Hi guys

Long story short, I went away for a week and let a friend of mine (who is my mot tester who works for a main dealer) Drive my car for an MOT while I was away on Saturday

On the way home from work with a nice 10 minute old MOT certificate he went into the back of another car. Totally his fault.

Damage being airbag deployment and bonnet damage, car still on the road and easily drivable and movable.

Police who were 2 cars behind my car at the time of the accident decided to call recovery agents to recover my car, my mate phoned me and told me the good news about my car passing the MOT and the fact the airbags worked OK and the news it had been recovered, I phoned them up and said i'll arange removal from their yard imediatly, they refused and said that it can not be moved until 8:30 Monday, I then said that unless they could confirm I would not be forced to pay storage for 2 days then I will be instructing another of my friends in his recovery truck to sit outside thier gates until I could get it back.

they agreed that no storage fees are payable.

Monday 8:30 I Phone up to be told that £250 recovery and £40 storage, I told them that it had already been agreed that as they had imprisond my car for the 2 days when I had offered to remove it before it had even got to thier yard, he rather disgruntally agreed.

The £250 is a statutory amount, now at the time I was not sure of the rules but after some reading it seem that £250 is only allowed to be charged if the vehicle is Substantially Damaged.

Wording of The Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators Limited (AVRO)

Substantially damaged

This means a vehicle that is either beyond repair or likely to require complete replacement of significant parts before it can safely be driven again. It may help to think about this in the context of the type of removal that will be required for the vehicle in question. For example, a vehicle that has only a damaged headlight or broken windscreen should not be considered ‘substantially damaged’ as this will not affect the ability of a vehicle recovery operator to remove the vehicle. A vehicle written off, e.g. because it is not worth the cost of repair, should likewise not be regarded as substantially damaged if it is not unsafe and does not present additional difficulty of removal.

As this was not the case then it should have only been £150, So I will be contacting the police and the recovery agents tomorrow to find out why they charged this excessive amount.

Normally this would be paid by the insurance comanies but the problem here is that as he was driving on his insurance (not work) he was only covered third party so any damage or costs relating to my car are not covered by insurance, what a nice mess to come home to

He did try to talk his bosses into putting it through their insurance because it was a pre booked MOT and he regulary does customer collections on the way to work for MOTs but they refused to allow it so he's paying for the repairs himself and has told his boss that he is now unable to collect customers cars on the way to work as he feels he will not be insured.

This sounds complicated.

If your friend was acting on behalf of the garage (his employer) in taking your car to the garage for the sole purpose of an MOT test and with the garage owner's knowledge, then I would of thought he his in fact acting as an agent for the garage thus he should be covered under their insurance. From what you have said, your friend does do this on a regular basis within the line of his work, but it seems that from his employer's position, he does so at his own risk. Well for a start, he should now refuse to do this in future which he apparently has.

Unfortunately as I see it, the liability will be with your insurers which leads me to the obvious questions; are you fully comp and does your policy include any driver? If not, then i'm afraid its going to be down to you to pay for the repairs and then persue your friend for your losses.

We have an expert on motor insurance; Mossycat who will hopefully pick up on this thread and will pass an opinion.

As for the recovery fees, unless your car was substantially damaged to the point it could not be driven, then the charges will be the responsibility of who ever arranged for the recovery in the first place. as your friend was there, I would of thought 'being in the trade', he would of known what to do about that.

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Hi

I know that no insurance cover the damage to my car even though I am fully comp, I even tried the ULR route and the coughed and then checked and came back saying it's still not covered.

I was more trying to draw attention to the fact that the recovery firms are ripping off the fact the car was involved in a crash and taking advantage and over charging by £100.

I'd agree with what SailorSam has said regarding the driver of your car at the time of the accident.

If he was asked by the garage to collect your car then his insurance should cover the recovery charges, if he wasn't asked by his employers the I would ask why is he doing it in the first place?

If it was a favour to you, then it is your responsibility to check that adequate cover is in place, because if he is driving your car under the driving other vehicles extension of his own policy then he only has third party cover, and that's a big risk for you to take.

I'd also like to know exactly why the car was recovered by the Police, usually they only arrange recovery if the car is not legally entitled to be on the road. Was it causing an obstruction? Could it have been moved to a safer place by pushing it? Were the Police asked to recover it, or were they asked not to recover it as you (or your mechanic friend) would have arranged your own recovery?

It sounds very strange and also very expensive, when you have answered the above questions we'll be better placed to give you some further advice

At the moment, I'd still be in agreement with SailorSam and confirm that as your frined was driving the car then any costs that you pay out are his responsibility and he's the only person you could look to for reimbursement.

Mossy

Hi

 

I know that no insurance cover the damage to my car even though I am fully comp, I even tried the ULR route and the coughed and then checked and came back saying it's still not covered.

 

I was more trying to draw attention to the fact that the recovery firms are ripping off the fact the car was involved in a crash and taking advantage and over charging by £100.

Ahh, Mossy is here now and has told it how it is.

I would agree that the recovery charge is excessive but as I previously mentioned, your friend was there on the spot and being in the 'trade', I would of thought he would of been able to assess whether the car needed recovering or not. In any event as you say, normally recovery costs are covered by the insurance. However in this case, unfortunately it would appear that your friend is liable so perhaps he should be approaching the recovery firm and challenge the charge. Personally, I would of expected his employer to have been more helpfull as it would of been simplyfied had your friend been acting on their behalf then the whole thing would of been covered by their motor trade policy.

As I previously siad; I would suggest that your friend ceases to do these 'favours' unless he get written authority from his employer for the very reason that this incident has demonstrated.

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Damage being airbag deployment and bonnet damage, car still on the road and easily drivable and movable.

 

I've just re read this thread and picked up on the above statement.

If the car was easily driveable and or movable then why did your friend allow any recovery to take place.

If he had adequate insurance and the car was legal to drive, ie no dangerous bodywork etc then if it was under the orders of the Police to recover the vehicle and theer was no just reason for that action then you might well have a case against them for the recovery costs.

Mossy