Fender Bender help please.

Blackgrape

My girlfriend bought a Northern Irish '893 25i sport recently but since then she has got a company car so she does no insure the car anymore. I have insurance on another car theat allows me drive other cars as long as they do not belong to me. Whilst driving her car I was rear ended by a car whilst stopped at lights. I took the others fellows details and we agreed for him to sort out the damage without involving insurance companies. However his passenger hit her head and broke the windscreen.

I got a quote and sent it to him with the number of the mechanic. He replied saying that his passenger is going to clain and that the damage must go through his insurance company.

Who must claim for the damage to the car?? Me or my Girlfriend? The MOT on the car was out by a month.

What are the implications??

thanks folks

Kimbot

Ring your insurance company and ask them!! Thats your only way!!

MrPudding

I think you will find that you policy onlt allows you to drive another car if it is insured by someone else.

What I mean is this. You girlfriend has a car and she has her own valid insurance on it. You are not a named driver on her policy. In this case your insurance will cover you third party, fire and theft.

So it would seem that in your case you were driving without insurance as she does not have the car covered therefore you polcy will not cover you. So I don't know what you should do TBH.

MrP

sandyg

AFAIK you can only have "open insurance" on any car once the car that you are driving has insurance on it. So technically if your gf has stopped cover on it it seems that there was no insurance on the car you were driving. Could get very messy. Ring insurance co and see what they say

giveth

EDIT: Others got there before me....

I could be wrong but I thought that your insurance would only cover you driving another car that is also insured (but not necessarily in your name). Your saying your GF's car is uninsured?

Also, even if your GF's car is insured, I think your insurance will have third party cover when you are driving other cars. Could be wrong again though...

paulocon

blackgrape,

I believe MrPudding is correct here. Your insurance only covers you if the car itself is insured. Unfortunately, this would effectively mean that your were driving while uninsured - if this is the case, get into your solicitor asap..

As regards MOT. I know that down south, lack of an NCT won't make a difference. The only time I have heard of it coming into the equation was in the case of a write-off where a car might be undervalued due to the lack of NCT..

Ay Cee

If you were rear ended does that not mean he ran into you?
Therefore it's his fault.

Is that old chestnut about it's always the car behind's fault not true?

The_Magoo

You are claiming off his insurance. I dont think the state or condition of your car would be questioned, unless the claim is massive? How did yer man hit his head, no seat belt? This ejjit would have to claim off his mates / the driver who rear ended you, insurance policy, again yours would be untouched. If you are with Quinn, who I am guessing you are, ask them can you drive a uninsured car once its not in your name. Dont tell them you have though!

MrPudding

The_Magoo wrote:

You are claiming off his insurance. I dont think the state or condition of your car would be questioned, unless the claim is massive? How did yer man hit his head, no seat belt? This ejjit would have to claim off his mates / the driver who rear ended you, insurance policy, again yours would be untouched. If you are with Quinn, who I am guessing you are, ask them can you drive a uninsured car once its not in your name. Dont tell them you have though!

I was insured with Quinn last year and the open driving only worked if the car was insured by someone else. I am with FBD and the same stipulation applies.

Ay Cee wrote:

If you were rear ended does that not mean he ran into you?

Therefore it's his fault.

Is that old chestnut about it's always the car behind's fault not true?

This is true but it looks like he was driving uninsured so it could still get messy.

MrP

Ay Cee

MrPudding wrote:

This is true but it looks like he was driving uninsured so it could still get messy.

MrP

Very true

Kersh

If HE hit YOU, and HIS passenger is claiming, then she claims off his policy, not yours as you are not liable. You were rear ended.

smarty

I don't think there is any question over who was at fault for the accident. The other driver has admitted liability, it is now an issue of who deals with the other drivers insurance company.

I would advise you to seek legal advice, because it could get messy.

If the other driver finds out that you were driving a car without insurance and without a valid NCT, they may see a chance to to get away with this, and decide to claim that they were not actually at fault?

MrPudding

Kersh wrote:

If HE hit YOU, and HIS passenger is claiming, then she claims off his policy, not yours as you are not liable. You were rear ended.

He doesn't actaully say the driver that drove into the back of him is trying to claim off him.

If you read his post it says that the passenger in the car that hit him is claiming damages. Originally he was going to settle without the insurance company but now the passenger is claiming he will have to go through his insurance company.

Liability is not really the point here. Now that there is personal injury involved the sums of money are potentiall too much for the guy to pay out of his pocket. The OP will now have to deal with the guys insurance company. They may very well ask for his insurance details a part of the settlement process.

Like I said, could get messy.

MrP

dannyd20

Kersh wrote:

If HE hit YOU, and HIS passenger is claiming, then she claims off his policy, not yours as you are not liable. You were rear ended.

This is true. Your claim will be against his policy. I think you'll find that your 'open insurance' will not cover you driving a car that is uninsured by its owner but in this case I don't think you'll need it. (unless as MrP said - his company look for your insurance details as part of the settlement process.)

But you should know better. You were driving with no insurance, no MOT in a car that shouldn't have been on Irish roads until after it had gone through the import process! I see and hear so many people complaining about eastern european drivers doing this kind of thing but obviously it ain't just them.

You will be lucky to get away with this and should take it as a lesson learned. What if you had hit him?? (Or would that never happen cos you're a good driver?):rolleyes:

Blackgrape

Thanks for all the advice folks.

I had checked with Hibernian before I drove the car that my policy would allow me to drive a car even though the car was uninsured.

Clearly it was the other driver who was at fault.

My quandry is who claims to get the car repaired?? My girlfriend even though her car's not insured or me , but it was not my car that was damaged??

Blackgrape

There was minimal damage to the car. The bumper is a little dented. A respray should sort it. There is a ding above the bumper that should be able to be pulled out and there is a slight bulge in a rear panel that I did not even notice. A mechanic estimated about E4-500.

Kersh

You, get yer mans insurance to pay for it all, his passenger will suddenly become well again, once they realise they have a big claim AGAINST them, for her and your car.
If thats all the damage caused to your car, how come she went through her windscreen, was she not wearing her belt??

MrPudding

Blackgrape wrote:

Thanks for all the advice folks.

I had checked with Hibernian before I drove the car that my policy would allow me to drive a car even though the car was uninsured.

Clearly it was the other driver who was at fault.

My quandry is who claims to get the car repaired?? My girlfriend even though her car's not insured or me , but it was not my car that was damaged??

In this case it probably does not matter. I would suggest that perhaps you should claim as the incident directly involves you as the driver. It may also be the case that you could develop soem pain which you want to claim for. My GF got rear ended (that just doesn't sound right) and it took 3 or 4 days for the pain to start. She is in bits now. I have hears of weeks or months passing before symptoms showing up though.

MrP

Blackgrape

Fortunately I was not hurt. Things would be very messy then!! Best of regards to your girlfriend.how is she now?? Nothing a good holiday would not cure?

Blackgrape

It was in slow moving traffic around town. She must not have been wearing her belt. It must have been a pretty nasty shunt because ther was a substantial crack in the windscreen.

Ay Cee

No seatbelt? Tough ****e!!!

It's just something I cannot get my head around. Why do people not wear seat belts?! It's just stupidity.

cargrouch

Looks like the OP is sorted. Although any incident involving personal injury should have been reported to the gardai?

Just a note on the third party extension - up until about 3months ago I was of the same opinion as others -that the car you're driving had to be insured by someone else.

In the case of Quinn it seems you are covered third party to drive a car not in your own name whether or not it is insured by someone else.

I got the phone monkey to repeat this, I repeated it back to him slowly and asked him to confirm. Then I rang back later and asked another girl. (I have a complete lack of faith in quinns phone monkeys to get even basic stuff right after some of my dealings with them). This applies to full licence drivers only, not to provisionals.

Padraig Mor

cargrouch wrote:

Looks like the OP is sorted. Although any incident involving personal injury should have been reported to the gardai?

Just a note on the third party extension - up until about 3months ago I was of the same opinion as others -that the car you're driving had to be insured by someone else.

In the case of Quinn it seems you are covered third party to drive a car not in your own name whether or not it is insured by someone else.

I got the phone monkey to repeat this, I repeated it back to him slowly and asked him to confirm. Then I rang back later and asked another girl. (I have a complete lack of faith in quinns phone monkeys to get even basic stuff right after some of my dealings with them). This applies to full licence drivers only, not to provisionals.

lol - you sound like me! Quinn phone jockey told me that I was insured third party on other cars even if they weren't insured and I phoned back later just to check!

The_Magoo

So does that mean I can buy that 96 BMW 540i, put it in my girlfriends name, tax it using temopary insurance quote reference, then drive it using my insurance on a 1.6 Leon? I love this country!