The Motor Insurers' Bureau exists to compensate victims of uninsured and untraced drivers. It is funded by a levy on every UK insurance policy. Two separate agreements govern the regime: the Uninsured Drivers' Agreement (UDA) when the driver is identified but uninsured, and the Untraced Drivers' Agreement (covered on our hit-and-run page).
The Uninsured Drivers' Agreement (UDA)
The UDA covers you where the at-fault party is identified, has no valid insurance, and the accident occurred on a public road. The MIB pays the same heads of loss a regular insurer would — solatium, patrimonial loss, kit, bike, the lot.
Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, if a driver is thought to be insured and is subsequently found not to be insured, we convert the case to a UDA claim. Fake policies, voided policies, or cancelled policies will not affect the progress of your claim in isolation — the conversion is a procedural step, not a setback.
The differences are procedural. The UDA imposes strict notification deadlines, witness requirements, and police-report conditions. Miss any of them and the claim can be reduced or rejected entirely.
Deadlines that matter
The current 2017 Uninsured Drivers' Agreement requires notification of the MIB and provision of police-report details within strict windows. We've rescued cases where previous solicitors missed these deadlines — but rescue isn't always possible.
If you suspect the driver is uninsured, get specialist advice within days, not weeks.
- Police must be informed within 14 days (or as soon as reasonably possible)
- MIB application must include police reference
- Co-operation requirements continue throughout the case
- Pre-action and procedural notifications are tighter than ABI portal claims
What you can recover
All standard heads of damage are payable: solatium, past and future wage loss, care, treatment costs, kit, bike, loss of services. The MIB pays interim payments where appropriate, just as an insurer would.
Cost recoverability is slightly different under the MIB regime — but disbursements are recovered from the MIB on success and not passed to you under our agreement.
How we run a UDA case
We notify the MIB, secure the police-report reference, and start the medical and liability investigation as we would any other case. The MIB's claims-handling team is professional but adversarial — we treat their offers the same way we treat insurer offers, and we negotiate hard.
Where the MIB rejects or undervalues, we proceed to court. The MIB defends cases that go to proof — and we run them.