motor insurance database

[heatybob]

hi all,
Just like to share an experience with you all an hopefully save you some greif, Last saturday 6th june i insured my van (online) got a confirmation e-mail saying the policy was in affect from sat lunchtime,happy days (not)
Sunday morning got a pull from the police on the motorway,was told the vehical was not insured,i explained the situation the officer then asked for insurance docs which i did not have as my insurers are on line and was waiting for the said docs to come through the post,to cut a long story short my 100%legal van was siezed:yikes:,i was told to go to the local nick and produce documentation (which i dont yet have).I ran a pc generated copy of the policy off the computer but the police would not accept it,nor would they phone them this was on monday.tuesday no docs arrived,i managed to get in touch with an inspector at the police station,explained the situation and fair play to him,he gave me his mobile no and told me if the docs dont come tomoz(wed) to phone him and he will ensure i get my van back tomorrow(i hope),however it is still going to cost me £190:yikes:to get it back,I also have no redress of getting this back !!!!

Just a few tips if your renewing with an online broker
The motor insurance database set up by the insurance companies is the database that the boys in blue use (my understanding is that they pay for the privalage,as do the dvla)if you are not on it your not insured as far as the police are concerned so you face the risk of this happening to you,the insurence companies are given 7 days to log your details,mine are on today maybe cos i sent the ins co a snotty e-mail i dont know any hows its to late for me.
Also try to get a proper contact no for them.(not an 09 number as i had)
You can check if your on at www.ask MID .com you just type in your reg an bingo,
This bit is purely from my experience this week the police on the front desk at my local nick did in my opinion not have a clue what they were doing,if you experience this then ask to see an inspector or other higher ranking officer they at least will apply some common sence.
One last thing,this type of incident is NOT uncommon,since sunday i have spoken to or been informed of more than 6 people this has happened to in the previous few months,
I do not blame the police,they are doing their job though why the officer couldnt have given me a 7 day produce slip i dont know,that i believe it is up to his disgession,as i see it the real winners are the insurence companies again,and the local garages.
sorry for the long post but maybe if it helps anyone then it was worth the 4hours it took to write:smilewinkgrin:

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

nightmare mate :yikes: i also do my insurance online and to add a little footnote to this truly horrendous story....make sure that you check your policy docs when you recieve them mine had my van down as personal use only not commercial so no insurance for tools? checked on my copy on the comp and had clicked the commercial box. phoned the company who said sorry it was their error and sent me a new policy.

 

[Colour Republic]

I think that is absolute madness!!!

The old bill are well known for it, If you car gets stolen and is dumped on double yellow lines, you are liable for the fines or the tow charges

A number of years ago my mate got his van stolen (with some of my tools in it:mad2, he reported it to the police and a few days later they rang up to say they'd found it, the officer said 'look the tow trunk is on it's way to pick it up and if he tows it you will have to pay the charges, but if you beat us to it then there is no harm done'. I thought that was pretty decent of him until a few days later my mate rang up about it and they didn't have any record of it ever being stolen - I think the officer wanted us to get it first just so he didn't have any paper work to fill out, which didn't help my mate when he tried to claim on the insurance for the tools that had been nicked:incazzato:

When we went to pick up the van, the toe rags had parked it in a private car park with a barrier (to this day we think they must have lived in the tower block it belonged to), of course we couldn't get the barrier up with out a code so we went off road down the stepest bank I've ever been down:yikes:

 

[doug boardley]

sorry to hear about your dilemma bob pain in the neck financially too I guess as you'd have lost a couple of days wages on top of the £190.00:incazzato:

 

[White Room]

Trouble is you end up without a leg to stand on and it costs you money:mad2:

 

[heatybob]

Just a quick epilogue to the story,got the van back today at a cost of £190,as i said above this is not uncommon,the guy in the storage yard was telling me how often it happens and judging by the number of cars in there he wunt jokin,he also said that another reason cars end up there is "the person who keys in your reg in makes a mistake",as is easily dnoe:smilewinkgringet my drift),consequently your vehical is not on the database,with this in mind i would urge you to check on the link in post 1.it takes seconds,
in closing the police told me there are moves afoot to reduce the 7 days the insurance co haveto register on the database,they also advised me to contact the insurance ombudsman with reguards some redress,
i wont hold my breath though!!!!