Nephew took uncles car without permission then had accident

todolist

A friend of mine,his nephew came from england to stay for a week.During the stay,while the Uncle was at work the nephew (age 23,no license whatsoever)took the car without permission.He was involved in a collision.The insurance settled the claim and now wants to be reimbursed by the uncle .The insurance company wants over €50k from the Uncle. How can that be?Surely the Nephew is the only one liable?

todolist

Anyone got an opinion?

Del2005

Contact a solicitor, too much money to be relying on advice from the internet.

Quaver

Tricky enough situation, but unless the uncle reported the car as stolen then he is probably liable. Does he really want to put it on his nephew instead? Big decisions to make, definitely go see a Solicitor.

NUTLEY BOY

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE as that is not allowed here.

In princple, if the nephew took the car without consent that is an unauthorised taking or theft.

By definition, if there was no consent to the driving of the car by the nephew then the uncle should have no vicarious liability.

It is not clear which insurance company wants reimbursement. If it is the insurance company of the car that was hit then that claim should be dealt with by the insurers of the uncle's car. They should be dealing with it for the uncle by defending any claim against him on the assumption that there was no consent to driving and he had a case that can be defended just like any claim for which he is not liable.

The uncle really should report this to the insurance company of the car driven by the nephew and refer any claim to them to deal with under the terms of the policy.