mot and insurance claim

[olivercarol]

My father had an accident in his car on the way to a pre booked mot.The accident was in his opinion due to being chopped up by another driver.Prior to the accident the car was in roadworthy condition having covered only 150 miles since the last MOT which expired three days prior to the accident.On all the previous seven occasions the mot was passed on first presentation.The police attended the accident scene.My father does not plan to drive again.
The insurers engineersgave a detailed account of thedamage to the car.There was no suggestion within this report that the vehicle was unroadworthy.The insurers are now requesting the MOT with the implication that the insurance is invalid.
Please can you comment re above and role of the Insurance Ombudsman in this case.
Thank You

[pauln90]

Not having an MOT does not invalidate insurance.

As he was driving to a pre arranged MOT appointment he will not be prosecuted for no MOT

However if the insurance company could prove that the vehicle had a defect that contributed to the accident or that it was unroadworthy at the time of the accident they may try to limit a payout to take into account these defects.

[tubeway]

Regards the MOT

Read these:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Motoring/Questi on523703.html

(and I never did get my apology from spaced !!!

[Buenchico]

You need to check the wording of your insurance policy carefully. Mine includes this sentence; "Your vehicle must have a current MoT certificate if applicable". (That seems to contradict the first sentence of Paul's post).

Assuming that your father's insurance certificate has similar wording, the question arises of what is meant by the words "if applicable". It seems that your father's insurers are trying to say that it means 'if the car is three years old or more'. However, a better interpretation would seem to be 'if the law requires it'. The law does not require a vehicle to have a current MoT certificate if it's being driven to a pre-booked MoT test, so there would seem to be no reason for your father's insurance to be invalidated.

As stated, start by reading the exact wording of the policy. Then, if it's the same as mine, write to the insurers stating that a current MoT certificate was not 'applicable' because it was not a legal requirement for the journey being undertaken. If that doesn't work, register your complaint with the Financial Ombudsman:
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer /complaints.htm

Chris