Help / Legal Advice re Car impounding / Insurance Problem

raskazz

Altarf wrote: »

It may also be worth pointing out to ecar insurance that by failing to update the Motor Insurers Database that they were in breach of section 5(1) of The Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Information Centre and Compensation Body) Regulations 2003, which carries a penalty of up to £5000 and that you will be reporting them to the FSA. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2003/20030037.htm

If anybody is worried about whether their car is on the database, you can check here - http://www.askmid.com/

They weren't in breach - the requirement is that 95% of MID1 data is transmitted within 7 days. Insurers are not expected to instantaneously update. See Section 3 of:

http://www.miic.org.uk/documents/faqs/FFP_Broker_FAQs_V7.pdf

Edited to add: They haven't breached s.5(1) anyway - this states:

"Every insurer shall maintain a record of the information set out in Part 1 of the Schedule to these Regulations for the period specified in regulation 3(3)."

The insurer has maintained such a record. The sections governing the transmission of such information to the information centre (MID) are 5(2) and 5(3).

Iamthesmartestmanalive

Firstly to connors point, this is what insurance is for, if a vehicle is stolen and recovered the fees will be covered by your insurer.

As for this case, the fees should be borne by the guilty party, and here there really isnt one, the police used the information they had, the insurer updated their records in a timely manner

Maybe if he insists on using such a mickey mouse way of insurance he should carry the proof with him?

Patricia1

I am having the same trouble difference being I was not driving my car when police stopped my friend and said the vehicle was not insured so they impounded it 2 weeks ago I am now disputing this with my insurance company as they said I had not paid premiums for several months I have now had to email my bank statements proving them wrong and taken more insurance out with another company, as I really need my car for work, but the sad thing now is I have been unable to raise the money which now stands tomorrow at £450 for it to be released from the compound. If I do not have the money tomorrow which is very doubtful they will either sell it or crush it, my problem with that is I still have 2 years finance on it so really dont know where I stand I am at my wits end not knowing what to do.

Thanks for any adivice Patricia

somech

Patricia1 wrote: »

I am having the same trouble difference being I was not driving my car when police stopped my friend and said the vehicle was not insured so they impounded it 2 weeks ago I am now disputing this with my insurance company as they said I had not paid premiums for several months I have now had to email my bank statements proving them wrong and taken more insurance out with another company, as I really need my car for work, but the sad thing now is I have been unable to raise the money which now stands tomorrow at £450 for it to be released from the compound. If I do not have the money tomorrow which is very doubtful they will either sell it or crush it, my problem with that is I still have 2 years finance on it so really dont know where I stand I am at my wits end not knowing what to do.

Thanks for any adivice Patricia

ask the recovery operator if you can pay instalments of say £200 per month, i used to work on police contracts and most operators were fairly helpful.
best advice to anyone in this situation is get the car out of there as soon as possible,
if you have insurance ,make a formal complaint to the police followed with a nice letter to the chief constable, there are systems in place to covers these situations but you have to act asap

mountainofdebt

Was your friend driving the car when s/he was pulled over?

If so then I would imagine the police are technically correct assuming that the friend didn't have insurance or their insurance didn't cover them to drive another person's car.

If your friend did have such insurance then it would have been their insurance that would have covered the vehicle whilst they were driving it.

Is there absolutely no-one who can lend you the money to get the car released while you sort out this mess?

davemorton

I would have thought, if i still had finance outstanding, that they could not sell it on, anyone??

somech

davemorton wrote: »

I would have thought, if i still had finance outstanding, that they could not sell it on, anyone??

if its worth less than £2k it will be crushed
also when a car is siezed it becomes property of the chief constable sounds wierd but true
i found this out when some scum bags reclaimed their car from our compound without paying (they then got done for theft from the chief constable)

andycan1

Hi I have a similar problem that I can't see a soloution to.

My friends car was impounded by the police last night because DVLA told them his license had expired.
He had contacted DVLA a few days before as he had sent his licence to them to be updated with his new address and had not recieved it back. They told him they had sent it to his old address and that he was still able to drive and they would send him a new one to his new address.

The police have been very unhelpful and we can't get his car from the impound yard as they don't answer thier telephone so we don't know when we can pick the car up. I find this very odd as there must be someone there as it is a big company with 30 or 40 trucks and is a breakdown and recovery company so are also loosing customers.

Thing is why should we have to pay for the storage of the car when we can't pick it up because they are closed or too lazy to answer the phone to tell us when they are open? And shouldn't DVLA pay the costs as it is thier mistake this has happened? At the moment no-one wants to know or take responsability.

I might add that to turn up on the hope that they are open is a non starter as it will cost me £50 to get there and back home and I can't afford a wasted trip.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.:mad:

Thanks Andy

Gene_Hunt_2

andycan1 wrote: »

Hi I have a similar problem that I can't see a soloution to.

My friends car was impounded by the police last night because DVLA told them his license had expired.
He had contacted DVLA a few days before as he had sent his licence to them to be updated with his new address and had not recieved it back. They told him they had sent it to his old address and that he was still able to drive and they would send him a new one to his new address.

The police have been very unhelpful and we can't get his car from the impound yard as they don't answer thier telephone so we don't know when we can pick the car up. I find this very odd as there must be someone there as it is a big company with 30 or 40 trucks and is a breakdown and recovery company so are also loosing customers.

Thing is why should we have to pay for the storage of the car when we can't pick it up because they are closed or too lazy to answer the phone to tell us when they are open? And shouldn't DVLA pay the costs as it is thier mistake this has happened? At the moment no-one wants to know or take responsability.

I might add that to turn up on the hope that they are open is a non starter as it will cost me £50 to get there and back home and I can't afford a wasted trip.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.:mad:

Thanks Andy

Start your own thread this one is 3 years old.

Wig

Conor wrote: »

It's bloody ridiculous. My mate had the same thing when his van was stolen. It was found and recovered. He was then stung with a bill of £105 plus storage for being the victim of a crime. Your son is being stung for being a victim of the farce that is the insurance database.

(5) A person who would otherwise be liable to pay a charge under paragraph (1) shall not be liable to pay if—

(a)he was not driving the vehicle at the time it was seized under section 165A of the 1988 Act; and

(b)he did not know that the vehicle was being driven at that time, had not consented to its being driven and could not, by the taking of reasonable steps, have prevented it from being driven.