Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

272 replies

BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 16:49

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.

OP posts:
BeaucoupFish · 05/09/2021 20:39

@DobbyTheHouseElk
It’s one of those things that you dont even think about and just trust it to be correct isn't it

Original poster
BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 20:41

@caughtinanet I did explain it a few posts in, I suppose I didn’t include in OP because it was long enough!

OP posts:
JustLyra · 05/09/2021 20:48

Surely the police didn't let you just drive away? They'd have taken the car from you until you could show that you had insurance and your DH would be facing points on his license?

Original poster
BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 20:49

Ok, so my DH and I have sat down and had an open conversation about taking more care and paying more attention to life admin.

A lot of the burden of life admin does fall on me and he needs to take more responsibility for it. He’s quite embarrassed about missing the correct license number on the DVLA emails and he said it’s been a real wake up call for him.

We’re going to have regular family admin meetings and share more/ discuss more. He’s great with the kids/ housework, is a hard worker, but he doesn’t really take much responsibility for finances and admin stuff and he needs to.

So actually, the police stopping us today has not only saved us from driving around with illegal plates, but also given DH a huge wake up call and will hopefully improve our family life. The universe has done us a big favour today Star

OP posts:
Whataplonkerheis · 05/09/2021 20:51

@BlueFairiesinthesky. I can’t believe we weren’t stopped by the police in the first three years. The number plate actually belonged to a blue Audi and ours was a different coloured 911 so would not have been inconspicuous to police doing checks.

Once we discovered what had happened we often wondered if the poor Audi owner had been issued any speeding tickets my DH would have racked up with his new toy (in his defence he’s never had one in 30 years of driving).

We of

Original poster
BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 20:52

@JustLyra yes they did, we were 2 streets from home. They saw the insurance we had- albeit for the wrong license number, but I guess they could see it was an admin error, that we were mortified and would be sorting it tomorrow, so they let us drive home.

OP posts:
NotMyCat · 05/09/2021 20:54

I was pulled over by the police for no insurance once. Very very confused and went and sat in the police car
I had private plates on and had notified insurance. Insurance company hadn't swapped the details and admitted as much when the police contacted them that I had told them and it was their error
I couldn't remember the original reg but the plates were in the car so I was stood by an A road holding up the plate for the police to check it Grin
I got breathalysed too. Fun night!

DrWhoNowww · 05/09/2021 21:07

@SpiderinaWingMirror

As someone who has worked in insurance claims/complaints etc for donkeys years, every insurer I have worked for would have indemnified you. Yes, it would have been a palaver but they would have. As long as it was the same make, model and posed the same risk they would have.
Yep this.

The only thing that could’ve potentially been an issue would be if the car had been written off - because the v5c ref wouldn’t have matched the car the insurance company was paying out loss of use on, but they’d have tied it up through the VIN.

All’s well that ends well in this case OP.

SusieBob · 05/09/2021 21:08

@BoredZelda

Yes we all should rely on other people/systems being accurate, but sometimes the belt and braces approach has its benefits, hence why someone people will do it.

There are things we should check and things that if we spent our lives checking, we’d never have time to do anything else. We have a motability car now, we don’t even get the reg document, should we phone and check the right number is on the car?

This is one of the things you should check, and it literally takes 30 seconds on the odd occasion you buy a car. Obviously in the case of motability it's different, but if you buy a car you check to make sure that it's registered properly and that the details match up. Otherwise... this kind of thing happens.
Jaxhog · 05/09/2021 21:24

Been there. I was visiting a friend and their neighbour (a policeman) popped round to point out the reg was different on the front and back. 2 letters were transposed. I got it changed the next day.

Jaxhog · 05/09/2021 21:25

(I bought a car that was re-registered off a personal plate)

EastWestWhosBest · 05/09/2021 21:53

Hang on though. When you tax a car doesn’t it check your insurance then? Even though mine is tax free I still have to ‘tax’ it by doing the online form.

MrsWhites · 05/09/2021 22:26

I think some responses on here have been harsh.

OP have you put the two registrations in the MOT checker online? Obviously if the car isn’t yet 3 years old it won’t have any MOT history but before you get to that point it identifies the make and model of the vehicle, colour etc.

I would definitely be complaining to the dealership, obviously it’s not ideal that you and your DH didn’t notice the error but it’s a pretty big mistake for them to make.

DobbyTheHouseElk · 05/09/2021 22:49

@EastWestWhosBest

Hang on though. When you tax a car doesn’t it check your insurance then? Even though mine is tax free I still have to ‘tax’ it by doing the online form.
No I don’t think so. It used to in the old days when you had to take the MOT certificate and the tax paperwork and the insurance documents to the post office to renew your tax.
Ifixfastjets · 05/09/2021 23:02

My grandparents had a second hand car I the 80s.
Front number plate said ABC123D and the rear one said ABC132D (obviously changed for privacy)
They had it for a year. Assumed ABC123D was correct as that's the one on the front they walked past every day.
Took it for their first MoT a year after they had it. Garage asked them which was correct??
They had to go back through the records to find out.

Ifixfastjets · 05/09/2021 23:07

Eastwest
Yes, the online tax thing automatically checks for insurance. And wont let you tax a car without it

I had a car written off. I got myself a replacement and switched insurance over to new car. Same day, I had emails from DVLA/tax people saying my old car was no longer insured so no longer taxed.

Original poster
BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 23:27

@Ifixfastjets OP here, I didn’t realise that. If this is the case, I can’t understand why it’s not triggered a query from the DVLA. We have tax in place for the correct license, insurance in place for the incorrect license. Unless someone else is erroneously insuring our correct license number. Or DVLA/ insurers haven’t done their checks properly? So weird.

OP posts:
HarryHedgehog · 05/09/2021 23:27

Op, speak to your insurance company, they may be able to help.
I work in insurance and the company I work for would do this. We often get people who don’t change their private plates or enter 1 digit incorrectly etc. When people are stopped by police, we’re usually happy to issue a letter confirming that we would provide indemnity in the event of a claim.

The police don’t have to accept this but we rarely get issues.

Original poster
BlueFairiesinthesky · 05/09/2021 23:28

Thanks @HarryHedgehog We will do so tomorrow evening after work. Weren’t able to take any action today as happened after 5pm on Sunday.

OP posts:
Justgorgeous · 05/09/2021 23:30

3 years ago a woman reverses into my car causing £400 worth of damage, She sent me her insurance details, these were all fake. I rang the police and they weren’t interested and said no crime had been committed.

HaveringWavering · 05/09/2021 23:41

@BoredZelda

Have you heard of The Troubles?

Other than “unattended bag” still not a major issue here in Scotland where there wasn’t a single IRA bombing. We didn’t shit ourself every time someone coughed the wrong way.

So how come my school in Scotland was regularly evacuated for bomb scares in the 1980s? Hmm
DixonD · 05/09/2021 23:46

@RollaCola84

When you give the registration to get a car insurance quote it brings up the make and model of the car. Ditto when taxing a car. How on earth is it the dealerships fault ?
This. I don’t understand how this has happened.
HaveringWavering · 05/09/2021 23:49

Well p ay more attention @DixonD. OP has said that the reg on the car brings up the same make and model as her car, which is a common occurrence with regs which only differ by one letter. Check it with your own, I did, and same thing happened.

AdobeWanKenobi · 05/09/2021 23:51

I don’t understand how this has happened

Its been explained several times above.

ChaneySays · 05/09/2021 23:57

Wow, somebody messed up big time!