Thread: mummybird and the cancelled car insurance.

I put a post on another thread but have been advised to start my own.
My son was involved in an accident on the 14th August. He was injured and taken to hospital, The police were supposed to turn up at the hospital for a statement but didn't. He contacted his insurance co. More th>n repeatedly,by phone and eventually wrote to them only to say his policy had been cancelled due to non-payment of his DD. He says he has never received this notification, nor any letters from his bank which are normally send with a 30.00 charge.He also still has the Cert. of Insurance, which he produced for the police,together with his licence and told the police his MOT was in his car( which was wrecked.)
Norwich Union, acting for the other driver demands that he re-imburses them the sum of £14.000.00. The other vehicle was at fault, being on the wrong side of the road when the accident occured.This is very frightening for my son.
I have been writing to More Tha>n on his behalf and they have failed continually to reply to be letters (all sent recorded) and then telling me that they had lost my letter. I have little faith in their paperwork!
He has asked for an accident report from the police station but has received nothing yet.The police have made no indication that they consider he was uninsured. He believes his car was taken away by the police and is in a police pound somewhere!
All advice would be welcome.PLEASE

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Same question as Conniff.

I insure my dogs with More Th>n and they have written to me about a failed DD giving me chance to update the payment without cancelling the policy for that so I am sure that they would have done the same, if not more for car insurance.

Sorry for the delay been to work
Good advice by Darkangel, see if you can get the confirmation that a notification was sent out.
The act that darkangel is refering to is Section 143 road traffic Act 1988. If you put this into the search engine it should bring up the document, but i warn you it is an extremley boring piece of legislation. The snapshot below gives a defence if the Police do happen to summons your son for no insurance, although after this length of time i doubt it, it is more likely a civil action by Norwich union.

143 Users of motor vehicles to be insured or secured against third-party risks
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act—
(a) a person must not use a motor vehicle on a road unless there is in force in relation to the use of the vehicle by that person such a policy of insurance or such a security in respect of third party risks as complies with the requirements of this Part of this Act, and
(b) a person must not cause or permit any other person to use a motor vehicle on a road unless there is in force in relation to the use of the vehicle by that other person such a policy of insurance or such a security in respect of third party risks as complies with the requirements of this Part of this Act.
(2) If a person acts in contravention of subsection (1) above he is guilty of an offence.
(3) A person charged with using a motor vehicle in contravention of this section shall not be convicted if he proves—
(a) that the vehicle did not belong to him and was not in his possession under a contract of hiring or of loan,
(b) that he was using the vehicle in the course of his employment, and
(c) that he neither knew nor had reason to believe that there was not in force in relation to the vehicle such a policy of insurance or security as is mentioned in subsection (1) above.

Originally Posted by mummybird

Thanks everybody.

I am somewhat suprised that when he produced his documents for the Police that their computer didn't pick it up if his insurance had been cancelled. Neither have they contacted him, even though it was an injury collision. My son was rushed to hospital, he was loosing a lot of blood and passed out, but he remembers two vehicles. The first that hit him, had cut the corner and was on the wrong side of the road. The other driver's friend who was following in another car said that the driver was in the wrong. It seems that they both worked at a Golf Club, but as it had been raining hard all day, they had spent it in the club house. We don't even know if they breathalized.Should we contact the police again

Mummybird firstly it is surprising that the Police didnt pick this up, however the procedure goes as follows.
Young son is asked to produce driving licence, insurance and mot he takes them to the Police Station and the details are recorded on a form HORT/2 or straight onto the HORT data base. These details are then forwarded to the Officer that is dealing with the incident or the collision recording team. As long as all of the documents appear in order at the time of production ie your son has the in date insurance certificate then the Police do not verify the certificate with the company.
Policy at collisions especially injury is to breathalyse all drivers involved and this should have been done.
Limitation of proceedings for traffic offences is 6 months, however for no insurance this can at the request of CPS be extended.
Insurance companies and solicitors can request a copy of the collision report and other bits of information relating to the collision. They do have to pay for the information.
There does appear from what you have told me that there is at least an offence of driving without due care on the part of the other driver. However because your son was possibly not insured there is also an offence of driving without insurance on your sons part. You can contact the Police and ask what is happening but you may be told that the limitations of proceedings are up.
As for the claim for 14,000 this will possibly go through the county court as it is a civil matter, if Norwich union decide to persue it and for an amount like that they prob will. I am not an expert in this side of things and i was hoping that someone within the forum would have come along by now.
Has your son recieved any more from norwich union
Which part of the country did the collision take place

Thanks

We received a letter on the 8th February,which eventually reached having been send to his father's address, despite having written to them from his current address several times.
In this they asked for £14,000 with their supporting documentation attached, including some photocopies of photos, which were impossible to see, except one thing which struck as odd. There seems to be a VW badge on one of them, but my son was driving a Seat and the other vehicle was a SAAB.

I wrote back to Norwich Union and re-informed that I had filed a complaint with the fos and that the FOS had assured me that whilst the case was being investigated no further action could be taken.

Sorry RD08
Didn't answer all your questions. The Police were supposed to come to the hospital and breathalyse and interveiw him, but didn't turn up.

This happened near Horsham in West Sussex

Three further questions have occured to me:
(1) If the other driver is at fault, surely that's down to their insurance company,not my sons?

(2) Is it likely that they would have requested an injury collision report from the police?

(3) As my son's "Litigation Friend" can I request a collision report?

Sorry to land you will all this. Are you on shift work? If so hope you're not bombarded with all my questions at midnight!

Thanks Darkangel, i like you am up on Road Traffic law but not so hot on the insurance policy legality side. However i will do my best have a few contacts who i will pester

Originally Posted by mummybird

Sorry to land you will all this. Are you on shift work? If so hope you're not bombarded with all my questions at midnight!

Good guess mummybird, anyway here we go

1, Yes it is down to their insurance company to investigate and like any good company they will try and find anyway they can to get out of paying out or reclaimimg money. As they will have access to the MID they will have checked and seen that your son is not insured. The other driver will have been paid out by his own insurance company or the MIB. In turn they will try and claim back whatever they can. Its the same old saying not insured therefore shouldnt have been on the road.

2, The first thing that they should have done is to request a copy of the collision report. If there was one completed. If this was the case and the incident had gone to Court then they could have asked for comp from the Courts. The Police have either completed one and filed it no further action or failed to complete it at all.

3, If you go onto the sussex Police web site there is an explanation of how to obtain information held by them under the freedom of information act. You could try this route. If you cant find the site let me know and i will try and post the link.

As i said to Darkangel i am up on the road traffic law but the policy side is not my area. i will make a few calls as i do deal with insurance companies to get a view of their procedures in relation to them claiming the 14,000. Then we can see if we can find the holes. I think the important part at the moment is getting the proof that your sons insurance company sent out the letter to cancel the policy and when that happened. Has he requested his bank statemnets to see if any money went out to these people or indeed if they ever set up the direct debit.

Thanks for all that help.
I have always been upfront with Norwich Union about my son's insurance problems with More Th>n and kept in touch with them by letter from the start. Sorry to be thick but what's MID and MIB?

I will look at the Sussex police web site as you suggest

Best regards
Mummybird

Sorry for the delay just got up
The MID is motor insurers data base which all insurance companies have to place details of insurerd drivers onto. Hence the Police can check this at the roadside.
MIB is the motor insurers bureau they are a company that will, if the circumstances are right pay out to people if hit by a third party who is not insured.
As i said earlier i will try and call in a few favours and see how far norwich union will take the claim and what your son will be liable for. I wont be able to do this until Wednesday unless someone else comes along with the info. In the meantime any other questions/queries then just fire away if i can answer them i will.

Thanks RD08

You're a great help. Found the Sussex police web-site. D'you think I should e-mail them to enquire about the injury collision report?
As previous post can I be a "litigation friend"?

Might be an idea to phone them first or as you say email them because i know that there is a charge. Yes you should be able to as a litigation friend, but also your son will be able to

Hi Mummybird hows things going.
I was unable to speak with anyone from Norwich Union however i have spoken to a solicitor firm acting for one of the other major insurance companies who take on their claims.
They firstly will try and obtain a copy of the Police report and then send out the usual threatening letters of pay up or else. The MIB will usually pay out for the insured persons vehicle especially if there is an injury. The claimant will lose the first £300 of the claim. The non insured driver will be sent numerous letters threatening Court action etc to try and recover the costs to the other party. If it is a company and there is a good chance of getting the money they will pursue it through the Courts. If it is not a company and there is little likleyhood of getting the money ie if the uninsured has no money to go after then they will normally drop the case as its not worth it. This apparently happens the majority of the time but is not 100%.
I am not going to name the insurance company or the Solicitor company acting for them but they are one of the big ones and the Solicitors are Nationwide who act for more than one insurance company.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for that RK08
Rec.letter yesterday from fos, saying they are still to busy to deal with his case yet,so that buys us a bit more time to get the accident report etc. I think I shall sent a copy of their letter to Norwich Union,just to prove that its still ongoing.
My son is a hairdresser and one of his clients (who works for an insurance co.) told him that when a policy is cancelled it is always sent recorded delivery.

Okay since you have more time i will make a few more enqs and try and find out Royal sun alliance procedure