I have no idea what happens, I am waiting for confirmation from the guy over the road or from the girl herself. If it does work out that because she is uninsured I then have to pay for the hire of the bike out of my own pocket, then I need to find around £68 per day, which isn't a nice prospect at all, with our current financial circumstances (and I am sure that everyone is in the same boat at the moment) thats not going to be possible by any means, but they way I see it, if they can't get the money out of her, then they damned sure ain't getting it from me. If they want to chase someone about the bill for the hire bike, then they can chase her about it.
My mother is a solicitior so she is goign to be having a few words with people in her office to see what can be done. I am trying to remain optimistic about whats happening, but in all honesty it doesn't look good from my point of view.
OK, if she is uninsured then she is going to be in some trouble with the law, and I know that they are talkign about up'ing the fines and punishments for being found with no insurance, but not sure if thats taken hold just yet, and the majority of cases I have looked at so far that involve a low speed collision like mine end up with the offending driver getting a £200 fine and banned for 3 months, which, as someone pointed out, isn't a bad saving really, a possible £200 pound fine instead of a guaranteed £500+ premium, and what does a 3 month ban matter to someone who doen't have a full or possible even a provisional license?
If she is uninsured, and unable to pay then baslically (from what I have been able to understand) the future goes like this. My insurance company having no one else to claim the money back from, will put the claim for the accident on my insurance, meanign i will lose my 2 years no claims, and also will have a claim recorded against me, which will obviously increase my insurance alot next renewal.
I will need to pay the policy excess for any repairs done, or for the final payout if (or rather when) they write the bike off, so thats another £150 out of my pocket.
Its quite likely that I will then also be responsible for the payments on the hire bike (£62 or 68 per day, and bearing in mind even with insurance carol nash have said it can take several weeks to clear up).
As the repairs are quite likely to cost almost as much as the bikes current book value, they will write it off, and then obviously make me an offer of payment to what they believe the value of the bike is, of course I will dispute the first offer they make (unless for some reason its well above what i need, which i doubt), and they will also remove the £150 excess from that payout. The bike is insured with a value of £1k, which I am 100% sure they will not offer me, even if they offer me £685 (which will end up as £535 with the excess removed) I doubt very much I will get an even half decent bike for that. I have also mentioned that there is a new £600 exhaust system just been added, £200 of avon tyres just put on front and rear, £50 new battery added a few days ago, fairly recent MoT, and a few other little bits that I have done to the bike, which ni total are probably worth more than the offer I will get, but aparently this doesn't count, as they only go by the book price for the bike.
now check this out, lets say the offer me £500 for my bike, becuase of the hire bike, they will probably take the cost of that from my claim money, and as its goign to take a few weeks to sort the claim out, longer if she isn't insured. Now the hire bike will probably be taken away from me when they find out that the woman isn't insured as they cannot claim that back from her insurance, but I will be liable for the charges of that bike, and they will deduct it from my final settlement.
I can bring a personal court action against her, as can the insurance and the police, but if she doesn't have the money to pay it, then there isn't much I can do. Yes she will get the punishment from the law (points, fine, ban, etc) but when it comes to payment, she can just say 'I can't afford it, blah blah blah, £1 per month', and I pretty much have to acccept it. I can go through a company / organisation called MIB (alas not the Will Smith type of MiB), which is set up to help people in my position, but from the many cases I have read through, in order to get you money back, you will first of all be responsible for the first £300, and it will take YEARS to get the momeny back, I have not seen anyone report it took a few weeks, everyone is saying 2+ years, some are still waiting 5 years later, because they have a huge backlog which they are unable to make any serious headway into, and they do not like to make the payout at all if they can avoid it.
End result?
Well at the moment it looks like this...
I will end up with no bike, lose my no claims (and of course have the fact that i have made a claim also recorded), and be out of pocket by what could end up being quite a large amount, and because I will be unable to pay that, then of course its my turn in the dock for non payment.
and she gets?
£200 fine, £60 costs, and banned for 3 months from the action the police will take against her for driving with no insurance, which she will probably pay at £1 per month. If I do bring a successfull claim against her privately, I will probably win, but what good is that when she pays the compensation at £1 per week?
