AM I INSURED?

It’s not every day a major insurer goes under, but where are you left if it does and you’re involved in an accident?

Q A few years ago I was insured with MCE. I name them as I have been told they have gone out of business. I had an accident and it was completely my fault. I am not hiding that. There were two lanes of traffic and one was slowing; I wanted to get into the faster-flowing lane and changed lanes without indicating. I did a quick lifesaver but it wasn’t enough... there was a Ford Focus in my blind spot. I hit the car and caused about £3000 worth of damage. I skittled off down the road but thankfully was okay, save for some bruising, and I ruined my kit and motorcycle. The Focus driver had a dashcam and it is clearly my fault. I am lucky as the copper who turned up was a biker himself and decided it wasn’t worth prosecuting me. I now have a court claim from the driver of the Ford Focus for vehicle repairs. I told MCE this was my fault, so why am I being sued?

A First of all, MCE is still in business. Well, at least the brokerage part of the business. MCE has been a broker (i.e. a middle man between underwriters and customers such as yourself) for a long time. A few years ago, it began underwriting policies too! This is the part of the business that’s failed. It appears MCE was your broker AND underwriter. The underwriting part has now been renamed to Green Realisations 123 by the Supreme Court of Gibraltar (simply because the underwriting part of the business was based in Gibraltar) and is in administration. The administrator is a company called Kroll.

Now, with the history lesson over, let me set out what should have happened in your case and why court proceedings have been issued. It would not be fair for you to have no insurance all because an underwriter has gone belly-up. After all, you paid your premium and had cover for that period in time. You probably received notification from MCE that some policies were being cancelled; I can see your accident happened shortly before that mail went out. So, you still had insurance, but your underwriter is no longer trading. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will have to step in and meet any liabilities arising out of the accident. It won’t be coming out of your pocket. However, it appears the owner of the Focus has got bored of waiting and instructed a solicitor to sue you. There is nothing wrong with doing that and I am not surprised it is has happened as the FSCS can take months to process a payment. This isn’t all the FSCS’s fault; it is having to step into the shoes of your underwriter and it takes time to validate a claim, confirm that the insurance policy was properly issued, and meet any third-party claims. I suspect the Ford Focus owner wants to get a judgment against you and wave this in front of the FSCS to get its money. You need representation within those court proceedings, as ignoring them will likely lead to judgment in default and might cause problems for your credit rating. Act fast and pass this to MCE; it should instruct solicitors to represent you and deal with those proceedings. MCE underwriting went into administration in November 2021, and given that the wheels of justice turn slowly, I think we are going to see a lot more of these issues coming to light over the next 12 to 18 months.