caught without insurance!

Moejoe78

Hey guys,

I was driving with the wife to join friends for dinner when i found a Garda checkpoint. Lady Garda officer asked me for my papers, couldn't find my insurance papers but was sure I was insured, she said she would have to take the car, Told her i could get a cab and retrieve my cert to show her, anyway she did a check and told me my insurance had expired ten days ago! I HONESTLY did not know my insurance was expired, sounds really silly but honestly was not aware.

So we got out of the car and took a cab home, I was told to provide proof in ten days or that I would receive a summons. Came home and dug up my insurance cert, true enough it was expired ten days ago.

I have had no previous motor related or any convictions for that matter, the car was comprehensively insured, and have already sent a fax and filled out renewal application and sent it so car will be insured tomorrow.

How screwed am I ? I went to get some stuff from the car today and the tow guys were surprised i got done for ten days off, told me she should have given me a warning, going into to station tomorrow to show proof of insurance once my new cert is issued. Any chance this issue can be sorted or am i doomed to district court? and what sort of penalty am I looking at?

Any help is much appreciated.

galwaytt

Renew your insurance right now. The new cert might - might - come with a continued date on it, which will cover you. Talking to the insurance company, make sure you use the words 'renew you existing policy' and see how you get on.

Depending on the date of the cert you get in the post, decide your next move.

sk8board

depends on the garda in question; she will have eye-balled you and will know you were genuine, so if you dot your 'i's and cross your 't's I think you should stand a chance

teednab-el

Moejoe78 wrote: »

Hey guys,

I was driving with the wife to join friends for dinner when i found a Garda checkpoint. Lady Garda officer asked me for my papers, couldn't find my insurance papers but was sure I was insured, she said she would have to take the car, Told her i could get a cab and retrieve my cert to show her, anyway she did a check and told me my insurance had expired ten days ago! I HONESTLY did not know my insurance was expired, sounds really silly but honestly was not aware.

So we got out of the car and took a cab home, I was told to provide proof in ten days or that I would receive a summons. Came home and dug up my insurance cert, true enough it was expired ten days ago.

I have had no previous motor related or any convictions for that matter, the car was comprehensively insured, and have already sent a fax and filled out renewal application and sent it so car will be insured tomorrow.

How screwed am I ? I went to get some stuff from the car today and the tow guys were surprised i got done for ten days off, told me she should have given me a warning, going into to station tomorrow to show proof of insurance once my new cert is issued. Any chance this issue can be sorted or am i doomed to district court? and what sort of penalty am I looking at?

Any help is much appreciated.

Did you get a notification letter in the post telling you that insurance expiry date was approaching?. Your insurance company should have made you aware of the expiry date in advance.

Seillejet

I hope this helps...otherwise can you be covered under third party extension on your wife's policy.

With the exception of the fairly new practice of issuing pay as you go car insurance policies, when you purchase car insurance you are entering into, and bound by the conditions of, a fixed term contract with the car insurance company. In the vast majority of cases this fixed term is for exactly one year since the date of the policy's inception or beginning.
As you near the end of the period of cover, your insurance company will invite or tender you to renew the contract. These days the systems employed by large car insurance companies will trigger the renewal procedure which initially means the production and posting of a set of renewal documents to the policyholder. This is usually timed so that the invite to renew pack is produced automatically around fifteen days prior to the termination of the existing car insurance contract, giving the prospective renewal policyholder time to correspond with the car insurance company and inform them of any changes that may have occurred during the term of the contract which are not reflected in the renewal documents.
If you intend to renew with the same insurance company you are legally bound to inform this company of any alterations to the statement of fact that you originally made when you first took out the policy.
Likewise you may wish to add or remove elements of cover from the current status of the car insurance policy, as your requirements may well have changed over the previous year.
Because of the compulsory nature of third party car insurance, no 'days of grace' are allowed after the renewal date of the policy. This can cause problems for car insurance companies as for practical purposes renewal documents and certificates have to be produced and dispatched to the prospective renewal policyholder in advance, which will become operative from the first day of the new period of insurance.
The renewal certificate, required by law to tax a motor vehicle, in theory cannot be issued until the renewal premium is paid. If payment was received subsequent to the expiry date of the existing car insurance policy, then the certificate would have to be re-written with the operative time and date matched to the time of payment. This could cause a major problem for the car insurance companies, as to issue an unaltered certificate would be equivalent to ante-dating it, which is a criminal offence, whilst re-writing the renewal documents would result in additional costs and expenditure to the car insurer, and more importantly would leave gaps in cover for the policyholder, which would leave a driver exposed to risks and legal action for driving without car insurance.
In order to overcome these practical difficulties of renewals, car insurers have developed a practice of incorporating into the renewal documents a certificate of insurance that is valid for an extended period of seven to fifteen days. This benefits both the prospective renewal and the insurance company by extending the period during which the insured has time to pay the renewal premium, yet still receive a certificate dated from the first day of the new contract period.
Car Insurers are particularly sensitive to what is known as the 'renewal retention ratio' , the number of renewals expressed as a percentage of the previous years total policies issued, especially since the introduction of online car insurance underwriting which has enabled a prospective renewal to shop around much easier and perhaps to change supplier.
The issue of this temporary certificate of cover in effect and contract law, constitutes an offer by the car insurance company, which the insured must either accept expressly, by paying the renewal premium, or by implication by doing nothing and having the premium taken from the payment source of the previous year's policy.

pistolpetes11

Moejoe78 wrote: »

Hey guys,

I was driving with the wife to join friends for dinner when i found a Garda checkpoint. Lady Garda officer asked me for my papers, couldn't find my insurance papers but was sure I was insured, she said she would have to take the car, Told her i could get a cab and retrieve my cert to show her, anyway she did a check and told me my insurance had expired ten days ago! I HONESTLY did not know my insurance was expired, sounds really silly but honestly was not aware.

So we got out of the car and took a cab home, I was told to provide proof in ten days or that I would receive a summons. Came home and dug up my insurance cert, true enough it was expired ten days ago.

I have had no previous motor related or any convictions for that matter, the car was comprehensively insured, and have already sent a fax and filled out renewal application and sent it so car will be insured tomorrow.

How screwed am I ? I went to get some stuff from the car today and the tow guys were surprised i got done for ten days off, told me she should have given me a warning, going into to station tomorrow to show proof of insurance once my new cert is issued. Any chance this issue can be sorted or am i doomed to district court? and what sort of penalty am I looking at?

Any help is much appreciated.

Most Insurance Policy's are not cancelled on the expiry date , a lot of insurers will hold cover on days of grace basis, to allow people to send in there paperwork etc..

Hopefully when your cert is sent out , it covers you from the the renewal date

Moejoe78

Guys I appreciate all the replies, god that was fast, will definately try to 'renew ' my policy when i speak to my insurance company tomorrow

Any further advice more than welcome!

mickdw

The insurers have to send out renewal details a month before expiry due to some law that was brought in to allow people more time to shop around. Now this is all well and good but I have heard of a couple of genuine cases where people have completely forgotten due to the reminder being so early. The people I heard of were never stopped or involved in an accident and manged to just renew it when it occured to them. OP wasnt so lucky but if he had an accident, it would be much worse.

pistolpetes11

Moejoe78 wrote: »

Guys I appreciate all the replies, god that was fast, will definately try to 'renew ' my policy when i speak to my insurance company tomorrow

Any further advice more than welcome!

Are you with an Insurance broker or directly insured with a insurance company ?, I worked in an Insurance brokers and they kept cover in place for 2 weeks . In that time they would contact the customer to see what they wanted to do with there renewal. If they were not tp renew they would send back the documents to the insurance company.

If you did renew they would just send you out the papers that they have in the office. We were always told to make contact with the customer before any policy was cancelled .

thebull09

As pistolpetes said most insurance companies give you a grace period when your insurance runs out, so just send your payment off and id say youll be covered from the date youe insurance expired,

this very thing happend to me not to long ago but i didnt worry about it as i was told i was covered, sow when i did renew my insurance i just produced it to the garda that ulled me and eveythiung was ok.

best of luck with your outcome

The-Game

Moejoe78 wrote: »

I was driving with the wife to join friends for dinner when i found a Garda checkpoint. Lady Garda officer asked me for my papers, ...

For some reason i thought that said Lady Gaga....


Anyways usually you get a few days grace period in between but it does be at the Gard's discretion... did you give her any reason to doubt you were genuine? Was there anything else wrong with the car?

Bogger77

AXA sent me a letter on the day of my policy's expiry date, saying that I had a further 2 weeks cover if I wanted to renew with them, and I'd gotten the paperwork back etc. I'm guessing most "full service" companies offer similar. But the letter I got was a valid extension to my cover, and not at anyones discretion on it's validity.

jhegarty

As above you can have up to two weeks grace with most insurance companies.

eamon234

If you renew asap with the same company you should be OK they will normally use your expiry date as the renewal date. That is certainly true about the grace period I had a similar situation previously - except I didn't get caught!

sdanseo

eamon234 wrote: »

If you renew asap with the same company you should be OK they will normally use your expiry date as the renewal date. That is certainly true about the grace period I had a similar situation previously - except I didn't get caught!

But will a Garda not just look at the date of the new cert (date it was issued and posted, not the renewal date) and see that it was done after the fact? You can't insure someone retrospectively. If there's a grace period, he's fine though.

Our man in Havana

Certs are normally issued weeks ahead of renewal and sent out to brokers etc. When a person pays even if a few days late the cert is handed over as if it was paid on time. The Gardaí will not know any different when it is produced.

Senna

The sister was involved in an accident 2 days after there policy ended (she forgot), AXA wouldn't stand over their 10 days extension policy. I expect they would if you were just caught for no insurance, but if your involved in an accident forget about it.

Henry Ford III

It's hard to believe you got no call nor communication on the renewal.

jhegarty

Henry Ford III wrote: »

It's hard to believe you got no call nor communication on the renewal.

Just takes one missed letter for it to happen.

I always renew mine on the last day before the expiry, and never received any extra communications.

thebiglad

Sorry but I have little sympathy for you - the insurance disc is on the window, surely you noticed the big 11/09 and maybe thought to look at the exact date - or at least had a rough idea of renewal month.

Anyhow - it is highly likely that so long as you declare to the insurer you have not had an accident they will allow you to pay their renewal premium and you will be covered without break - there is no need to mention Garda check point etc - just say you have just noticed insurance is out and you did not receive a renewal notice.

Aside from the fright it has apparently given you, you will of course lose the option to shop around for a better quote.

Just be thankful it was a garda check point close to expiry date and second that it was not an accident as you would definitely not have cover.

There will be no date on the insurance certificate and besides so long as the cover exists on date of check point it is irrelevant.

Actual offence by the way is failure to disply insurance and not failure to have it, you may still find yourself prosecuted if the Garda are inclined.

pistolpetes11

What was the outcome ?