Hit By Uninsured Driver !

[CB1300]

On Christmas Eve whilst my LS400 was parked outside my home it was hit by another car ( Mondeo )

The driver exchanged details but they were sketchy , but one good thing was that he was wearing the uniform of a local bus company and I have beenable to confirm that he does indeed work for them and the name he gave me was correct.

He told me he was insured with the AA and would bring the details around, of course he never turned up.

In the mean time I report the incident to my own insurance company ( The Post Office / Aviva ) who act very quickly and get me a booking for a repair quote and arrange a hire car.

Its the front passenger door that has been damaged, and I would have to fork up my £250 excess on collection of the car, but they were confident they could reclaim the costs from the driver.

Ironically my renewal also came through the post on Tuesday morning and to my shock had increased by just under two hundred quid !! :tsktsk:

I then get back onto The Post Office who tell me its because I have a potential claim going through.

I immediately contact the AA so that they can deal with the whole thing, but they inform me that the vehicle registration I have given them is not shown as being insured on their system, and I should therefore contact Aviva to get them to do a trace.

Aviva are reluctant to do this but eventually, after some hot words, the call centre worker puts me through to the underwriting dept.

They do a trace and confirm the vehicle is not insured.

I have asked Aviva to remove the claim from their system and I will arrange to get the car repaired myself, whether or not this lowers my renewal premium remains to be seen ?

They have said that if I do decide get the car repaired through their approved repairers (Nationwide ) they will try and recover the costs through my legal cover ( waste of time paying this folks ) or the MIB ( took my friend two years to get his money through this lot )

I have now reported the incident to the Police and filled in a collision report form and they will decide whether or not to prosecute.

Uninsured drivers are a real scourge and need much heavier penalties imposed on them .

My LS was simply parked outside my own home and I am now seriously out of pocket always round.

[OluGTR]

On Christmas Eve whilst my LS400 was parked outside my home it was hit by another car ( Mondeo )

The driver exchanged details but they were sketchy , but one good thing was that he was wearing the uniform of a local bus company and I have beenable to confirm that he does indeed work for them and the name he gave me was correct.

He told me he was insured with the AA and would bring the details around, of course he never turned up.

In the mean time I report the incident to my own insurance company ( The Post Office / Aviva ) who act very quickly and get me a booking for a repair quote and arrange a hire car.

Its the front passenger door that has been damaged, and I would have to fork up my £250 excess on collection of the car, but they were confident they could reclaim the costs from the driver.

Ironically my renewal also came through the post on Tuesday morning and to my shock had increased by just under two hundred quid !! :tsktsk:

I then get back onto The Post Office who tell me its because I have a potential claim going through.

I immediately contact the AA so that they can deal with the whole thing, but they inform me that the vehicle registration I have given them is not shown as being insured on their system, and I should therefore contact Aviva to get them to do a trace.

Aviva are reluctant to do this but eventually, after some hot words, the call centre worker puts me through to the underwriting dept.

They do a trace and confirm the vehicle is not insured.

I have asked Aviva to remove the claim from their system and I will arrange to get the car repaired myself, whether or not this lowers my renewal premium remains to be seen ?

They have said that if I do decide get the car repaired through their approved repairers (Nationwide ) they will try and recover the costs through my legal cover ( waste of time paying this folks ) or the MIB ( took my friend two years to get his money through this lot )

I have now reported the incident to the Police and filled in a collision report form and they will decide whether or not to prosecute.

Uninsured drivers are a real scourge and need much heavier penalties imposed on them .

My LS was simply parked outside my own home and I am now seriously out of pocket always round.

I came out of my house on Christmas Day only to discover a huge dent on my passenger door. (drivers side) I suspect some drunk idiot hit the car and drove off. Probably uninsured as well. I hope the police prosecute your mondeo man asap. My door will cost me no less than £300 to fix as part of the drivers side door and rear wing got scratched as well.

[The Editor]

If this individual works for a local bus company and is driving round PSV's he should be sacked for not having car insurance !! - What a complete pratt.... Throw the book at him... better still put him inside and then throw away the key.

Scum like this make me sick!

[Rodney]

Sorry to hear of your problems chaps.

Having spent over 30 years in the courts, including the High Court, as an Expert Witness in property related matters I have learned quite a lot about how the legal system works. CB1300 - I would suggest that you take legal advice - with most good lawyers the first session is usually free - and chase your uninsured guy through civil action. In simple terms, if push comes to shove, a court will instruct the guy's employers to pay you out of his wages.

For OluGTR, I cannot advise but if it is any consulation - on the Monday evening before Christmas, another vehicle bumped my parked car right on the offside corner of the rear bumper, bruising the paintwork and making a hole about the size of a ten pence piece. I hope that the bar steward has a rotten 2010.

BTW - I advise everyone to steer clear of the so-called legal people who want to represent you following a claim. If they are qualified, in my opinion they shouldn't be - they are cr*p. When one of my Scorpios was written off, they wanted me to accept the insurer's first offer with nothing for my Lady Friend who had suffered whiplash. I told them to go where the sun does not shine and I ended up talking to a high ranking decision maker in the defendant's insurance company who was very happy to amicably settle for FOUR time their first offer for the car and considerably more for my Lady Friend.

Rod

[OluGTR]

Sorry to hear of your problems chaps.

Having spent over 30 years in the courts, including the High Court, as an Expert Witness in property related matters I have learned quite a lot about how the legal system works. CB1300 - I would suggest that you take legal advice - with most good lawyers the first session is usually free - and chase your uninsured guy through civil action. In simple terms, if push comes to shove, a court will instruct the guy's employers to pay you out of his wages.

For OluGTR, I cannot advise but if it is any consulation - on the Monday evening before Christmas, another vehicle bumped my parked car right on the offside corner of the rear bumper, bruising the paintwork and making a hole about the size of a ten pence piece. I hope that the bar steward has a rotten 2010.

BTW - I advise everyone to steer clear of the so-called legal people who want to represent you following a claim. If they are qualified, in my opinion they shouldn't be - they are cr*p. When one of my Scorpios was written off, they wanted me to accept the insurer's first offer with nothing for my Lady Friend who had suffered whiplash. I told them to go where the sun does not shine and I ended up talking to a high ranking decision maker in the defendant's insurance company who was very happy to amicably settle for FOUR time their first offer for the car and considerably more for my Lady Friend.

Rod

Thanks for your message Rod. Quite a few people I know had their cars damaged by other idiots over the past couple of weeks. I just hope the law comes down hard on the uninsured and drunk drivers especially during the festive period.

On a positive note, Happy New Year to you all!!!

[mikesands]

CB I suspect that it's now more complicated than you think. The post Office - and every other insurance company - now know that you have had an accident. They may well be grateful that you are not making a claim, but you may find that your premium will be increased anyway because they know you have had an accident. If you decide to look around and get a cheaper quote, most insurance companies ask you if you have had any accidents in the last 5 years. If you decide to answer 'no' and you subsequently make a serious claim, it will be easy for them to see that you did indeed have an accident (even though it was patently not your fault).

There is apparently method in their madness. Their statistics show that people are more likely to be involved in a 'fault' accident if they had a 'no fault' accident in the previous 12 months.

If this is true, my bet is that the odds are only very slightly greater than for anyone else, and the insurance companies should ignore any no-fault accidents as a matter of policy. We might all have to pay an extra 50 pence on our policies, but surely that's what insurance is all about.

I would be very interested to hear how the Post Office handle the altered situation and whether your premium reverts back to where it should be.

Mike

[sir john]

Sorry to hear your tale of woe. My car was rear ended in Sept while i was in it. The other driver was insured and accepted full liability. But its still been an arse to get things sorted. My car is going to a second repairer in Jan 2010 to have all the repair work done again because the first repairs were so poor. My insurers, the repair garage and my insurers inspecters tried to fob me off with woffle. "its repaired" "it should have been writen off" "your lucky to get your car back" were a few of the stalling tactics.

In the end I won the day but only because i had kept a full and detailed audit trail. This is vital. Especially in your situation.

Keep a record of everything. Open a Word Doc. and keep it up to date. Every time you speek to someone, in person or on the phone, keep a record. Eg; 22-10-2009, @2.34pm, phoned Aviva, on 08457....., spoke to Susan, Q; when will........? A; definately before..... Get their second names if possible. Some will be reluctant to give this but tell them it is for your audit trail. If they wont give a surname ask if the call is being recorded because you are keeping an audit of all contacts and you may need to refer to this call at some time in the future. Keep a record of what was discussed and what was agreed.

Its easy for me because every thing i do in my job needs an audit trail but it is so powerful when you need it in the future. Quoting Dates, times, Tel # and names will get you more than you would imagine. Especially if you eventually need to bring an official complaint against your own insurer for not looking after you.

Good luck mate.

[Rodney]

Spot on Sir John. An Audit trail of words and actions is absolutely essential.

I just hope the law comes down hard on the uninsured and drunk drivers especially during the festive period.

Don't hold your breathe mate. They first have to be caught and the police are too busy making TV shows emphasising how inept they are to be out there looking after you and me.

Rod

[bazgtr]

Don't even get me started on uninsured drivers. Back in 1996 I was hit side on.

Hit and run. Found the car but couldn't prove who was driving as one party saying to police that they weren't driving. Car should have been scapped as showen on logbook six months earlier.

My problem that I found that my car was written off, Just spent £2,000 on a new engine a week earlier and then forced to by another car to get to work at the same time my insurance doubled as very young at time and seen as a high risk.

Morale of the story is the crash cost/lost me over £8,000 and a lot of paperwork.

The driver who hit me got nothing and just bought another £200 banger and back on the road.

And the POLICE were useless.

If you do get hit get the traffic police there straight away even if nobody is hurt. Insurance company handle the claim better and quicker when they have a police statement on the events of the crash.

[Jefflex]

hi. I'm sorry to hear about this. I'd be gutted if it happened to me. also, and worst of all it hits your insurance premium which is really sad or if you fix it yourself your still out of pocket.

I think the bottom line is to have the Police attend no matter what. Still if the driver is uninsured it prob wouldn't make your situation any better but you'd get the satisfaction of seeing the SOB carted off by the bill. A small consolation but still .....

Jeff

On Christmas Eve whilst my LS400 was parked outside my home it was hit by another car ( Mondeo )

The driver exchanged details but they were sketchy , but one good thing was that he was wearing the uniform of a local bus company and I have beenable to confirm that he does indeed work for them and the name he gave me was correct.

He told me he was insured with the AA and would bring the details around, of course he never turned up.

In the mean time I report the incident to my own insurance company ( The Post Office / Aviva ) who act very quickly and get me a booking for a repair quote and arrange a hire car.

Its the front passenger door that has been damaged, and I would have to fork up my £250 excess on collection of the car, but they were confident they could reclaim the costs from the driver.

Ironically my renewal also came through the post on Tuesday morning and to my shock had increased by just under two hundred quid !! :tsktsk:

I then get back onto The Post Office who tell me its because I have a potential claim going through.

I immediately contact the AA so that they can deal with the whole thing, but they inform me that the vehicle registration I have given them is not shown as being insured on their system, and I should therefore contact Aviva to get them to do a trace.

Aviva are reluctant to do this but eventually, after some hot words, the call centre worker puts me through to the underwriting dept.

They do a trace and confirm the vehicle is not insured.

I have asked Aviva to remove the claim from their system and I will arrange to get the car repaired myself, whether or not this lowers my renewal premium remains to be seen ?

They have said that if I do decide get the car repaired through their approved repairers (Nationwide ) they will try and recover the costs through my legal cover ( waste of time paying this folks ) or the MIB ( took my friend two years to get his money through this lot )

I have now reported the incident to the Police and filled in a collision report form and they will decide whether or not to prosecute.

Uninsured drivers are a real scourge and need much heavier penalties imposed on them .

My LS was simply parked outside my own home and I am now seriously out of pocket always round.

[Jefflex]

I totally agree. Uninsured drivers cause so much misery. A fixed, automatic sentence of 6 month in the slammer plus fines. We don't em out there.

Jeff

If this individual works for a local bus company and is driving round PSV's he should be sacked for not having car insurance !! - What a complete pratt.... Throw the book at him... better still put him inside and then throw away the key.

Scum like this make me sick!

[ManicMark]

Hi cb1300 sorry to here the news, if you have legal cover they should take up the claim for you against the outher party, or deal with it through the uninsured losses bureau ( we all pay into this as a % of our policys). You will have to pester aviva ( norwich union ) as in my past experience with them they try & wriggle out of anything. Good luck & keep us posted.

[JellyBean]

Uninsured drivers cause so much misery. A fixed, automatic sentence of 6 month in the slammer plus fines.

Well, last night I was watching one of those Traffic Cops progs when they stopped this ASNEM* candidate who was driving without a seatbelt; nor were his passenger (wife) and his young boy belted in either. He was covered in tattoos. He had no insurance or driving licence. They seized his car and crushed it and awarded him 2 months in the clink. When I heard this I found myself shouting "Good!" at the TV.

*ASNEM is the society for those with an IQ of minus 150.

[hoopdehoop]

Uninsured drivers cause so much misery. A fixed, automatic sentence of 6 month in the slammer plus fines.

Well, last night I was watching one of those Traffic Cops progs when they stopped this ASNEM* candidate who was driving without a seatbelt; nor were his passenger (wife) and his young boy belted in either. He was covered in tattoos. He had no insurance or driving licence. They seized his car and crushed it and awarded him 2 months in the clink. When I heard this I found myself shouting "Good!" at the TV.

*ASNEM is the society for those with an IQ of minus 150.

JellyBean, Tattoos do not automatically mean a person is a thug or a moron. Please be careful with your prejudice/stereotyping.

[eddieblock]

Uninsured drivers cause so much misery. A fixed, automatic sentence of 6 month in the slammer plus fines.

Well, last night I was watching one of those Traffic Cops progs when they stopped this ASNEM* candidate who was driving without a seatbelt; nor were his passenger (wife) and his young boy belted in either. He was covered in tattoos. He had no insurance or driving licence. They seized his car and crushed it and awarded him 2 months in the clink. When I heard this I found myself shouting "Good!" at the TV.

*ASNEM is the society for those with an IQ of minus 150.

JellyBean, Tattoos do not automatically mean a person is a thug or a moron. Please be careful with your prejudice/stereotyping.

well said hoopdehoop ! i,m the owner of numerous tattoo,s and am neither a thug or a moron !

[redz_UK]

i was hit by an uninsured driver.

went to a solicitor recommended by a friend who made the claim through MIB who paid out for repairs within about 2months.. the resulting injury claim did take 12months but it all got sorted and it didnt have to go through my insurance at all..

ipaid for repairs myself and then MIB paid me the chq.

[CB1300]

Well Im still waiting for Aviva to officially remove my claim from their systems ( despite asking them twice and being assured it would be done )

In the meantime my renewal premium is still at just under two hundred quid more ( the Post Office say they are looking into this but need Aviva to remove the claim but cant assure me it wont decrease ??? )

If I pursue the claim, sure the MIB can "TRY" to recover my losses ( but if the scum bag cant afford insurance on a battered old Mondeo he aint going have much else is he ? )

Basically to pursue the claim I will need to pay £250 excess on collection of my repaired car, pay the £200 premium increase ( I have no claims protection ) and have all the inconvenience of it all and I doubt for one moment they will provide me with another Lexus as a courtesy car ?

This sucks big time folks!

You are in the comfort of your own home and a driver hits and damages your beloved Lexus.

It turns out he has no insurance and its you the law abiding driver who is hit severely in the pocket.