My son was accused of causing an injury to someone back in 2003 and driving off, he strongly denied any involvement in an accident, in fact the police were never called and his insurers never followed it up becuase of insufficient evidence. He never heard a thing until this month when a debt collection agency contacted him saying the Motor Insurers Bureau have paid out over £4000 in injury damages to this third party and now they want the money back.

It seems odd, my son was never pursued for this claim, he never had any court summmons and after four years he can't even remember who is insurance company was.

Can this be right, does the MIB have a claim and why did they pay out without investigating the alledged accident, surely at least a court sumons would have been issued if the third party had any substantial proof that such an accident occured.

It will help if your son can remember who he was insured with at the time of the alleged incident. This is what it says about "hit and run" accidents on the MIB website:-

"The Untraced Drivers’ Agreement provides for compensation to be paid in respect of personal injury and losses arising from that injury. Compensation for damage to property caused by a vehicle that fails to stop is limited to accidents that occurred on or after 14 February 2003. This only applies if the accident is reported to the police within 5 days, or as soon as reasonably possible and the identity of the vehicle can be established. Claims must be made within nine months of the accident date"

The MIB site also says this:-

"The MIB operates the UK Guarantee Fund that compensates victims of negligent uninsured or untraced drivers and who have no other source of compensation"

As your son was apparantly traced and was insured at the time of the alleged incident, I would be making enquiries as to why MIB have paid out in these circumstances.

At the very least you should be writing to the DCA and advising them that you do not acknowledge any debt with them and that you are also disputing the alleged debt.

Thanks Rob for this info. I looked at the MIB website and saw these statements so I am puzzled as to why the DCA is chasing him for the debt. The fact is he never had an accident, the third party knew his address but there has never been any court summons sent to him. From what i can make out from the MIB web site this organisation only pays out if all steps have been taken to trace the driver and his insurers, something which has never been done.

I am just wondering if the DCA is trying to pull a fast one and get him to admit the debt and then the third party legal team can get a result. I just cannot see that this third party can possibly have been paid over £4000 for not proving that an accident took place. If they knew my sons address before then why all of a sudden is he been chased now and not prior to the alledged MIB payout.

My Son has decided to go to a Solicitor, I will let you know what happens.

You should send a recorded delivery letter to DCA informing them that you have no knowledge of any of these circumstances and tell them that you require the time and courtesy of making your own investigations into the matter.

You should then write to the MIB quoting the ref that the DCA presumably have on their letter and make a FOI request for full disclosure on the claim and also how they now come to believe that your son was the driver.

Hopefully this will shed a great deal of light on the matter and enable you to defend it.

Hi ianfm,

I am experiencing exactly same thing now. Would you please tell me what the outcome was since last conversation?

Thanks

mutaf76

Hi there

did your son sell his vehicle to someone?

Hi ianfm,

 

I am experiencing exactly same thing now. Would you please tell me what the outcome was since last conversation?

 

Thanks

 

mutaf76

The thread was for something that happened 3 years ago, so unlikely to reply.

In regard to MIB they will only pay out if there is evidence and when they make contact, you ask for full proof that any liability exists. Once the MIB provide full details of the allegation then you can take it forward as appropriate.

Can't really comment on this. It is up to the MIB to explain. Send them a recorded delivery asking for full details of any evidence they have to support their allegation.

Bizzarely, under Road Traffic Acts, if your vehicle is subject to an accident, even if not in your possession at the time, you can still be held liable. If you sold it, you need to provide proof of sale.

Thank you for your reply.

I would like to pint out that back in 2002 insurance company contacted me for this particular claim. they said it was an hit and run. I had the car and no insurance at that time therefore i was not driving it at all. I told them i do not drive the car. I suspect that someone who knows me and my new address gave the details to insurance company for bogus claim. i know it is bogus claim for the fact that insurance company sent the letter to my new address even though car was still register on my previous address. if it was a real hit and run case, they should have sent that letter to my previous address whre the car registered. At that time insurance company told me they will look into it. Then i received a letter for £10,000.

Do you think I still should contact to MIB for details.

Thanks

If you have been contacted by MIB about this, then you should ask them for full disclosure of the information they have. Tell them it was a bogus claim made by somebody without your knowledge, as the car was not on the road.

Have the MIB taken this to court and obtained a judgement against you? If yes then you need to deal with it, as at some point you will have debt collectosr and/or bailiffs after you. If they have not obtained a court judgement, it is possible any debt could be statute barred. Most debts become statute barred and not collectable via any court action after 6 years in England/Wales (5 in Scotland). So if no court judgement obtained by MIB, you can tell that you were not involved in any accident on the date mentioned and believe it to be a fraudulent claim made by someone without your knowledge. In addition in view of the date concerned, the matter would be subject to the statute of limitations act 1980.

If you don't know whether MIB have obtained court judgement you can check using. http://www.trustonline.org.uk/

I have used the website you gave me for my last 3 addresses and nothing on any of my addresses shows any ccj. I have checked county court judgments not high court judgment, did i check the right one?

Does it mean debt collectors trying to make a quick money by teling me they will go to court if i do not come up with a payment plan?

When you mentioned "statute barred", that means they cannot go to court about this case?

So there is only one matter to which is to inform MIB the claim was bogus so that they can recoup the money from claimant, is it the right approach?

"In addition in view of the date concerned, the matter would be subject to the statute of limitations act 1980. " what are the implacations of this act in my case?

Thank you for your time and advice.

mutaf76

I have used the website you gave me for my last 3 addresses and nothing on any of my addresses shows any ccj. I have checked county court judgments not high court judgment, did i check the right one?

 

Does it mean debt collectors trying to make a quick money by teling me they will go to court if i do not come up with a payment plan? The MIB may have instructed a debt collector to trace you and to try to obtain the money. But the debt collector won't have any details of the alleged accident claim.

 

When you mentioned "statute barred", that means they cannot go to court about this case? Yes if the accident claim was in 2002 and there is no CCJ on record, they cannot make any demands for payment from you once advised that the matter is statute barred.

 

So there is only one matter to which is to inform MIB the claim was bogus so that they can recoup the money from claimant, is it the right approach? If you have a letter from a debt collecting firm, then send them a letter saying you believe the claimant may have made a fraudulent claim or made a mistake, as your car was not on the road and that the matter would be statute barred under the limitation act 1980, so you don't want be contacted about this further.Note the underlining of the word may, as you don't want to slander the claimant. Send a copy of the letter to the MIB.

 

"In addition in view of the date concerned, the matter would be subject to the statute of limitations act 1980. " what are the implacations of this act in my case? See above. If it is statute barred, even if you were liable, they could not take to court. So then it would be totally voluntary on your part whether you paid or not.

Thank you for your time and advice.

 

mutaf76

See in red above

Hi again,

I received a court letter today regarding the claim, apparently they took me to court. I thought (from your last reply) they could not take me the court. What should i do now?

Hi again,

 

I received a court letter today regarding the claim, apparently they took me to court. I thought (from your last reply) they could not take me the court. What should i do now?

Perhaps they have made a mistake and don't realise the date of the original claim. The MIB solicitors would have to disclose what the legal basis of their claims is. ( Did you note write to them as suggested my previous post on 11th December.)

You have to acknowledge service of the claims form and indicate that you will be defending in full. You will then have a couple of weeks to submit your defence on the form supplied. The defence is that the accident event they have contacted you about was in 2002 and that any liability arising from this would be subject to the statute of limitations act 1980. In addition you would advise that you know nothing of the allegation that they are making apart from the letters received. You should provide details of the car being off the road at the time of the alleged accident. Don't make any allegations in the defence about the person who made the original claim to their Insurers, unless you can back up the allegation.

In view of the amount concerned, you should get legal advice by consulting a solicitor. I would strongly advise this. They will help you with defending this. I am not a legal expert. There may be some law or case precidents that allow them to make a claim beyond the statute barred period.

Unfortunately, I would suggest that the Court proceedings have all been wrapped up and you now have judgment against you, hence why the MIB are now coming after you for their outlay.

I suspect that in regards to limitation i.e. bringing a claim within 3-6 years of the date of the incident, that the proceedings were brought within that time period otherwise the MIB would have no liability to the Claimant and they would not be chasing you, having not had to pay out for the Claimant's claim. The rules for issuing against the MIB are strict in this matter and the MIB will find any excuse not to pay up if the Claimant has procedurally mucked up.

As such, you probably have a county court judgment against you that is a somewhat long in the tooth. The only way you can get rid of the judgment is to either 'satisfy it' i.e. pay it off, or appeal it. If you are going to appeal it then this is going to cost you a lot of money, probably win or lose - usually the cost of an MIB appeal is between £10,000 to £20,000 due to having to instruct solicitors who then have to instruct senior counsel etc. In order to succed in the appeal you will need to have contemporaneous evidence that you were not in the car, the car was SORN etc which I suspect you will have a great deal of trouble in doing so after so long since the alleged accident. Even if you do manage to get judgment set aside, you will still probably end up having to pay your own solicitors costs and quite possibly the MIB's costs as well. You can do the appeal yourself without the aid of a solicitor but you will be up against the MIB's solicitors and senior counsel if you do and although the Court will help you as much as they can, such an appeal is a minefield for someone trying to do it in person.

I suppose if you do have the information confirming car was SORN etc then you could always write to the MIB and they might back off, but it still leaves you with an unsatisfied county court judgment on your credit record.

Check to see if you have any legal expenses insurance on any of your car, home, contents insurance etc that may cover your's and the MIB's costs in this action and they can then instruct a lawyer to try and help.

Hi again,

There is no judgments against me. I have received the court papers yesterday. All I need to know how come they never gone to court (maybe they did and claim rejected by judge) dsnce dec 2002 and how come they can go to court now? is there a website to find out whether MIB took me to court before without my knowledge and court decision about it?

thanks again everyone

Hi again,

There is no judgments against me. I have received the court papers yesterday. All I need to know how come they never gone to court (maybe they did and claim rejected by judge) dsnce dec 2002 and how come they can go to court now? is there a website to find out whether MIB took me to court before without my knowledge and court decision about it?

 

thanks again everyone

You can check for CCJs' on http://www.trustonline

If you have a scanner, can you scan a copy of the court letter and post a link on here to the photobucket page. Remember to remove any personal info. We can take a look.

You are best to consult a local solicitor or visit Citizens Advice and they will have a look for you. Often CAB can book for you see a solicitor who will provide up to 30 minutes for free.

In regard to why MIB have never gone to court before, perhaps they did not get involved until a while after the claim and now they have compiled all the information, they think they have a legitimate claim to make in court. A good solicitor will help you challenge MIB and if they find that the matter is statute barred, it may never end up in court.

Hi, mutaf Jst wondering if u have had and further contact or been to court? I am in a similar situation.

Hi, mutaf Jst wondering if u have had and further contact or been to court? I am in a similar situation.

Nothing yet, but will you let you know...

Mutaf hi, have u heard anything new, have u been to court?

Thanx