Thursday 15th April 2004

Report it Quickly

Uninsured driver compensation scheme tightens rules

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Victims of uninsured drivers need to make sure that they report incidents to the police quickly in future if they want to claim compensation via the Motor Insurers Bureau. The Bureau hands out payments to victims of uninsured drivers and it's tightening the criteria under which it will make payments.

In future anyone who wants to pursue a claim can only do so if they report the incident to police within strict new time limits.

Under the MIB Untraced Drivers Agreement 2003, property damage must be reported to police within five days and personal injuries within 14. Victims must also be able to produce a written receipt from the police, complete with a crime number, as proof of the report.

Failure to meet the deadlines may deny victims the chance to lodge a claim.

John Wood, a partner at Atteys Solicitors which specialises in this area commented, "Regrettably these provisions are not widely publicised and quite often a victim may not consult a solicitor until two weeks or so after the event . The solicitor therefore has no chance to advise the victim that such reporting provisions to the police are required ."

Link : www.mib.org.uk

[mechsympathy]

This is daft, why is there any time limit??

Say you're in a crash (day1). You get some details, phone them through to your ins co(day 2). They send out forms, which you receive on day 3(optimistically), you fill them in and return them on day 4, they arrive day 5 and get checked. And the insurers find out the other car details are bollox. You tell the BiB, if you're lucky on day 5. What about weekends, postal delays etc??

[deltaf]

Supposing your in a coma for 6 months?

[rospa]

The tight deadline is to ensure that as few people as possible can actually claim. Then when the Government trots out the statistics in 12 months time they can say they have "cut payments by x%". It wouldn't suprise me at the same time if they actually state that this is probably down to more drivers being insured.

That way, it looks like their efforts are producing results. Quite exactly how you expect to catch uninsured drivers by removing more and more TrafPol from the streets is beyone me.

[WildCat]

rospa said:

The tight deadline is to ensure that as few people as possible can actually claim. Then when the Government trots out the statistics in 12 months time they can say they have "cut payments by x%". It wouldn't suprise me at the same time if they actually state that this is probably down to more drivers being insured. That way, it looks like their efforts are producing results. Quite exactly how you expect to catch uninsured drivers by removing more and more TrafPol from the streets is beyone me.

100% agreed! They are Playing politics yet again! Stasi... politically correct ....fibblers....

[mechsympathy]

rospa said:

The tight deadline is to ensure that as few people as possible can actually claim.

Surely not

[V8 Archie]

Perhaps some BiB would verify (or not) my ramblings, but I wander if you'd be OK if you reported the accident on day 2 regardless of whether anyone was without insurance. You could then lodge the claim and retract it later if necessary.

[Dwight VanDriver]

Would one of you fresh faced young BiB explain to an old Plod with wrinkles just how you allocate a crime number to a no insurance RTA ???????

DVD

[gone]

Dwight VanDriver said:

Would one of you fresh faced young BiB explain to an old Plod with wrinkles just how you allocate a crime number to a no insurance RTA ??????? DVD

I think what they mean is an incident report number or an RTA report number, which may be difficult as in my force the report has to be sent to Acc Stats within 72 hours and is only issued with a number then. Being involved in an RTA on a Friday means no Acc Stat number until at least Monday morning if they are on the ball in that office!

[paulcdb]

rospa said:

That way, it looks like their efforts are producing results.

Hum... dispite the fact i know more people driving around with no insurance, but then so long as they have there figures, it must be my imaginiation!

rospa said:

Quite exactly how you expect to catch uninsured drivers by removing more and more TrafPol from the streets is beyone me.

Actually, Brumstom is working on that... he's currently discussing the possability to fit every CCTV camera with ANPR (the number plate reading software) so that anyone not got Tax, Insurance, Licence, etc will be sent a nice little letter.

Which sounds like a good idea... until you then see that it can then be used to check if your wearing a seat belt (i'm screwed! ) and other things... just change the MOT so that it's tied into a registration system and yeey, all you'll have to do is sneeze and you'll have a ticket!!! (and you all thought they were there for crime, lol!!!)

Next thing on Brumstroms list... direct debit

Can you imagine if he gets his way though, if there's a robbery or whatever and your in the area... you'll automaticly become suspects and i can see an increase in number plate cloning as people start to get fed up... can't buy number plates without your logbook? yeah right, when there's demand, there's a market!!!