Did you insure with Aviva on 4 June 2025?

malc_b

Aviva had a "glitch" so they say on 4th June 2025 so mine and my daughter's car insurance with Aviva Zero did not get entered into the Motor Insurance Database (www.askMID.com).  We're both just had letters from the police saying our cars are uninsured, they're not, it's Aviva's !!!!!!-up.  When I got the letter I had a panic moment thinking I'd forgotten to renew, and a frantic five minutes checking my emails, yes I'd paid, and then Aviva Zero, yes I did had a certificate.  I've had to print out the certificate for me and my daughter to put in our cars in case we get stopped.  Aviva were rather blasé about it all.  I wonder if it was just 4 June and just us?  Hence this is a heads up to check with MID if you have Aviva car insurance. 

jaybeetoo

If you’re not on the database, a certificate is meaningless.  If you were stopped, the police would probably call Aviva to get confirmation that you are insured.  Hopefully, Aviva will have you on the database ASAP.

malc_b

Aviva are open 24/7 then?  MID's advice is to carry insurance certificate if you are not on MID (for example, just insured) and Aviva when I told them the problem said carry certificate with you.

facade

malc_b said:

Aviva are open 24/7 then?  MID's advice is to carry insurance certificate if you are not on MID (for example, just insured) and Aviva when I told them the problem said carry certificate with you.

If the Police (you might have seen them on TV, if not in Real Life) stop you because their ANPR says that there is no insurance, or they have stopped you for something else and the MIB says that the policy holder is clearly a man and you are a woman, they will ask you if you have insurance (this is when you tell them you are with Aviva or whoever). 

If they can't get in touch with your insurer to confirm it because it is a Bank Holiday or something but you produce what appears to be a legitimate valid certificate covering you to drive that car, then they have to give you the benefit of the doubt and allow you to continue with a cheery wave (even though inside they are crying and think you probably made it up yourself on your PC).

If you don't have one and they have reasonable grounds to suspect that you don't have insurance- (because the MIB says no), then they impound your car until someone turns up with a valid certificate to release it

paul_c123

jaybeetoo said:

If you’re not on the database, a certificate is meaningless.  If you were stopped, the police would probably call Aviva to get confirmation that you are insured.  Hopefully, Aviva will have you on the database ASAP.

Not true, see above. Production of a valid certificate of insurance (at the scene of a police stop) should prevent the seizure for no insurance. If they ignore it and do seize, it is unlawful.

MyRealNameToo

malc_b said:

Aviva had a "glitch" so they say on 4th June 2025 so mine and my daughter's car insurance with Aviva Zero did not get entered into the Motor Insurance Database (www.askMID.com).  We're both just had letters from the police saying our cars are uninsured, they're not, it's Aviva's !!!!!!-up.  When I got the letter I had a panic moment thinking I'd forgotten to renew, and a frantic five minutes checking my emails, yes I'd paid, and then Aviva Zero, yes I did had a certificate.  I've had to print out the certificate for me and my daughter to put in our cars in case we get stopped.  Aviva were rather blasé about it all.  I wonder if it was just 4 June and just us?  Hence this is a heads up to check with MID if you have Aviva car insurance. 

The "check your car" MID service only says if you are insured at the moment you do the test, there could have been others that weren't loaded automatically at the time of the incident but have been subsequently loaded so wouldnt show. 

In fact neither of the MID services would show you had you been included because when insurers do a load they state the effective date of the insurance so say they spotted the problem on the 11th June and uploaded over night they would still have said the insurance was effective 4 June so any test will show as the vehicle having been insured since 4 June despite the late load. 


Ultimately, it happens. It's not common but you are requiring two unrelated computer systems to talk to each other and a variety of things can cause that not to work. The MIB require insurers to update the MID as soon as practicable but require 95% of updates to be processed within 7 days of their effective date. It'll never be 100% because if you void a policy for fraud etc the effective date will be when the policy incepted and not all frauds are identified within a week of inception. 

There are a couple of statutory defences to the strict liability situation of driving without insurance, one of which is proving you were insured. Have had a few cases in my years where systems failed or agents miskeyed vehicle registrations and we've simply sent a letter confirming the vehicle was insured at the date of the incident which 99% of time had the charges dropped and the one or two occasions it went to court the case was thrown out. 

Mildly_Miffed

malc_b said:

Aviva are open 24/7 then?

Yes.

The police will have direct lines, and if ANYTHING is open 24/7, it'll be those. Aviva advertise that several of their various customer service lines are.

MyRealNameToo

Mildly_Miffed said:

malc_b said:

Aviva are open 24/7 then?

Yes.

The police will have direct lines, and if ANYTHING is open 24/7, it'll be those. Aviva advertise that several of their various customer service lines are.

Would be surprised if they are... certainly other motor insurers I've worked for weren't. If they also sold their own breakdown cover then that team was 24/7 but they couldn't answer questions on insurance as they used a totally different set of systems. Most sold other firms breakdown cover so didnt have any 24/7 operations. 

I know Aviva used to have an extended hours operations for private clients but even those weren't 24 hrs