Urgent legal advise !

[snapper]

Ok difficuly one here
 
 Mrs Snapper was hit by a  lorry this morning not hard just scrapped the paintwork
but she was on her way to me so we could take the car for its first mot
 but when she arrived at the factory where i work I had had a sh!tty morning and completely forgot to book said MOT
 
 3 days out of date
 
below is her discription of events
 now where do we stand let it slide ? scream and shout  report to the police ?
 
she was driving down to my place of work so that i could follow her to MOT station. She commited herself to driving past a long line of parked cars, nothing was in sight as she committed. After passing 3/4s of them she saw a lorry coming up from other end and pushing forward. pulling as far left as possible she stopped her car. Lorry kept on coming, slowed and then pushed forward inch by inch, not allowing her any chance of trying to rectify situation and reverse back.
Lorry continued, all parking sensors beeping and she heard a small squeak, no bump was felt. The lorry eventually stopped and gave up moving, my wife then reversed cautiously (bearing in mind the parked cars and the lorry that she was squeazed between)
She managed to reverse a way and then went to pull in to a gap in parked cars. The lorry swung onto her side of road and again she waited for it to stop so that she could pull safely into the gap. The lorry then drove past her and off. She then continued her drive to my factory before checking the car over. The car now has a scrape on drivers side rear wheel arch that can only have been caused by the lorry.
Thats all simple enough,report it to police for them to be aware in case lorry driver tries to claim she caused damage
I know it wouldnt effect any insurance claims etc but will she get done for not driving it to an already booked MOT test?
 
 
 

[Lez72]

I cant really comment on the accident as despite your detailed explanation of events it would be hard to comment on whose fault is was without being there. If the Mrs was passing parked cars then the traffic coming the other way would have 'right of way' if there were no cars parked on the other side of the road. Having said that if she was already committed before the lorry came into view then 'common sense' should prevail and the lorry should have waited until it was clear to go ahead.
On the legal side of things, if your car was being driven on a road without an MOT then that is illegal. The only exemptions to this are 1) If you are taking the car to a 'Pre booked' MOT and 2) If you are driving the car to a garage to have repair work carried out prior to an MOT retest.
All other journeys in the vehicle would be illegal and as you forgot to book it in I would suggest you might be on a sticky wicket. More importantly, if a vehicle is being driven on a road without a current, valid MOT then your insurance can become invalid. This is largely dependant on your insurance company though and is not a 'hard and fast' rule. Your insurance certificate may well state on it somewhere that in order to be covered under the full terms of your insurance, your vehicle must be in a roadworthy condition. The only gauge that insurance companies currently have to prove this is if your vehicle has a valid MOT. Without an MOT the insurance company could argue that you cannot prove your vehicle was roadworthy at the time of the accident.

[snapper]

Thanks Lez thats all as I thought !

[Stooby2]

More importantly, if a vehicle is being driven on a road without a current, valid MOT then your insurance can become invalid.

Sorry, but that's wrong. An insurance company cannot invalidate insurance for having no MOT. Nearly all companies refer to "roadworthiness" in the policy wording, nothing about MOT; only a very few stipulate this. Just checked the three policies I have and they don't mention MOT and it's accepted that an MOT certificate is not proof of roadworthiness. In any case, you'd only be asked to send the MOT if the car was written off and at most, you'd get a lower valuation.


Google it if you don't believe me.


Snapper, I wouldn't bother taking this any further. The lorry certainly won't have been damaged and the chances of the lorry driver admitting to his company he's had a prang and/or recording your wife's reg number are almost zero. If your wife got no details of the lorry, the police aren't going to be interested. If you claim on the insurance, then your excess will probably be the cost of the repair and you can look forward to an increased premium next year and possible loss of no claims bonus.

[Dead Eye]

Snapper, I wouldn't bother taking this any further. The lorry certainly won't have been damaged and the chances of the lorry driver admitting to his company he's had a prang and/or recording your wife's reg number are almost zero. If your wife got no details of the lorry, the police aren't going to be interested. If you claim on the insurance, then your excess will probably be the cost of the repair and you can look forward to an increased premium next year and possible loss of no claims bonus.

+1 - This would be my course of action as well. It's a PITA but it's probably more hassle than its worth if reported...

[esetest]

It depends whether its your pride and joy or  just runaround  ,   even with protected NCB your premium tends to go up .

[Mark YPVS]

I got done for no MOT once, it went to court and i got a £25 fine no points ( i was insured and taxed just no MOT) however this was a few years back ( about 25 years) so the law may have changed?
Mark

[stevierst]

You actually have to report any road traffic collision within 24 hours, or your again breaking the law. There's a lot of 'what ifs' with regards to booking the mot, but I don't think your local plod would be too bothered about it tbh. Your better off reporting it just in case the truck driver does anything silly.

[Hedgetrimmer]

Report to who? I thought you only had to report it to the police if someone was injured?

[tkwish]

You only need to report in the case of injury but you do need to stop and give your name and address so it is the key driver who has caused the offence so he is unlikely to be reporting you so I would forget it and put it down to experience

[snapper]

Thanks for all the replies for now the case is closed !
 
 we reported it to the police and to be honest they weren't interested !
 
 so that's that not going through the insurance yes it is our pride and joy after my bike of course
 
 but its such a small amount of damage even if you know its there you have to really look for it
 
 Cheers everyone !

[Lez72]

More importantly, if a vehicle is being driven on a road without a current, valid MOT then your insurance can become invalid.

Sorry, but that's wrong. An insurance company cannot invalidate insurance for having no MOT. Nearly all companies refer to "roadworthiness" in the policy wording, nothing about MOT; only a very few stipulate this. Just checked the three policies I have and they don't mention MOT and it's accepted that an MOT certificate is not proof of roadworthiness. In any case, you'd only be asked to send the MOT if the car was written off and at most, you'd get a lower valuation.


Google it if you don't believe me.


Snapper, I wouldn't bother taking this any further. The lorry certainly won't have been damaged and the chances of the lorry driver admitting to his company he's had a prang and/or recording your wife's reg number are almost zero. If your wife got no details of the lorry, the police aren't going to be interested. If you claim on the insurance, then your excess will probably be the cost of the repair and you can look forward to an increased premium next year and possible loss of no claims bonus.

Sorry, but that's right. I didn't make any mention about it stating anything about an MOT on an insurance certificate. I stated that the vehicle would need to be in a roadworthy condition and that a current MOT was the only way an insurance company would have in gauging whether the vehicle may be roadworthy or not. Its not a hard and fast rule due to the fact that a vehicle can pass an MOT and within a few minutes of it leaving the MOT station a headlight bulb could blow (for example) and it would therefore fail an MOT. I don't need to google it as I deal with it on a daily basis.
Look at it like this, If your insurance certificate makes mention of your vehicle having to be in a roadworthy condition to be fully covered under the terms of your policy, how exactly would they gauge this ?

[locksmith]

Easy one this, slap the wife, it's plainly her fault

[snapper]

"Easy one this, slap the wife, it's plainly her fault "
 
I took your advise !   i should be out of hosptial for fireworks night ! 

[Stooby2]

Lez - that's more or less the point, they can't gauge it unless the vehicle is inspected. If you made a claim, an assessor usually attends to check the damage. If they see a well maintained,  serviced vehicle with an MOT tests that's a few days out, they're not going to cancel the insurance - they can't.

However, if they saw a rusty pile of shite that hasn't seen a service  or been mainatined for the last 360 days but has an MOT, they could.

Simply not having an MOT does not invalidate your insurance.

[Lazarus]

from direct.gov.uk website :

If your MOT has expired
You can’t drive your vehicle on the road if the MOT has expired. You could be prosecuted if caught.

The only exception is if you’ve already booked an MOT and are driving your vehicle to the test centre.

[lew600fazer]

Report to who? I thought you only had to report it to the police if someone was injured?

I agree