Parked Car No Insurance
Discussion
A neighbour who has a long boundary on a corner plot has 3 cars. They have 2 driveways and a garage. They park their cars equally spaced to prevent anyone else parking on the road outside their house. They actually guide each other to ensure no other car can fit between them. They have put up No Parking signs on the fence as well.
The 2 family cars are taxed, tested and insured. The 3rd car is taxed and tested and when it first appeared 3 months ago was insured. After a couple of weeks it showed as uninsured. A neighbour (elderly 75 year old) reported them to the police for no insurance and for blocking the pavement (its parked half on it). He has to walk his dog in the road due to the hedge sticking out. Some action must have been taken by the police as the car owner gave him abuse. She is very loud and sweary. The car then showed as insured.
Move on a month and the car is uninsured again. So I reported it to west Yorkshire police using live chat on 101 for no insurance (there is a big campaign for uninsured cars here with plenty on Facebook). The call handler said it was not a police matter and I should report it to the council as an abandoned vehicle. The council said it was a police matter. So I contacted them again and this time they said I had to report it to DVLA. They said that as the car is taxed it is a police matter. So I try again to be told the same again. I asked to speak to a supervisor or manager to resolve this and she said the same - unless the car is being driven then there is no offence. I had by now found the Road Traffic Act 1988 Section 143 which says the car must be insured.
I've done a search on here and it seems to agree that parking on the road is classed as using the road so insurance is required. A check with Citizens Advice agrees as does the government's own website and the RAC website. Speaking to the neighbour seems a no go. My wife saw her kicking at a cat sleeping under their hedge. My wife told her not to and she went into a rage about cats and the elderly neighbour. Even her 12 year old daughter told her to calm down and stop swearing. So what can I do to resolve the problem?
The 2 family cars are taxed, tested and insured. The 3rd car is taxed and tested and when it first appeared 3 months ago was insured. After a couple of weeks it showed as uninsured. A neighbour (elderly 75 year old) reported them to the police for no insurance and for blocking the pavement (its parked half on it). He has to walk his dog in the road due to the hedge sticking out. Some action must have been taken by the police as the car owner gave him abuse. She is very loud and sweary. The car then showed as insured.
Move on a month and the car is uninsured again. So I reported it to west Yorkshire police using live chat on 101 for no insurance (there is a big campaign for uninsured cars here with plenty on Facebook). The call handler said it was not a police matter and I should report it to the council as an abandoned vehicle. The council said it was a police matter. So I contacted them again and this time they said I had to report it to DVLA. They said that as the car is taxed it is a police matter. So I try again to be told the same again. I asked to speak to a supervisor or manager to resolve this and she said the same - unless the car is being driven then there is no offence. I had by now found the Road Traffic Act 1988 Section 143 which says the car must be insured.
I've done a search on here and it seems to agree that parking on the road is classed as using the road so insurance is required. A check with Citizens Advice agrees as does the government's own website and the RAC website. Speaking to the neighbour seems a no go. My wife saw her kicking at a cat sleeping under their hedge. My wife told her not to and she went into a rage about cats and the elderly neighbour. Even her 12 year old daughter told her to calm down and stop swearing. So what can I do to resolve the problem?
As nobody appears to be interested your next action would be to speak to a local councillor or your local MP &see if they are interested in speaking to the relevant authorities.
Or a letter of complaint to the Chief Constable.
Unless it affects you/your family personally you could always consider that poking Mrs Nasty with a stick isn't a good idea unless you/your wife want to run the gauntlet every time you see her as these things have a habit of escalating.
Or a letter of complaint to the Chief Constable.
Unless it affects you/your family personally you could always consider that poking Mrs Nasty with a stick isn't a good idea unless you/your wife want to run the gauntlet every time you see her as these things have a habit of escalating.
What proof do you have it's not insured? If you used MIB website (against their terms) to check, this won't show certain situations.
- He may have a trade policy to drive any car
- It may not be his car and he's using his insurance on another car to drive this (Direct Line for example don't state in their wording that the other vehicle must have it's own policy in place)
- He may have a trade policy to drive any car
- It may not be his car and he's using his insurance on another car to drive this (Direct Line for example don't state in their wording that the other vehicle must have it's own policy in place)
An un-insured car parked on the road is definitely a police matter, local plod here spend all day seizing un-insured cars. It beats me why people think they own the road outside their properties, they must have some strange sense of entitlement. Even weirder when they've got driveways and garages. One of the reasons we own our present house is the double garage and the room to park our cars on our property and not on the road.
Police don't just drive around and seize cars because they don't appear on the MID (Motor insurance database). We have certain requirements to meet to seize a car including the driver being unable to provide a certificate of insurance. There are many reasons why a vehicle won't appear on MID. Common reasons are brokers hasn't updated it fast enough. Also there are thousands of typos made on registration plate entries. This won't invalidate your insurance.
Department for Transport set timelines for the MID to be updated. These are within 7 days for private cars and 14 days for traders.
To sum up, there are lots of reasons why a car wouldn't show up on MOD but still be insured. If you just bought a brand new car but it's taken a few days for your insurance to update online, you'd be pretty peeved if the Police rocked up and seized it based only on MID information.
Yes they could knock on the house and investigate the insurance but with the current cuts and low officer numbers I very much doubt that would be high up on their agenda.
Department for Transport set timelines for the MID to be updated. These are within 7 days for private cars and 14 days for traders.
To sum up, there are lots of reasons why a car wouldn't show up on MOD but still be insured. If you just bought a brand new car but it's taken a few days for your insurance to update online, you'd be pretty peeved if the Police rocked up and seized it based only on MID information.
Yes they could knock on the house and investigate the insurance but with the current cuts and low officer numbers I very much doubt that would be high up on their agenda.
HantsRat said:
What proof do you have it's not insured? If you used MIB website (against their terms) to check, this won't show certain situations.
- He may have a trade policy to drive any car
- It may not be his car and he's using his insurance on another car to drive this (Direct Line for example don't state in their wording that the other vehicle must have it's own policy in place)
Your opinion is several years out of date. There has to be insurance of some kind on the vehicle for DOC to apply- He may have a trade policy to drive any car
- It may not be his car and he's using his insurance on another car to drive this (Direct Line for example don't state in their wording that the other vehicle must have it's own policy in place)
CooperS said:
borcy said:
I don't get these people that have driveways yet still park on the road all the time.
We have it at ours. Everyone has a driveway for 2 to 3 cars. But theres those who park in front of their house. .... Doesn't affect us other than clutters what otherwise is a nice road Thanks for all the suggestions so far. After I got the email from the supervisor at the call centre I said her answer wasn't correct and escalate to a manager please. I heard no more. That's why I came on here for ideas.
I've just had a call from the police complaints department (Professional Standards she said) saying they were recording this as a complaint against the staff members. They confirm that the car is uninsured. They are going to review the emails and chats and contact me next week.
Agree with the comments about parking off the road. They have an original driveway that can take 2 cars and the other is where they cut down part of the hedge, laid 2 lines of slabs and then had a garage built about 2 car lengths in.
Just come back in and now the car has a flat tyre so wont be going anywhere (it wasn't me before anyone says)
I've just had a call from the police complaints department (Professional Standards she said) saying they were recording this as a complaint against the staff members. They confirm that the car is uninsured. They are going to review the emails and chats and contact me next week.
Agree with the comments about parking off the road. They have an original driveway that can take 2 cars and the other is where they cut down part of the hedge, laid 2 lines of slabs and then had a garage built about 2 car lengths in.
Just come back in and now the car has a flat tyre so wont be going anywhere (it wasn't me before anyone says)
k wits. Nothing you can really do. You can't talk to those kinds of people.pavarotti1980 said:
Peter911 said:
Your opinion is several years out of date. There has to be insurance of some kind on the vehicle for DOC to apply
Aviva also dont require the vehicle to be insured for DOC to be invoked from another policyAlso AFAIK a traders policy allowing them to drive any car doesn't remove the requirement for the car to be specifically insured and registered on MIB. Cars "in trade" are excluded from this requirement.
Edited by silentbrown on Thursday 31st October 12:56
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