Are your vehicles at risk of seizure?

The Police seized 170,000 vehicles in 2008* because vehicle details were either inaccurate or outdated on the Motor Insurance Database (MID)

Policyholders have a legal obligation to provide information for transmission to the MID and to keep it updated. Failure to comply could lead to criminal prosecution and a fine of up to £5,000. If a vehicle’s details are not up to date, it could be seized by the Police authorities even if the vehicle is correctly insured. **

What is the MID?

*    The Motor Insurance Database (MID) holds details of insurance arrangements for every insured vehicle used on our roads. It helps ensure the UK is complying with the fourth EU Motor Directive, which assists European Union citizens claiming for accidents outside their countries of residence. It also helps tackle the problem of an estimated one million uninsured motorists in the UK, allowing the police to quickly identify whether a vehicle is insured.  By making sure your vehicles are correctly added to the MID when they come on cover, and then removed when they go off cover, you are helping the Police to concentrate on those drivers who are actually uninsured.**

How do the Police use the MID?

• The Police make over 2 million enquires of the MID each month to check if the vehicles have insurance and have powers to seize vehicles which they believe to be uninsured. **
• Information on potentially uninsured vehicles that have not been added to the MID but should have, is now provided regularly to the Police to feed into their Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) network. When one of these vehicles passes an ANPR camera the Police are alerted which could then result in the vehicle being stopped and seized. *

How can Zurich help?

• Zurich offers an internet-powered solution, enabling you to comply with the legislation via the secure website; Zurich’s Motor Insurance Database www.zurich-vehicles.co.uk *** or click through from the Zurich Municipal homepage. You can access your unique client record through a password and user identification.
• If you are new to Zurich, we will allocate you with a logon ID, when your details have been provided. On receipt, please check the vehicle data is both accurate and complete.  Thereafter you will need to keep these details up to date yourself

What do you need to do?

• It is policyholder’s responsibility to ensure that vehicle data is both up to date and accurate on Zurich’s Motor Insurance Database.
• Ensure you have access to Zurich’s Motor Insurance Database (You should have a user ID and password). If you do not have access please contact your underwriter at the Zurich office which deals with your policy with the contact details of the person(s) who will responsible for keeping Zurich’s Motor Insurance Database up to date (name and email address). For any other queries please contact our Help Desk on 0870 150 2400.
• You are legally obliged to provide the details for all vehicles registered for road use and insured on your policy including vehicles on long term hire, owned, leased or temporary vehicles which you intend to have for 15 days or more. **
• As you must keep records of all your vehicles for seven years (including those you have for less than 15 days), we suggest that they are all notified to Zurich’s Motor Insurance Database. **
• Legislation requires policyholders to update the MID “immediately” with details of new vehicles acquired and sold. “Immediately” is likely to be interpreted by the courts as “the time taken by a person using reasonable efforts”- this would vary from case to case, but an acceptable range would typically be 10-14 days. You may also save your drivers the inconvenience and potential embarrassment of being stopped by the Police, and the costs associated with recovering vehicles that have been seized. **

Data Source: * Insurance Times **Motor Insurance Bureau Fitness for Purpose 2008 Together We Can Beat Uninsured Driving. *** Zurich’s Motor Insurance Database helping you comply (ZCYV364.01)