sti-04!!

My friend was driving another friends car today & he was involved in an accident.

Who's fault it is a hard one to say but my friend says it wasnt his fault. Car looks like a write off.

Turns out that after he contacted the insurance company he isnt insured to drive other cars & my friend that owns the cars insurance policy doesnt cover other drivers.

What can he do ??

Also the guy that smashed into doesnt have any tax, police are also involved.

Help please

Tony@Greenlight

Sti,

Unfortunately, as your friend has driven his friend's vehicle without checking his documentation/contacting Insurer as to whether he was Insured first he's likely to be prosecuted for driving without Insurance (IN10, £200-£600 fine & 6 penalty points) - especially as police were involved.

Arguably, due to no tax (for other driver) and no Insurance (for your friend) neither vehicle should have been on the road. But with regard to damage, if deemed to be at fault your friend would be personally liable for damage caused to the other vehicle involved.

In a split liability situation (ie. 50/50 or 75/25) your friend would be liable for the extent as to which he is deemed to be to blame (ie. 25% apportionment of liability = footing 25% of the claim cost).

There's no real way out for your friend, he's going to have to call the other driver's Insurer & come clean that he thought he had DOC (Driving other cars) extension - advising them that they need to liaise with him directly in relation to the accident.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but there is no real way out for your friend .

Kind regards

Tony

sti-04!!

How do we go about getting my friends (the owner) car repaired ??

Tony@Greenlight

Sti,

If your friend is to blame for the incident, the cost of repair would be the responsibility of the driver (ie your friend).

In a split liability scenario, your friend (the driver) would again have to pay for the vehicle repair, but could recover a proportion (ie. if deemed 50/50 it would be 50%) of this from the other driver's Insurer.

If non-fault (ie clear cut & other driver accepts blame), he would stand a chance of recovery from the responsible party's Insurer. In this equation they may even offer to take the vehicle in to repair etc using their own repair network.

Kind regards

Tony

sti-04!!

Thanks Tony, turns out he was insured under his own policy.. Fcukin indian call centres.

Tony@Greenlight

Phew..


For the record, we took a strategic decision not to deal with any Insurer/Underwriter that overtly uses call centres within countires which English is not the 1st language.

Kind regards

Tony

mikeswrx02

Sounds abit racist!!!

John G

Sounds a bit sensible to me.!!!!! Look wot happened to the bloke above.... how much stress could have been avoided

Tony@Greenlight

Hi Mike,

Outsourcing to save cost and bring premiums down is good in principal, a number of utilities also use this approach (ie. Powergen, British telecom, British Gas).

Our decision was purely upon the basis of practicalities. Having attempted to deal overseas for a period of roughly 6 months, due to the type of vehicles that we cover (ie. modified/kit built/custom) their scripting didn't stretch to these areas.

Handling claims overseas didnt always prove to be effective either, as there is often lengthy waiting periods to get through.

With claims in mind, one case in particular that sticks in the memory involved a client reversing into a 'sleeping policeman' and resulted in a 20 minute discussion, along with an e-mail of the bollard/sleeping policeman being sent to them before they understood that it was a road obsticle and that a British Policeman had not been injured.

Overseas call centres were always polite in handling transactions, it's just our experience and the line of business that we transact is not suited to this situation.

Kind regards

Tony