uninsured driver questions....

W

Whitewash

Member
Hi all, quick bit of advice required!

yesterday whilst driving to the supermarket someone crashed into the back of us whilst stationary (in my wifes fiesta not in the rover) the damage isn't massive the car will need a new rear bumper, a little bit of straightening on the bootlid and a spot of paint) and we are ok so that's the most important thing.
However whilst we stopped and exchanged details, he was not sure who his insurance company was and said to call him later when he was at home and he would have the details... he has yet to stump up that information, in my view that means only one thing... hes also very keen to settle without going through his insurance company (likely because it doesn't exist!).

This presents me with two options:
-Continue through insurance, find he has non, our car insurance pays and then shafts us every year for the next 5 years as WE have cost the insurance company money. This is what happened when I was involved in a similar accident with uninsured lowlife scum and I had to take the pain every year on my premium... hence why im wary to go this route.

-Accept that he's not got insurance, get some money out of him privately and just fix the car, this seems to me to be the only way where we wont end up worse off from this incident, but it sort of works into the uninsured drivers favour


any advice people? whilst I don't want to let uninsured drivers get away with it, it appears the system works in their favour (I presume a small tap on the wrist and a pathetic fine that's less than a years insurance and they carry on...)
 
Report the police and your insurance company asap.

If they disappear or deny it was them you will have problem. Just pop in to the local police station. They will make a note which will support your claim.

You can put their number plate into the askMID website also the tax website will give you a clue.

Your insurance company will deal with them but the longer you leave it the less evidence. Get details of witnesses to.

Colin
 
I assume you have the make and registration number of the vehicle that hit you, so go here:

http://ownvehicle.askmid.com/

I don't think you'd have any problems with The Data Protection act in your circumstances.

That will tell you whether it is insured, (although it won't tell you if the person driving it was, but it's a start), and he is legally obliged to hand over his insurance details if he is insured, so if he doesn't, or he isn't, or both, then either way he's committed an offence, so report it to the Police. Tell them he ran into you, and refused to give you his insurance details.

You should inform your insurance company whether he pays for the damage himself anyway, because you're ins. co. won't like it if you do it that way and don't tell them.
 
Offering to pay doesnt mean there is no insurance. My brother bumped a bumper at work. Which we offer to pay, the no insurance price would have been around £300 but as they went through the insurance the cost was nearly £1000. His insurance went up considerably more than the actual damage.

If I was bumped or bumped i would offer to pay if the damage was minor. It is perfectly legitamate so long as you are happy and the payment covers your cost.

If you report it you to the insurance company, and you decide to take his money then you can cancel the claim. But if your going to lose the car for a few days they need to add a hire car for you. So they would need to stump up over £1000 which put people off paying direct.
 
cheers folks (and thanks for that link)

we have reported it to our insurance, and have attempted to inform the police (although as usual they have taken their usually dont get involved stance) although they said they dont need to record it unless the road was blocked or injuries occured.


The details he gave me at the road side for name, telephone number and address seem to check out however he appears to be refusing to present me with his insurance company details whilst simultaniously wishing to pay his way out of it, ive got no problem with settling outside insurance im just erked by the fact he is avoiding telling me his insurance details which as you say he is legally obliged to do.
 
Can't understand why the police aren't bothered. Isn't leaving the scene of an accident without reporting it an offence ?
 
rockdemon said:
Yes - not reporting an incident within 24 hours of it occurring is an offence.
Click to expand...
That's only true where details weren't exchanged.
In this case as nobody was injured, all that was required was an exchange of name and address, vehicle registration number, and details of the owner (if different). It looks to me as if all the legal requirements have been satisfied.
 
It's not what you should do, but if it were me I'd let him off for a wad of cash. If he's not insured you'll end up paying big style.
 
Completely agree. Your priority is to get him to cough up, compensating you for the damage. I'd suggest camping on his doorstep until he does!
 
The fact that he may or may not be insured is neither here nor there in you getting your car repaired. If you've had no contact since the incident and you have his address get round there and knock on his door. If he agrees to stump up the cash, take it quickly and move on.

As others have said, the police are not interested if there were no injuries etc. Is there not a "shop your neighbour" hotline for suspected non-insured drivers? I guess the problem with that is that you really don't know whether he is insured or not.

Dave
 
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