Motor Insurers Bureau By Jennie Harrison

Many clients ask us what happens if they are involved in an accident with someone who wasn’t insured or who left the scene of the accident and can’t be traced. In these cases the Motor Insurers Bureau will step in to deal with your claim in place of an insurance company.

The mission of the Motor Insurers Bureau is to ‘Compensate victims of uninsured and untraced drivers fairly and promptly’. The Motor Insurers Bureau is funded by all UK companies that offer insurance and therefore a percentage of everyone’s insurance policy will go towards funding the MIB.

There are 2 types of agreements that your claim can be dealt with under and these are the ‘Uninsured Agreement’ and the ‘Untraced Drivers Agreement’.

If you obtained details from the third party and you have their registration number but you believe that they are uninsured then a search can be carried out using the Motor Insurers Bureau database to confirm that the third party had no valid insurance in place at the time of the accident.

If this is confirmed by the search then a claim will be submitted to the MIB under the Uninsured Drivers Agreement. You will need to fill in a form providing as much information as you can about the third party and the MIB will deal with your claim just as a third party insurer would do.

Under this agreement you will be able to claim for personal injury and any other claims you may have for example vehicle damage just as you would if an actual insurer was dealing with the claim.

Bear in mind however that your claim may take slightly longer to reach a conclusion given the vast amount of claims that the MIB have to deal with and the fact that they are given longer to respond to certain documents than a normal insurance company.

In the event that the third party left the scene of the accident and you have no registration number for them your claim can still be submitted to the MIB under the Untraced Drivers Agreement.

This agreement is slightly different however as it requires that you have reported the accident to the police within 5 days or as soon as reasonably possible. The usual dates regarding limitation apply in that you have 3 years from the date of accident to submit your claim to the MIB if claiming for personal injury however if you are claiming for property damage only such as the damage to your vehicle or personal possessions then you only have 9 months from the date of the accident in which to submit your claim.

Under this agreement you will only be able to claim for property damage if the offending vehicle is identified by the MIB. If your accident occurred before 14th April 2011 then you can claim for property damage if the offending vehicle is identified by the MIB, however an excess of £300 will also be payable to the MIB for this element of the Claim.

If you have been involved in an accident that wasn’t your fault and you suspect that the third party is uninsured or if the third party left the scene then contact Hampson Hughes Solicitors and we will be happy to provide you with advice.

We can submit the claim on your behalf and ensure that it is dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible and we will ensure that you receive the maximum compensation you are entitled to.

For advice on all areas of Personal Injury, call Hampson Hughes Solicitors today on 0800 888 6888.

We are here to help.