My Volvo hit by uninsured Czech

[Lancpudn]

Originally Posted by steve-45

Some of these foreign drivers just don’t care.

I am regularly past by a Romanian registered Audi on the A406, he sets off at least 3 speed cameras every morning, knowing full well that the UK authorities won’t do anything about the offences.

The Bolton evening news reports foreign nationals cars being seized because of no insurance etc on almost a daily basis, When crashed they just leave the car there and scarper!


It's becoming an epidemic and always results in the innocent drivers premiums going up to pay for the mess.

[Darcydog]

Originally Posted by steve-45

Some of these foreign drivers just don’t care.

I am regularly past by a Romanian registered Audi on the A406, he sets off at least 3 speed cameras every morning, knowing full well that the UK authorities won’t do anything about the offences.

As I understand it Steve, they are virtually immune to U.K. law despite very good cross border information exchange.

Our Law requires the Driver to be prosecuted. So when a speeding car is identified a letter is sent to the registered keeper (RK) asking them to identify the Driver. The problem is that our law that requires a RK to identify the driver does not apply to other countries - EU or others.

The EU gets round this issue by simply requiring the RK to pay the fine.

It is our (rather silly?) requirement to only prosecute the Driver that allows drivers of foreign registered cars to act with impunity because they know that there is no way they can be identified.

Hence the frustration of the Police and ever increasing anger by us law abiding Brits against those that abuse our hospitality.

[grivas]

Originally Posted by SCP440

One of my friends employs 20 odd Polish workers, he was fed up with British workers never turning up or doing a week and then not coming back.

Anyway most have cars and 75% of them are still on Polish plates so they can avoid our legalities. One had an accident at the end of the road where his factory is and the police were called, as the rest tried to leave work they were all pulled over and most had there cars clamped and towed. Within a couple of weeks they all had another car from Poland.

He was telling me it is cheaper for them to fly over to Poland, buy a car and drive it back than insure and tax one over here.

I bet if we tried the same trick in reverse we would not get away with it.

If this is indeed the case, then it is a shameful state of affairs, why are these things allowed to happen, surely they should comply with the law of the land, I can truly see why people want to leave the EU, these things are unacceptable, and we as a country should not put up with it, post Brexit all these nonsense hopefully will be sorted, anyone driving without the correct UK paperwork should have their car crashed, and fined, end of.

[topman]

Originally Posted by Darcydog

As I understand it Steve, they are virtually immune to U.K. law despite very good cross border information exchange.

Our Law requires the Driver to be prosecuted. So when a speeding car is identified a letter is sent to the registered keeper (RK) asking them to identify the Driver. The problem is that our law that requires a RK to identify the driver does not apply to other countries - EU or others.

The EU gets round this issue by simply requiring the RK to pay the fine.

It is our (rather silly?) requirement to only prosecute the Driver that allows drivers of foreign registered cars to act with impunity because they know that there is no way they can be identified.

Hence the frustration of the Police and ever increasing anger by us law abiding Brits against those that abuse our hospitality.

I wonder what the success rate is of IDing those and then collecting those fines? Say a Slovakian gets caught speeding in Denmark with an Austrian registered car?

I honestly don't know. Is there some mechanism in place?

[RobSun]

The insurance company are wanting to write it off without even looking at it. They were trying to open negotiations on paying out over the phone. Just my description of the damage was enough. I told them the wing had the most body damage, the door repairable, only light, nothing showing at strut mount etc, no lights or bumper damage. Rest mechanical and the main issue. Wheel may need replacing and probably the strut, hub, steering arms etc, drive shaft and possibly the rack. Gears change ok and no diff noises but there are noises when its moved that could be UJs, and the wheels point in different directions so there are reasons for that. Not having that and now after telling them that a motor engineer (Big Russ) recons it will be auctioned off and back on the road, suddenly an engineer is coming to the house on Friday.

[Darcydog]

Originally Posted by RobSun

The insurance company are wanting to write it off without even looking at it. They were trying to open negotiations on paying out over the phone. Just my description of the damage was enough. I told them the wing had the most body damage, the door repairable, only light, nothing showing at strut mount etc, no lights or bumper damage. Rest mechanical and the main issue. Wheel may need replacing and probably the strut, hub, steering arms etc, drive shaft and possibly the rack. Gears change ok and no diff noises but there are noises when its moved that could be UJs, and the wheels point in different directions so there are reasons for that. Not having that and now after telling them that a motor engineer (Big Russ) recons it will be auctioned off and back on the road, suddenly an engineer is coming to the house on Friday.

Hmmmm! - spooky that.

Well done for breaking the “tick box” bo11ox.

[RobSun]

Latest update.

The Volvo is being written off as expected. The cost of repairs with all new Volvo parts is £200 more than they are paying out and it is going to be classed as a cat N. This means it has not had any structural damage so is fully repairable. The pay-out is more than I expected, more than most are selling for on Auto Trader. The assessor said it was a very good car and he could find nothing at all that would reduce the valuation.

Knowing I was considering buying it back the insurance company have given me all the figures for the salvage and left me to consider things. Yesterday I went out looking at possible replacements, a V50 I was very interested in came up in Bradford but when I went to see it someone had pipped me at the post. Looked at other Volvo's, Merc, Fords etc and that decided for me that it was going to be fixed. Most of the work has already been priced up for and as soon as the money is in the bank it will be transported over to the first class motor engineer who's doing it and soon it should be back up and running again.

And the man doing it is no other than Big Russ, with maybe a bit of labouring from me, so I know it will be done properly and I will have a bit extra in the bank when its all finished, so double result.

[Split or Bust]

Good to keep your car on the road, you know the history etc but I'm guessing the insurance is likely to be quite a bit more now it's a Cat N

[RPWC]

All good in the end then.

[steve-45]

Originally Posted by RPWC

All good in the end then.

Apart from the increased insurance premium upon renewal.