1.claim through your policy - paying any applicable excess
2.wait for the third party or insurers to contact you and deal with it
3.approach an accident management company to handle this on a non fault basis
4.pay and repair yourself

personally i would go with 1 but most don't want to use their own insurance so your likely going to go with 2/3

bare in mind option 2 is reliant on the other person reporting it to the insurance company

DullGreyGuy

They will be the RTA insurer of the vehicle likely if the vehicle is insured but not for the particular driver. 

If you are comp and claiming off your own insurance that aspect of the claim will proceed normally. Your insurer's recovery of their losses and your uninsured losses, if you have any, will be slower. 

Some insurers recognise their RTA responsibilities as soon as investigations have proven there is no other valid insurance and their policyholder and/or the driver have signed an indemnity agreement. Others hope people will loose interest and require the full legal process to happen, a unsatisfied court order against the driver, before then doing what they must as RTA insurer. I cannot remember offhand which camp Admiral sit in. 

7chb

Thank you for your replies.

I paid for the check just for my piece of mind - I've informed my insurers and the repair company/car rental company are wanting to get a date booked in, but I didn't want to proceed with a claim if it was certain the other car wasn't insured.

I am fully comp so that sounds promising regarding RTA insurer.

DullGreyGuy

If you are really bored you can look at https://www.2tg.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2TG-Practical-Guide-Motor-Insurance-Law-John-McDonald.pdf which shows the hierarchy that applies to insurance. You'll see under the RTA Insurer mention of S151 of the Road Traffic Act which is what is most likely relevant in the current situation. 

Having never known someone actually pay for the MIB search, in my claims days we could do it via our systems and get an instant response, I'm curious if you get the results instantly or if you have to wait for the results?

It would apply to all 3 of the options CW8825 however many insurers won't do option 2 off their own back as RTA Insurer and Credit Hire under option 3 may not want to get involved if the problem is known from the outset. They'll have lots of cases where they thought the TP had insurance but after already paying for the repairs and hire they find out actually they weren't covered by the policy or the policy has been void etc. 

7chb

Thank you, I will have a look at that a little later.

Yes it was an instant result for the search - I was hoping it may give the name of the driver(s) insured on the policy also but guessing this may be a GDPR issue?

DullGreyGuy

7chb said:

Yes it was an instant result for the search - I was hoping it may give the name of the driver(s) insured on the policy also but guessing this may be a GDPR issue?

Yes, even as an insurance company we arent told who the insured drivers or policyholder is but just the name of the insurer, their reference number and contact details for claims. The later historically wasnt always 100% accurate but as you have the insurers name you can trace contact details easily enough

HillStreetBlues

Have you any dash cam? As it's possible if they report it was you that nudged into them.