V888 form - Requesting details about a vehicle - accident.

[Byronico]

Hi guys,
Long story short, last month I found my car had been hit (rear bumper damage) whilst parked outside my friends house.
No details left by the culprit.. obviosuly!

Fast forward a few weeks later, a note had been left in my windscreen by a kind man who had witnessed the accident and taken note of the other vehicle's reg number. Along with time, date etc of when he witnessed the accident and the man driving off.

Now, I do not want to contact my insurance directly for obvious reasons, but I would like to contact the owner directly and see if we can come to an agreement.. (ha!)

The V888 form allows you to request address information of the current keeper, if you have a valid reason.
One of them being if the car in question was involved in an accident.
I have a valid reason, and picture evidence of the damage to my car. Along with a witness statement.

My question is - would the DVLA inform the insurance company about this accident?
I do NOT want this as having a car and motorbike in London would increase my premiums more than its worth for the next 5 years.
Or would they just provide me with the keeper details to try and trace the owner first?

Has anyone had a similar experience?

[AlexRS2782]

Due to the GDPR changes they won't just give out the details without a valid reason.

Obviously an accident where the other party drove off is clearly valid, but from previous posts i've seen to do with this on other forums you'll need to provide clear evidence / proof of the accident, so a Police report number or insurance report / log of the accident would be the most likely.

Unless you can prove it suitably they won't hand out the details otherwise to them you could be one of the many people that regularly post on here, and other forums / Facebook, suggesting that the V888 can be abused with fake reports of accident damage or parking infringements in an attempt to locate the current owner of a car to either buy back an old car you used to own or make an offer on a licence plate.

[MulticolouredTVR]

Having been through this recently, they will release the details if you give a brief description of the accident. I also supplied some pictures of the damage. They will not inform your insurance company

[Cold]

Why don't you want to inform your insurance company? They'll have to know sometime.
You've paid for their services, you might as well put them to work.

[Byronico]

AlexRS2782 said:

Due to the GDPR changes they won't just give out the details without a valid reason.

Obviously an accident where the other party drove off is clearly valid, but from previous posts i've seen to do with this on other forums you'll need to provide clear evidence / proof of the accident, so a Police report number or insurance report / log of the accident would be the most likely.

Unless you can prove it suitably they won't hand out the details otherwise to them you could be one of the many people that regularly post on here, and other forums / Facebook, suggesting that the V888 can be abused with fake reports of accident damage or parking infringements in an attempt to locate the current owner of a car to either buy back an old car you used to own or make an offer on a licence plate.

Probably worth getting a crime ref No. then.

Thanks,

[Byronico]

MulticolouredTVR said:

Having been through this recently, they will release the details if you give a brief description of the accident. I also supplied some pictures of the damage. They will not inform your insurance company

Thanks for the info mate.
Did you provide a crime ref No.? On the form it just says "if applicable"
Yes I already have pictures of the damage to the car.

[Hungry Pigeon]

Byronico said:

Probably worth getting a crime ref No. then.

Thanks,

Don't expect the police to do anything though. We had the same situation a few weeks back. Reported it to the Met with details of both independent witnesses, cue a "sorry to hear you've been a victim of crime" letter, followed shortly by a letter advising that they were not taking any further action due to a lack of evidence.

I then called both of the witnesses to see if the Met had been in touch, and guess what......neither witness had been spoken to.

I have contemplated making a complaint, but frankly I doubt it would be dealt with other than by the "investigating" officer being spoken to....if their boss can be arsed, that is.

[Byronico]

Cold said:

Why don't you want to inform your insurance company? They'll have to know sometime.
You've paid for their services, you might as well put them to work.

If the kind chap who drove off agrees to pay for the damage, then I do not need to inform the insurance company.

Having been on a non-fault claim in 2017 (3rd party fault) this has hiked up my insurance prices for 2 years so far on my car AND motorbike. Extra price I have had to pay is close to £380 to date as you still need to declare this...
Still 3 years left of declaring an accident that was not my fault..

[Byronico]

Hungry Pigeon said:

Don't expect the police to do anything though. We had the same situation a few weeks back. Reported it to the Met with details of both independent witnesses, cue a "sorry to hear you've been a victim of crime" letter, followed shortly by a letter advising that they were not taking any further action due to a lack of evidence.

I then called both of the witnesses to see if the Met had been in touch, and guess what......neither witness had been spoken to.

I have contemplated making a complaint, but frankly I doubt it would be dealt with other than by the "investigating" officer being spoken to....if their boss can be arsed, that is.

Yeah I'm not expecting them to do anything tbh, I would just need the ref No.

[speedking31]

Byronico said:

If the kind chap who drove off agrees to pay for the damage, then I do not need to inform the insurance company.

Having been on a non-fault claim in 2017 (3rd party fault) this has hiked up my insurance prices for 2 years so far on my car AND motorbike. Extra price I have had to pay is close to £380 to date as you still need to declare this...

That's not logical. Your second paragraph shows that the non-fault report was a material fact because your premium increased, therefore you do have to report it. Unless your current policy's Ts & Cs say that you don't need to report non-fault accidents?

[davek_964]

Byronico said:

Having been on a non-fault claim in 2017 (3rd party fault) this has hiked up my insurance prices for 2 years so far on my car AND motorbike. Extra price I have had to pay is close to £380 to date as you still need to declare this...
Still 3 years left of declaring an accident that was not my fault..

Guess I've been lucky.

I had a fault accident in 2011 (protected NCD) - my premium went down at the renewal 4 months later.
I had a non fault accident in 2016, my premium was unaffected at renewal.

[anonymous-user]

Byronico said:

Cold said:

Why don't you want to inform your insurance company? They'll have to know sometime.
You've paid for their services, you might as well put them to work.

If the kind chap who drove off agrees to pay for the damage, then I do not need to inform the insurance company.

Having been on a non-fault claim in 2017 (3rd party fault) this has hiked up my insurance prices for 2 years so far on my car AND motorbike. Extra price I have had to pay is close to £380 to date as you still need to declare this...
Still 3 years left of declaring an accident that was not my fault..

Just because you don’t want to doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t inform them.

[MulticolouredTVR]

Byronico said:

MulticolouredTVR said:

Having been through this recently, they will release the details if you give a brief description of the accident. I also supplied some pictures of the damage. They will not inform your insurance company

Thanks for the info mate.
Did you provide a crime ref No.? On the form it just says "if applicable"
Yes I already have pictures of the damage to the car.

I didn't have to provide a crime number. This person was uninsured. I had the text messages as an admission of guilt. I did report it to the police but they were seemingly disinterested.

I used the details provided to take her to court, got a CCJ by default as she didn't reply to the court papers. She then didn't pay so i escalated it to the high court and got high court enforcement bailiffs on the case. Got paid out in the end. What was originally a £580 garage bill ended up costing her over £1500 in court and bailiff costs. In the end I pursued it purely on the moral basis of teaching her a lesson for being uninsured and driving away after damaging my car, then going quiet and ignoring my messages and calls thinking it would go away.

Make sure when you fill in the description of what happened you include all details. My first form to the DVLA was sent back to me as I put "the vehicle reversed into mine." Even though there was only my vehicle and her vehicle involved the DVLA were pedantic and said i could be referring to any car so after a phone call to them i had to change it to "vehicle, registration number XXXX XXX, reversed into mine (registration number XXX XXX)."

I think it costs £2.50 for the information

Good luck in your case OP