Notice of legal proceedings

W

weejasy77

Registered User
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I'll try to keep a long story short...

I got my father to drive my car home from a wedding reception to save us the need to collect the car the next day etc. My father had a small accident on the way home, no one was injured or anything like that... thank god! It turned out then that my Father had no insurance thus wasn't covered to drive my car.

The people who collided with my father then initiated legal proceedings against him (not me... HIM) claiming for damages to their car. I was contacted by my insurer asking for me to sign a form to grant them the right to legally represent me but as it was my father who was being pursued for the money and not me i didnt sign or return the form.

A few months passed and i then got a letter from my insurer saying that they settled out of court and that i owe 3500 euro. Am i legally bound to pay this as I was not the person on the original court order?
 
Have the insurance company explained the grounds (presumably as covered by the terms & conditions of your policy) under which you are liable for this amount? If not then ask them to.
 
They have said that it comes under breach of policy... as my car was on the road uninsured and on the road. The initial notice of legal proceedings was against my father.. i was not mentioned once until i have now got a bill for 3500 euro.

I'm not in a good run of late let me tell u :(
 
He's probably not in a position to pay it but as he agreed to drive my car for me and never told me that his insurance expired I think he should be paying it. But.... If I thought I could challenge why my insurers settled out of court on legal proceedings against my father and then bill me for the settlement I would rather do that than put either of us under any financial difficulty.
 
I wonder what the legal costs of challenging this might be? If they could be anywhere near €3.5K then presumably it's hardly worth it. Best case you may end up €3.5K out of pocket anyway unless you won a case and costs against the insurer. Worst case you pay on the double - or worse. I would imagine that they know what they're doing and not just chancing their arm. In which case challenging it might be a waste of time and even more expense to you.
 
I can't see where the problem is.

It was your car being driven with your permission on what you believed was your insurance policy.

The driver was uninsured, you were notified of proceedings, failed to respond so by default, the insurance company settled, presumably under the terms of your contract with them. The "head-in-the-sand attitude" you adopted to the legal proceedings seldom works.

Pay up and make sure future drivers of your vehicle are insured - this is after all your responsibility, not anyone else's.
 
I find it very hard to understand how your insurance company paid out on your policy when they say you were not covered through breach of policy. Surely they should have reneged on cover and let it go through MIBI? Actually is this what in fact happened? Because normally an insurance company is appointed to deal with MIBI cases and would then pursue you for the amount afterwards. Although presumably your father should have been joined to the action as the driver. Puzzling. I agree with ClubMan- ask the insurance company for a written explanation of how you are liable for this amount.
 
Vanilla.... I'm going to phone them and ask just that!

Mathepac... I didn't realise that my father had no insurance otherwise he wouldn't have been driving the car. If he had insurance then we would have contested liability for the accident as my car only sustained a broken headlight and the front wing needed replaced. The police at the scene said that it was 50/50 fix your own and never asked for any driver details/insurance etc!
 
weejasy77 said:
...

Mathepac... I didn't realise that my father had no insurance ...
Click to expand...
That's my point - you should have established that the driver of your vehicle was covered. It is your responsibility and thus the consequences of allowing an uninsured driver in your car are yours to bear IMHO.

As per Vanilla's previous post in the thread, the chances are that the MIBI settled the claim, rebilled your insurers who in turn billed you.

Pay the bill as I don't want my premium loaded because of this sequence of events.
 
I know it doesn't help this situation but open drive is fairly cheap

Anyone 25 to 70 with a full license can drive my car on my insurance.

On another note as much as it hurts 3500 against the giving of life well half anyway. See if you could split it maybe.
 
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