Had an accident and MOT has run out. - update!

[OrmRenewed]

DH and I decided not to claim for the costs of our car damage yesterday because we had no MOT. But we've been told it's going to cost between £1200 and £1500 and we have plenty of things we'd rather spend it on.

So what are the likely risks of claiming under the circumstances?

1. They refuse to pay up.
2. The only pay part of it.
3. They refuse to reinsure us and it will be impossible to get insured elsewhere?

Was quite chuffed when the mechanic told me that in all his years of rallying he'd never manage to break a steering rack . He also reckoned the other car must have been going way too fast to have done that much damage (which I thought at the time)

Advice please. Pretty please.

ohnelly - that is so wrong. You sound like the uninsured driver who hit us and said she was on her way to buy some.

Seems to me there are 2 separate issues: criminal and civil. The police know the MOT was out of date, but fairly unlikely they will prosecute for MOT alone being out of date as they tend to go to court when there has been injury or a traffic offence, and there wasn't a traffic offence here. Just an accident.

Insurance is one of the few areas where one has to declare all, and yes, tell them the MOT was out of date, but my suggestion was to mitigate your loss. By getting it MOT'ed now would at least show that the car isn't in a poor state and therefore contributory to the accident, which it absolutely wasn't, but your insurance company doesn't know that. A valid MOT doesn't mean the car can't go wrong, but can exclude major faults.

Don't get me onto the subject of independent assessments

There are lots of things which can potentially invalidate your insurance but which in practice don't except in extreme cases.

For example, I did not realise I had not declared all my penalty points until came to make a claim. The insurance co simply took payment of the extra premium (only a small amount) which would have been charged on renewal if they had known about all the points. No suggestion of disallowing my claim.

As the MOT is only a few days out of date they are likely to be reasonable if you are up front about it.

I have found motor insurers to be much more flexible as car insurance is a legal requirement and they do not want to be seen to be putting people in the position of breaking the law unknowingly due to simple mistakes. After all, you paid the premium.

Clarice - i think you are being a bit harsh. The OP had paid for insurance, just made the simple mistake of not noticing her MOT had JUST expired - which is easy to do as there is no system of reminders.

Taking the offence first, driving without a valid MOT is an offence. If you haven't received a Notice of Intended Prosecution within 28 days of your visit to the police, you are in the clear on that one. Even if you do get a NIP, they would almost certainly deal with it as a fixed penalty (£60 fine for driving without a valid MOT) rather than take you to court as there are no other offences.

What you've said above is correct - unless the accident was caused by a fault that would have been picked up by MOT the insurance company is still expected to pay up.

The other person in the accident may submit a claim which will go back to your insurers, so you probably can't hide it from them. You shouldn't in any case - although it isn't often prosecuted, failing to tell your insurance company about an accident is a criminal offence.

It is highly unlikely your insurance company would refuse to insure you because of this.

So I would recommend you fess up.

been watching this and other thread with interest and thought id add this.

i understnad why you may not decide to make a claim through your insurance co, but if you dont, they may infer that the car was unroadworthy and you were aware that the MOT had expired before the accident?

why not submit a claim anyway? if they decline on the grounds of no insurance, then so be it.

just to restate that the other woman will almost certainly be claiming on her insurance, in which case yours will be contacting you anyway. id suggest it'd be better to avoid them raising eyebrows, which they are likely to, if the first they hear of the accident is from the other party.

hope that makes sense

"id suggest it'd be better to avoid them raising eyebrows, which they are likely to, if the first they hear of the accident is from the other party"

Good point.

Will ring tomorrow.

Many thanks everyone.

Rang this morning.

MOT does not invalidate our insurance. We will get the full cost of the repairs minus our normal excess.

Hurray!

Phew!

Very interesting too, I'm sure the vast majority of people believe that insurance is invalid without an MOT.

We drove for three months without insurance, all through the worst winter weather when the roads were icy and extremely hazardous. Like you, we were stuck in the mindset of the MOT renewal date being the same as the insurance, as per our previous car.

Such rotten bad luck to have an accident though.

Woohoo! Fantastic news Orm!

Ive got MOT & insurance on my car thanks!

Sorry, about to pick kids up so haven't read all posts. This happened to a friend of mine, someone went into him and wrote car off, MOT about a month out of date. Insurance paid up but got a £400 fine at court and a few points.

Found this:

Penalties for driving without an MOT
The penalty for driving a vehicle that has not successfully passed an MOT is likely to be a fine, the severity of whihc will depend upon the extent of the offence and whether it was in respect of a private vehicle or one being used to carry passengers or goods. However, it will not on its own result in either the imposition of penalty points or a disqualification.

Glad its good news Orm. It would have been a bit harsh to have invalidated your insurance over a small slip like this.

And I would expect the police to be sympathetic as it was only a few days. I would expect it would be fixed penalty without points.

has everyone advised?

brilliant news orm.

Thanks everyone

Buuuut.... I am a bit worried about the other driver now. She has rung me twice complaining about her back. She has now been to Taunton hospital and has been told she needs chiro - the NHS won't provide it but have advised she try it. And she can't afford it and is trying to claim for it. Which is fine but doesn't a medical claim sends costs stratosperic? DH reckons I shouldn't talk to her as it's going to get more serious. Is that true? ANyone know?

Don't talk to her do it all through your insurance.

It is clear that she was driving too fast and that it is very likely that she did hit you.

Leave your insurance company to argue it out with hers. Next time she phones I would inform her what the mechanic said and the implications of that.......

OK. Thanks. I will get DH to field her calls. She is a single mum with not a lot of money so of course I worry.....

Orm - that is so what I was afraid of, hence my earlier post about your mechanic's view that she must have been driving too fast to cause that much damage to your car and my suggestion of evidence....

You sound very reasonable and have said all the way through you don't want things to turn nasty, but the fact that she automatically blamed you first, and walked away from the scene as if she had whiplash (you said) just rang alarm bells.

It is not up to you to admit liabililty, it is up to your insurance company to decide where the blame lies. You must keep a level head and be business like - my guess is she will try to claim for everything she can.

Ok merrylegs. Will have to toughen up I guess

you don't usually feel whiplash the same day I think it usually takes 24 hours to set in.

BTW I told the insurance company that I wanted to use our normal garage for the repairs. When the assessor visits I am fairly sure it will be pointed out to him.

ATM it seems that my ins company has accepted my liability.

by that I mean the pain to set in!

Don't engage with the other driver Orm.

Just don't answer her calls neither you or DH, just answer once to ask her to contact the insurance company from this moment.

Sounds harsh but was the advise we recieved when former school pal of Dh's Sis hit us and wrote off our car (& her's), she was driving with excessive speed towards us and we had already started slowing down - both approaching railway bridge with 90°turns onto it, she lost control, wrote us off then started calling us and Dh Sis bemoaning poor insurance coverage (3rd party), no money etc, our insurance company said no contact and tho his Sis didn't listen so we didn't keep her (Sis) updated with progress.

Turned out woman was a driving disaster and had hoped 'sob' story to all and sundry linked to our family would make us drop claim - yeah hardly.

Just wanted to add the following:

1. Speed of itself is not accepted as evidence of negligence - by which I mean that simply because the other driver may have been travelling fast, doesnt mean that she will be fully or partially at fault. It will entirely depend on the facts of the case, (and how good each side's insurers/lawyers are at arguing over those facts!)

1. OP, frankly you were lucky your insurers have dealt with your claim despite the absent MOT. Not all insurers (certainly not the one I work for) would be so lenient, and could have imposed some financial penalty.

Just to add that Insurers can refuse indemnity for many reasons - in particular things like failing to notify re points on licence. if they class that failure as material non-disclosure, they will void the policy ab initio and not indemnify you for your own losses, and can seek to recover any sums paid to third parties from you in person. Hence the importance of being entirely honest on your proposal form

3 Finally, whiplash symptoms can be instantaneous, but equally onset can be delayed by up to a week, although it is more usually anything up to 72 hours post accident. So nothing suspicious in the other driver feeling pain within seconds of the accident, nor until days later.