Car insurance where I am not the cars owner

splewington

A friend has loaned my wife and I a car for the duration of the next year and I am looking for car insurance for my wife on it with me as a named driver, my wife will be the main driver though. Our friend will remain the registered owner and having called around a couple of the well known insurers (Churchill and Norwich Union) I am told they and most other insurers will not insure a car where the registered owner is not the policy holder?

Can anyone recommend an insurer who will cover our need, the cheaper the better. The car will be used for social and business purposes.

Mant thanks in advance.

Bossyboots

It may be because we are married, but Churchill insured a car registered to me but with my husband as policy holder and subsequently vice versa.

They may not like doing it when the registered owner is a third party though.

splewington

Yes we have the exact same situation and with Churchill. I guess what I am looking for is an insurer that will insure us both on a car that is owned by someone else...

gizmoleeds

It is possible for a car to have a different registered keeper and registered owner (this is used mostly by car leasing companies).

If your friend were to make you the registered keeper you might not have this problem.

Savvy_Sue

Direct Line insure in my name where DH is registered keeper. But as gizmo says, if the car were registered in your name that might well solve the problem. It adds another keeper to the DVLA document, which may slightly reduce value - effectively it will be two additional keepers as it will presumably be transferred back to the lender? But the no. of owners won't change.

And this will solve the problem of what happens if you get caught speeding etc: the paperwork will come straight to you rather than the lender!

A phone call to DVLA might be worthwhile? Can't find anything specific on their website.

splewington

Thanks Savvy Sue, I'll try that approach. I'll give the DVLA a call in the morning...

BenL

Insurance companies insure cars ownedby partners because of the financial link between the two of you.

The car is generally owned by both of you but can only be registered to one person at the DVLA.

If one of you writes it off you will suffer financial loss, whereas writing off a friends car will not cause you a financial loss.

Ben

losgiganteskid

I think you will have your work cut out finding an insurer who will let you insure a car you don't own - generally you have to own something before you can insure it, ie have to have an "insurable interest" in it. If you have an accident or the car gets stolen you can't really claim as you have lost nothing - the owner has !!. The easiest and best way round this is for the owner to insure the car as normal and include both you and your wife as additional drivers, it will be a lot cheaper. The downside is if a claim is made whilst either you or your wife have the car, any loss of no claim bonus would be on the owners policy, although he may not be keen to have that imposed on him you could always re-imburse him the difference in the cost of the premium payable at renewal and the cost it would have been had the claim not occurred.

illmonkey

losgiganteskid wrote:

I think you will have your work cut out finding an insurer who will let you insure a car you don't own - generally you have to own something before you can insure it, ie have to have an "insurable interest" in it. If you have an accident or the car gets stolen you can't really claim as you have lost nothing - the owner has !!. The easiest and best way round this is for the owner to insure the car as normal and include both you and your wife as additional drivers, it will be a lot cheaper. The downside is if a claim is made whilst either you or your wife have the car, any loss of no claim bonus would be on the owners policy, although he may not be keen to have that imposed on him you could always re-imburse him the difference in the cost of the premium payable at renewal and the cost it would have been had the claim not occurred.

This is also fraud. the policy holder HAS to be the main driver.
I posted the same question as the topic starter a while back. There are only a few insurers that will do it, but they charge a huge premium. Just phone a few main ones up and ask if they do it, if not see if they know of any that do.

It is possible though.

losgiganteskid

samgoffe wrote:

This is also fraud. the policy holder HAS to be the main driver.
I posted the same question as the topic starter a while back. There are only a few insurers that will do it, but they charge a huge premium. Just phone a few main ones up and ask if they do it, if not see if they know of any that do.

It is possible though.

"FRAUD" - don't be stupid !! - tell the insurer exactly what you intend, and as for the statement that the policyholder HAS to be the main driver is also nonsense - where DID you get that duff info from Samgoff

illmonkey

how about some of the insurance companys and oh, the DVLA when i rang them up. Its been discussed on this forum before.

Get YOUR facts right before offending other people.