Garage mechanic crashed car

cherrytoes

Hope this is the correct place to post

My husband took his car for an MOT. The car was collected from the garage and driven to the testing garage. It was then returned to the original garage and he went to collect. When home he noticed damage to the front, called the garage who asked him to bring it so they could look. They were not sure how this damage occurred but kind of fitted it back together and left it at that. A week or so later he received an email from his own insurers demanding he needs to sort out this claim against him for an accident. It has now transpired that after it was driven back from the MOT garage, it was involved in a collision with another vehicle, where his car ran into the back of another car. So now we know how the damage to the front occurred.  Apparently  mechanic gave details of the MOT garage owner, but car was traced through registration when he failed to give any details or inform my husband of the accident.
He feels like he's been given the runaround by his insurers saying he's liable as the car is his and the garage owner is ignoring any correspondence. Police say its not a criminal matter either. It was suggested by his insurance company to go to that route, but police just laughed at him. 

He was called today and they told him that he will lose his NCB and it's his fault. How can this be? He is pretty stressed over it all and insurers are RAC so not small company.

clive0510

The only thing to do here is try to claim on the garage own insurance. hopefully they are covered for things like this. if no joy there you will have to take them to court. keep any evidence, paperwork etc you have. tell the garage what you are intending to do, as they may decide to settle out of court. that would save every body a load of aggro.

DullGreyGuy

cherrytoes said:

Hope this is the correct place to post

My husband took his car for an MOT. The car was collected from the garage and driven to the testing garage. It was then returned to the original garage and he went to collect. When home he noticed damage to the front, called the garage who asked him to bring it so they could look. They were not sure how this damage occurred but kind of fitted it back together and left it at that. A week or so later he received an email from his own insurers demanding he needs to sort out this claim against him for an accident. It has now transpired that after it was driven back from the MOT garage, it was involved in a collision with another vehicle, where his car ran into the back of another car. So now we know how the damage to the front occurred.  Apparently  mechanic gave details of the MOT garage owner, but car was traced through registration when he failed to give any details or inform my husband of the accident.
He feels like he's been given the runaround by his insurers saying he's liable as the car is his and the garage owner is ignoring any correspondence. Police say its not a criminal matter either. It was suggested by his insurance company to go to that route, but police just laughed at him. 

He was called today and they told him that he will lose his NCB and it's his fault. How can this be? He is pretty stressed over it all and insurers are RAC so not small company.

RAC are an intermediary not an insurer... dont know if they have delegated claims handling or if you really deal with the insurer and they just answer the phone as the RAC. 

His insurers are the RTA insurers of the vehicle. The Road Traffic Act requires the insurer of a vehicle to deal with all third party claims if the claim would have been covered had the policy been an "any driver policy". This is intended to be for the case of an uninsured driver situation but technically there is no hierarchy from contractual insurer and RTA Insurer (though in most cases the contractual insurer will deal with it). 

If an insurer has to deal with the matter as the RTA insurer they have a right of recovery from the driver and potentially from the policyholder if they are complicit with the uninsured driver using the vehicle. 

You need to confirm the insurance details of the driver at the time of the incident, they are clearly ignoring your insurers but that may be because they see an RAC envelope land and just assume its marketing material and bin it unopened. In the absence of insurance details it will be a fault claim unless the RAC can get their money back from either the driver or you. If you say its the test centre and not your garage then keep on at the garage too... check your contract with them as well as the vehicle was in their control so they may be liable if they subcontracted part of the work to another.

Kim_13

NCB will be lost from whichever policy has to pay out for it, so the insurance of the person who crashed it needs to be found. If it is not, or the person was not properly insured, I believe your husband’s insurance are obligated to deal with it as an RTA insurer (as any insurance on the vehicle is used rather than leaving the person who was crashed into to foot the bill.)

Have his insurers accepted that your husband was not involved and therefore are not accusing him of failing to report an accident? If they were, that could be a cancelled policy which is worse than lost NCB and a claim he has to declare (the driver/testing garage should be pursued for costs arising from these, if it comes to that.)

Did your husband know that his car to would be taken another garage for the test, or did they do this without his knowledge and permission?

cherrytoes

Kim_13 said:

NCB will be lost from whichever policy has to pay out for it, so the insurance of the person who crashed it needs to be found. If it is not, or the person was not properly insured, I believe your husband’s insurance are obligated to deal with it as an RTA insurer (as any insurance on the vehicle is used rather than leaving the person who was crashed into to foot the bill.)

Have his insurers accepted that your husband was not involved and therefore are not accusing him of failing to report an accident? If they were, that could be a cancelled policy which is worse than lost NCB and a claim he has to declare (the driver/testing garage should be pursued for costs arising from these, if it comes to that.)

Did your husband know that his car to would be taken another garage for the test, or did they do this without his knowledge and permission?

Yes he was aware it would be driven to an MOT test as this has been the case for a few years now. 

The MOT garage owner has said he will repair both cars but that's as far as he seems to want to take it and the other party ( the one shunted has a  claim in for whiplash injuries) it's all a bit confusing. 

Kim_13

As there is a whiplash claim, the MOT garage owner cannot repair both cars and wash his hands of it. An insurer needs to pay for the whiplash claim, if that claim is substantiated. Give the details of the MOT garage owner to your husband’s insurer - if their insurance details are not obtained quickly, it will go down as a claim against your husband, but they would reinstate the NCB (and presumably remove the claim from his record) at such time as they recover anything they have to pay out from the garage owner’s insurance.

I don’t know why the police are doing nothing - clearly the garage owner has more responsibility for this than your husband, even if it was a member of his staff driving and not him. Not exchanging details in the event of a collision is an offence so I don’t see how this is any different. Perhaps he was lied to just as your husband was, but he needed to furnish the details as soon as he became aware of the situation.

The garage you left the car with should also be helping to obtain the insurance details from the MOT garage if it was their employee that ran into the back of the third party - make it clear neither of you will be going back there if they do not help.

cw8825

Police will not be involved. It’s a civil matter

Grey_Critic

The garage should be doing this - they have their own insurance that covers them when road testing or in this case going to and from the test station. Advise your own inurance company of the circumstances.

Not unusual for garages to try and wriggle out of theirnresponsibilities. One dealer I worked at had a mechanic try to drive a customers car through the office and the service manager tried to get the customer to claim on his insurance. It turned very expensive for the dealer.

DullGreyGuy

Kim_13 said:

As there is a whiplash claim, the MOT garage owner cannot repair both cars and wash his hands of it. An insurer needs to pay for the whiplash claim, if that claim is substantiated. Give the details of the MOT garage owner to your husband’s insurer - if their insurance details are not obtained quickly, it will go down as a claim against your husband, but they would reinstate the NCB (and presumably remove the claim from his record) at such time as they recover anything they have to pay out from the garage owner’s insurance.

I don’t know why the police are doing nothing - clearly the garage owner has more responsibility for this than your husband, even if it was a member of his staff driving and not him. Not exchanging details in the event of a collision is an offence so I don’t see how this is any different. Perhaps he was lied to just as your husband was, but he needed to furnish the details as soon as he became aware of the situation.

The garage you left the car with should also be helping to obtain the insurance details from the MOT garage if it was their employee that ran into the back of the third party - make it clear neither of you will be going back there if they do not help.

Technically the MOT garage owner can pay the whiplash claim if they prefer rather than their insurers handling it. 

The OP states they've already shared the details but the insurer isnt getting a response from them hence looking to deal with it as the RTA Insurer

Police have better things to do with their time than attend the thousands of minor fender benders that happen every day. If the claimant were to report it to the police it's likely just a producer will be sent to the OP as the registered keeper. 

Okell

cherrytoes said:

... It has now transpired that after it was driven back from the MOT garage, it was involved in a collision with another vehicle, where his car ran into the back of another car. So now we know how the damage to the front occurred.  Apparently  mechanic gave details of the MOT garage owner, but car was traced through registration when he failed to give any details or inform my husband of the accident...

Who has told your husband this, and do you believe them?

AIUI your husband left the car with garage A for them to take it to garage B for the MOT.  Why this rather convoluted arrangement?  Couldn't your husband have taken the car directly to B without involving A?

By whom was the mechanic who was driving the car at the time of the accident employed - garage A or garage B?

If he was employed by garage A, are you saying that he falsely gave the details of garage B?

Presumably your husband has explained all of this to his insurer?

Mildly_Miffed

Okell said:

AIUI your husband left the car with garage A for them to take it to garage B for the MOT.  Why this rather convoluted arrangement?  Couldn't your husband have taken the car directly to B without involving A?

Not convoluted at all, and a very common arrangement.

Garage A do the servicing, but are not a test centre.
They take it to Garage B, who are a test centre, for the test.

I've used several places over the years with similar arrangements - no issues at all. One of the small village "Garage B" test centres also did all the tests for the local BMW dealer, too...