Uninsured Loss Recovery
Amazingly, at any given time, one in five drivers in the UK will be driving without adequate car insurance should they have an accident. Probably more worryingly, if you drive regularly in the UK, is the statistic that at all times five percent of cars on the roads in the UK have no insurance whatsoever! Add to that the fact that, when asked, over half of those who drive in the UK admitted that, given the chance, they would not stop and give their name and address if they hit another road vehicle, preferring instead just to drive off (a habit known as ‘road running’), and you start to wonder just what you would do if you were unlucky enough to be involved in a road accident involving another vehicle.
Get Protected!
Most people tend to think of motor insurance in the UK as an unnecessary evil need, the law says you must have it, so you do. As such, by and large, unless the car is under a high purchase agreement, we tend to purchase the bare minimum in motor insurance- third party accident insurance. However, if you were unlucky enough to be involved in an accident with someone who was uninsured, then your insurance is not going to help you very much, as this type of insurance really only covers situations where you hit someone else and are responsible for the cost of repairs to their motor car, not yours.
As such, if you wanted to get any money back from the driver of the uninsured car, you would likely need to see a solicitor and get advice from them about how to sue for reimbursement of costs. Even then, given that they have not bothered to insure their motor car, it is unlikely that they are going to have enough money to both reimburse you for the cost of repairing your car and for the cost of hiring a solicitor to get this money for you!
There are, however, two ways you can avoid this dreadful scenario. First of all, you can make sure that you have fully comprehensive insurance for your motor car – as this will cover you for situations even when you are not the ‘at fault’ party. However, if you think fully comprehensive car insurance is too expensive for the car you have, another way you can avoid this problem is by paying a small additional premium to your car insurance provider and getting what is known as ‘uninsured loss recovery’ insurance. In short, uninsured loss recovery insurance would cover you for the exact circumstances that have been laid out above, i.e. where you are involved in an accident with a driver who either does not have insurance or who is under insured.
Uninsured Drivers Are Increasing
Keep in mind that year-on-year, court cases against drivers who have been involved in accident and either do not have adequate car insurance to cover the damage they have done, or who have not hung around long enough to give their personal details to the other party involved in the accident, have risen by five percent. This is not a theoretical risk, it is very real and very probable that at some time during your driving career you will be involved in accident with a driver who doesn’t have sufficient insurance to cover the damage they have caused – so make sure you are prepared for this day when it happens.
