To be very upset we’ve been driving around in uninsured vehicle

[BlueFairiesinthesky]

Just stopped by police with young children in car, very upsetting as was accused of driving an unregistered/ uninsured vehicle.

Our car was purchased new from the official dealership 3 years ago. We’ve had two official services and been insured through legit insurers since. The number plate is wrong by one letter! All documentation has the wrong license number. However the ownership paper does state a different license number, which I assume is the correct one.

Obviously we should have picked up on the discrepancy, my only excuse is we had a newborn at the time!

The police said we’ve been driving around uninsured for 3 years and If we’d had an accident would be fully liable for damage and personal injury.

We plan to visit the dealership tomorrow but just after any advice as I feel really angry about it. I don’t understand how this could have happened and feel really angry that we’ve been driving around at risk.

I don’t think we should drive the car until they can install the correct number plate. Which is an inconvenience. I’ve also paid £650 of useless insurance.

@WaterBottle123

Honestly just count your lucky stars you didn't have an accident and let it go. Some poor sod made a mistake, maybe their mum had just died or something, you don't know.

Nothing bad has happened. Just move on with your life.

You can't be serious.. She's lucky the police were lenient so No she needs to bring this to their attention as its their fault regardless of circumstances it's a serious mistake..

I'm amazed that you've never looked at your paperwork.

I get a new car every 3yrs and the first thing I do as soon as I pick up the new car I check the paperworkin given in the showroom and again when the other papers arrive in the post.

Having a newborn or some other excuse when you picked up the car THREE YEARS AGO, is no excuse, you've had all that time to sort it!

Based on what you are saying though it is the dealerships responsibility to have the correct plate on the car so they should do that for you FOC

@Harmonypuss the paperwork had the wrong license number on it also, except for 1 form which listed the correct license number.

All sorted now anyway!

My daughter chose the plate on her new car - it was XXXX BAA, a white car so it was known as sheep. When she picked it up, whilst she was completing paperwork the car was round the back being washed, they brought it to the front, she was given the keys and got in the car, she never looked at the front or back. Only when she got home did she realise the plates on the car were XXXX BBA. So yes mistakes do happen but I would expect someone to notice before 3 years.

This happened with DH. We bought a car from a major chain of car supermarkets and they'd made an error when they put their branded plates on. One digit out with a similar letter. It came to light when he had the first MOT.
The car supermarket deal with a lot of rhe paperwork and they didn't spot their error. We knew the reg as the one on the car.
Fortunately it was easily resolved with no adverse consequences.

Yes you do, you don’t MOT it till it’s 3 years old.

Op you should have checked - the onus is on you. Someone made a mistake, be grateful you didn’t crash. People are humans not robots

@BlueFairiesinthesky

I'm glad you've now got it sorted.

Maybe, if you but another new car in the future, triple check everything. ☺

@Tara336

Something similar happened to me, I have a private plate and was stopped for driving uninsured. I have had the plate 10 years had been on this car for 3 years without issue, but for some reason known only to the insurer they had insured my car under the original plate. All my paperwork was correct, what they had it insured under was wrong, luckily the police checked the database and found my car exact make and model insured to my home and told me what they thought had happened. Insurers were real cocks about it tried to blame me until I proved I had the right reg and was there error. When I reinsured this year the rentention team asked why I was leaving I explained and his response was “oh that happens a lot”

Clearly it does happen a lot because the exact same thing happened to me too!

Took 9 months from renewal before I was pulled over by the police but I still had my old plates in the boot so they let me go.

Did you automatically renew your insurance? Who originally organised the insurance? It's usually your resonsiblity to organise.if you originnately put it in incorrectly it's your fault. We were told the incorrect reg for our car and it came make as a Ferrari! In our dreams. You have to check that reg and model of car match.

@GroggyLegs

You don’t tax a new car until it’s 3 years old

Erm, you should!!

Yeah, I think it is no MOT until car reaches a certain age. Tax is from day 1

Did the number ate match the make and model of the car? When I guessed my number plate and got a digit wrong, it was a totally different make and model of car.
I would be upset, but it is so important to check things.

I work in insurance and have for years, happens more often than you think. You can prove ownership, will not void your policy and you haven’t been uninsured for 3 years. No insurerer would throw out a claim on that basis

Eak gonna go check my paperwork and ref just bought a car 😳

You are fortunate they did not tow your car away. the police threatened to do this to us when the insurance company had failed to register our insurance.

@WaterBottle123

Honestly just count your lucky stars you didn't have an accident and let it go. Some poor sod made a mistake, maybe their mum had just died or something, you don't know.

Nothing bad has happened. Just move on with your life.

Yep totally agree with this 👌🏼 Mistakes are made, human error happens and I’m sure it wasn’t deliberate. It needs to be pointed out obviously and it’s down to them to correct this error and make a sincere apology at the very least. But as above, no real harm done so get it sorted and move in OP x

[quote Harmonypuss]@BlueFairiesinthesky

I'm glad you've now got it sorted.

Maybe, if you but another new car in the future, triple check everything. ☺[/quote]
Yeah, there might be a single letter out of place............................

@BlueFairiesinthesky

The police officers said they’ve never come across this before. I assume garages have good checks in place to ensure this doesn’t happen- but not in our case!

It is up to you to ensure your insurance is correct, nothing to do with the garage, slightly baffled as to what you think it has to do with them.

But in any case, you haven’t had a claim, I am not convinced it would have invalidated the insurance anyway but it is a moot point, there is no harm done. Correct the insurance for going forward and take better care in future. Then let that be the end of it.

@Mollymoostoo

Did the number ate match the make and model of the car? When I guessed my number plate and got a digit wrong, it was a totally different make and model of car. I would be upset, but it is so important to check things.

good job no-one else mentioned this on the thread

It is up to you to ensure your insurance is correct, nothing to do with the garage, slightly baffled as to what you think it has to do with them.

Of course not, the garage just affixed a set of plates with an incorrect number, nothing to do with them at all.

YABU for using "going forward" instead of "in future".

@Reallybadidea

They are essentially driving on fake plates. With insurance on those fake plates, not the real reg number.

But if the insurance matches the plates then how would the police have picked it up?

DVLA database search is standard and police have a direct link to that system

good job no-one else mentioned this on the thread