What a sh!t weekend, impound and a smash!!!! **UPDATED PG4**

[Raj_p]

What a sh!t weekend i have had..... This is how the story goes....

Thursday night, loaded the E30 up to drive down to burton upon trent to spend the weekend with the girlfriend.
Set off at about 08:30pm, drive was good, got onto the A50, and had a police car following me. They flashed the lights and asked me to follow them. Stopped in a lay by, and got into their car. Usual questions, whos car, where im going, you insured! i said yes, and they said no!!!! not insured. I made clear to them that i have been insured for 3 months and got copys of the docs in the car. Their system wouldnt show any insurance for me or the car!! They wouldnt accept the copys as they say, some people get insured, copy the docs and cancel the insurance.
They would let me continue my drive if i could prove im insured, if not they would take the car. They made me sign the form to say they were taking the car, and they also said, i can give the car to them to cover the charges of the recovery. I said no, i want it back, and they had the cheek to say "is the car even worth keeping"!!!!

At this time of night, i had no way of proving it, so they took my car and kindly took me to the nearest train station, which happend to be stoke on trent. I managed to get to my girlfriends late that night.

Next day, i went to stoke police station to ask if i could get my dad to fax a copy of the docs to them and they ring insurance to confirm it all. They would not accept this and wanted the original docs for the car and proof of ownership (v5). I asked them once i prove im insured and they were wrong, who do i claim my costs back from, they said my insurance company because its their fault for not updating the system.

So p!ssed off, as this was costing me in charges. My dad sent the docs to me special del, so got them saturday afternoon, went back to stoke, and they signed the release papers for my car. Great i can get my car back now, but wait...... The compund closed at 3pm!!! 30mins to late.

Now monday morning, went back to stoke, went to compound and give them my papers, and they asked for the fee.....£475!!!!!
I paid less for the car!!! Right i have my baby back now, and heading home.

Got into bolton, 2mins away from home, and WACK, daft f'ing, b@stard, tw@t white van pulls out in front of me, the stupid daft c*nt. pulled the car and his van to the side... "i didnt see you pal, where did you come from" he said!!!! stupid idiot.

Its not his van, its a company van. He gave me his details and said they will sort it through insurance and off he went and left me with my car

I cant go through his insurance as they will just right the car off and i will lose it, which i dont want to do. So the only way for me is to repair from my own pocket.

So this weekend has been a very very costly weekend, and a very upsetting one. One thing im puzzeled about is that, in bolton, policing is very tight and if the system was showing no insurance, i would have been pulled up by now!

There pics below, but just want to say a big sorry to IMYE30 for breaking our friday date, Sorry pal.











I think its repairable, and only the inner wing is damaged mainly. Outer wing, bumper, front panel, lights, grill & bonnet.

Will take a better look tomorrow and take better pics.

So, thats my awesome weekend!!!

Raj

[Grrrmachine]

That's absolutely heartbreaking; I'm sure I would have kicked off so badly I'd have been in a cell quicker than the car had been impounded.

Can't say much other than chin up, it's not as bad as it looks, and I really sympathise with you.

[Ollie_bwoii]

I got pulled for 'no insurance' in my chromie, as my car was coming up as uninsured on the coppers books apparently. One swift phone call to my insurance company saw that I was insured, and the database updated, and i was let on my way.

Seems very weird they would go through the faff of waiting for a recovery truck etc... when they could/should have just phoned your insurance comapny.

Still, really bad luck on the accident. They happen all to easily, and it's heartbreaking when you love your car, and have put many hours work and money into it.

Chin up, atleast you got to see your girlfriend.

[ImysE30]

Damn, that's bad luck

Did the copper show you the system where it said you wasn't insured? I'd defo be on to the insurance company and find out why they haven't updated the MID (think that's what it's called) website.

Got a bad wack on that front end, will mostl likely be written off via insurance No private deal with the driver?

No worries with Friday mate, looks like you had more than enough on your plate.

[Low_E30]

Something similar happened to me today , got pulled by a single female officer in my Merc cossie for driving too fast, asked if i was insured...to which I said yes.....

Before checking out on the system she slipped up to me that the PCN database thingy had been playing up all day... So as she made the check, it came up as uninsured , she then rang up the national insurance database (whatever) & quoted my number plate & it came up negative again!....

Finally I was able to ring the missus who was able to quote me my policy number & give me the number of my insurance company who confirmed all was kosher....

In the end I think she got so busy faffing about with the insurance discrepency, she forgot about the speeding and thanked me for being patient and sent me on my way some 30 mins later....

But after hearing of your weekend I think I should have been the one thanking her for her patience...

[Raj_p]

They couldnt ring my insurance as it was about 10pm, and as for the girlfriend, she give me more greif then the police!!!!

Its sad seeing the car like this

[polsta]

im almost speechless

whatever happened to a 7 day wonder ??? surely you had copies of insurance with you etc,...yiud think theyd give youa 7 day producer, and presume a computer cock up

so to get this straight...did you actualy pay £475 fees to the recovery storage place to get your car back ???

if i was insured,and that happened to me..theres no way on gods earth id pay that, surely as you wre insured , your insurance company MUST pay that back to you ? or have it out with the police and get it refunded ?? im gob smacked i really am

and , as above..heart breaking

its unreal !

[sweep]

Repair the car then faith will be restored.what colour is it raj?

[Jim320i]

You sound like you handled it with the police alittle better than I would have... Sounds like the worst weekend too.

[320iAN]

sorry to see & read about your weekend, about the insurance ... some company's don't share there info with the national computer/system so when the cop's run a check on some folk it can show up as "un-insured"
ive a mate who is with Direct Line & it happened to him, only difference was the cop's let him on his way once the seen his documents. they explained this to him at the time, he called Direct Line and they told him "they don't share there info due to the system having a flaw and that there customers info would then become public for anyone with access to the system"

he said it was a bit annoying being stopped for no insurance but he also felt Direct Line were looking after there customers private info.

good luck with getting your E30 sorted.. might be worth letting the insures see the car, if they write it off you might beable to hold on to the car for a % of the pay out.

[Jon_Bmw]

Good job you wern't stoned and had lots of weed on you this time! You would have been double bummed.

[ChrisE30sport]

cant this go thru the insurance and you take a pay out and buy the car back?? not sure how it works but i know of friends who have done it before..tho obviously then your car will be on the "hitlist" as a cat D or whatever

[HairyScreech]

They couldnt ring my insurance as it was about 10pm, and as for the girlfriend, she give me more greif then the police!!!!

Its sad seeing the car like this

if the gf gave you grief for someone else impounding your car and someone else crashing into it then i would be telling her to take a fucking hike.

[Raj_p]

I had to pay the fee or i couldnt get the car back. The screw up is at the police end, and the car has been insured long enough and i have been around many police cars/officers to go around without it flagging up on the pnc thingy.

I had copies of my docs, i always keep them with me, but they wouldnt accept these as in the past, others have used copys and not actually been insured.

They dont do the 7 day porducer for insurance anymore, if it was something like mot, or a light out ect, then they would have done.

My E30 is sterling silver, so im on the look out for some parts and i know whos breaking one on her too.

[DHFiS]

There is a zoner who gives good advice about insurance, might be e30beemerlad?

That looks like a lot of damage.

[Raj_p]

Good job you wern't stoned and had lots of weed on you this time! You would have been double bummed.

EH!!! i dont smoke and dont touch drugs mate... This a joke?

[Jon_Bmw]

Mistaken identity. I thought you posted up a while ago that you stashed some weed up your chuff when getting nicked! Must have been someone else.

[Raj_p]

Mistaken identity. I thought you posted up a while ago that you stashed some weed up your chuff when getting nicked! Must have been someone else.

Yeah pal, thats not me, not into that sort of thing

[E30BeemerLad]

Bad news Raj.

If the chassis is not damaged, you may escape cat B write off status (which is when you'll lose the car).

An E30 getting Cat C status now is no big thing as it doesn't take much to write one off.

The damaged bumper & light cluster made my touring a cat C (which is how I paid £130 for the car)



So you can claim through his insurers if you are confident there is no significant chassis damage (i'd be looking to see if the front legs look straight and around the areas where the front bumper irons are bolted to)

If you paid less than that impound fee for the car originally, I'd say you will probably see your money back on it for the claim.

If you speak personally with the insurers and have woken with a stiff neck tomorrow they may even make you an immediate offer for your injury so you don't go and see someone like me. I'm not suggesting by the way that anyone makes false claims or exaggerates anything like that as it amounts to fraud.

Much will depend on whether matey box in the van or his employers have reported the matter to their insurers. Insurers do sometimes take an active approach to third party claims if their policyholder phones up and says it was their fault. This is so they can control the cost of the claim.

If you do go down the claim route, be stubborn and insist the car stays on your drive and they send an engineer to inspect it. They will insist on a repair estimate and that they want to come and collect your car and take it to their repairer. This is nonsense and all that will happen is the monkeys in the bodyshop will waste a few hours pricing up all the BMW parts needed so that the car is write off. Then an engineer will be sent to look at the car and the silly estimate. You don't need to be a brain surgeon to figure out that car's a write off, so just send the engineer to inspect and value it.

As for the impound fees, of course phone your insurers and ask to speak with the head of customer services or the equivalent. Write down a summary of what happened and what costs you incurred and additional journeys you had to make etc as the least your insurers can do is refund you any reasonable expenses and a few quid for the sheer inconvenience.

For now, you can also notify your insurers of the claim "for information purposes" - this means you have fulfilled your obligation to notify them, but that you do not need them to take any action. If they hear it is non-fault then they may try to introduce you to companies they have a relationship with to help you out, such as a hire company if you need wheels and a solicitor if you are injured and wish to claim compensation. It's your call how you go about things.

[ImysE30]

Just got your text Raj

I'd be claiming for refund of charges one way or another, it's not your fault that database wasn't updated.

Good luck on the parts hunt.

[magpie]

have you been driving like a co_ck?

you claim for it off his insurance regardless if he's in the wrong i'd of had police and an ambulance present ooh my neck!!" then buy the car back from the ins company for peanuts and fix it.

i really dislike plod most times.

[gooner1]

That,s a bad W/E right enough.
Wtf,s the point of a data base when not all the data is shared.
No expert but i can,t see your Insurers paying out for your pound costs, Raj.
They,ll just hide behind the data protection act.

[Raj_p]

Thank you very much E30BEEMERLAD for the information. I will inspect the car properly tomorrow and see what the damage is and take it from there. I dont want the car to leave my sight unless its getting fixed.

I will see how it goes

[clipper]

I don't think I'll complain about anything for a while !

What the hell is going on in the UK recently ?

[Raj_p]

Just got your text Raj

I'd be claiming for refund of charges one way or another, it's not your fault that database wasn't updated.

Good luck on the parts hunt.

Thanks Imy, i'll keep hold of the parts for you and get your address off you this week to send them out.

have you been driving like a co_ck?

you claim for it off his insurance regardless if he's in the wrong i'd of had police and an ambulance present ooh my neck!!" then buy the car back from the ins company for peanuts and fix it.

i really dislike plod most times.

I was actually driving normal as, the roads were wet to drive like a co_ck.

That,s a bad W/E right enough.
Wtf,s the point of a data base when not all the data is shared.
No expert but i can,t see your Insurers paying out for your pound costs, Raj.
They,ll just hide behind the data protection act.

I know what you mean about the insurance company, they will try very hard not to pay back the charges, and to be honest, at this moment in time, im not bothered, i just want my car back on the road.

[Jon_Bmw]

Admiral after a simple renewal 5 days before the expiry date, failed to put it back on the MID when I checked on ASKmid a few days later. Useless pricks. I went slightly mental on the phone due to the potential inconvience it could cause (ala this thread!). The women originally tried to tell me that I should phone the DVLA to get it put on the database. At this point I went marginally ballistic. The DVLA have got f**k all to do with it! After a while the women informed(after asking someone who knew) that they have 7 days to put it on, which I knew they did anyway. Sure enough, phone down and check the askMID and it is insured.

Dumb bastards had forgotten I am sure. This is how it should work.

They quote, I accept, I pay my money(in full not this pay monthly BS), they send the documents and at that point they add the car to the database. If it is for 9 days in the future a simple computer program should easy be able to automate this at the correct time.

[E30BeemerLad]

Have you checked on www.askmid.com to see if your reg number comes up as showing insurance?

I would recommend you do it now and take a screen print of that also as further evidence the pricks at your insurance company have not fulfilled their duty to update the database.

It is only operators of large fleet policies and self-insured individuals that have to update it themselves, otherwise it is the obligation of the insurer to notify the database.

[Raj_p]

I have checked on askmid, and did a few weeks ago and it shows up insured on there

[Simon]

I'd like to know where the £475 fees come from.

Fees are set by government, and are fixed UK wide. The recovery fee for a non damaged car will be £150, and storage is £20 a day. No police vehicle recovery operator should be charging anymore than this, and if they have you need to be looking into that. Also, find out who run the vehicle recovery contract in that area, and get in touch with them.

Anyone who comes into us and doesn't agree with the charges or thinks they should not have paid for them, we issue them a complaint form with the details of the agent that run the contract.

[asmith88]

Absolutley gutted for you mate, I thought I had a bad weekend

[snakebrain]

I'd like to know where the £475 fees come from.

Yep, and as you were legitimately insured, I'd want to know why I was hindered from going about my business on what amounts to suspicion of an offence.

Spend £50 or whatever it is to launch a claim through small claims against the relevant police force for unfairly causing you to incur the expenses and they'll have to decide between spending £1000+ on a lawyer to defend it and just paying up. ;)

[Raj_p]

I'd like to know where the £475 fees come from.

Fees are set by government, and are fixed UK wide. The recovery fee for a non damaged car will be £150, and storage is £20 a day. No police vehicle recovery operator should be charging anymore than this, and if they have you need to be looking into that. Also, find out who run the vehicle recovery contract in that area, and get in touch with them.

Anyone who comes into us and doesn't agree with the charges or thinks they should not have paid for them, we issue them a complaint form with the details of the agent that run the contract.

Sorry it was £465

It was £195 for recovery, £40 per day for storage, and they charged me for 5 days, Thursay, friday, saturday, sunday, and monday.

so, 195 + 40x5 + 17.5%= 464.13

They charged me for thursday as it got there before 12 mindnight, and charged me for monday as i got there after 12pm!!

[Simon]

Obviously not all police forces are the same, but because of all these problems with insurance not showing up on the database, my local force SWP are issuing HORT forms for anything they suspect may be a problem with the system.

[kitch]

I havn't read through all of the posts so sorry if someone has already mentioned this, but the same thing happened to me a few years ago and I complained to the police about the impound fees and they refunded me, not my insurance company. Hope that is of some help for you bud. Hopfuly you can fix the car too, good luck.

[Simon]

I'd like to know where the £475 fees come from.

Fees are set by government, and are fixed UK wide. The recovery fee for a non damaged car will be £150, and storage is £20 a day. No police vehicle recovery operator should be charging anymore than this, and if they have you need to be looking into that. Also, find out who run the vehicle recovery contract in that area, and get in touch with them.

Anyone who comes into us and doesn't agree with the charges or thinks they should not have paid for them, we issue them a complaint form with the details of the agent that run the contract.

Sorry it was £465

It was £195 for recovery, £40 per day for storage, and they charged me for 5 days, Thursay, friday, saturday, sunday, and monday.

so, 195 + 40x5 + 17.5%= 464.13

They charged me for thursday as it got there before 12 mindnight, and charged me for monday as i got there after 12pm!!

I would definitely be looking into that!

The days of VRO's making up charges are long gone. Plus, they are not supposed to be charging VAT.