Insurance for borrowed car for sister

IanWorthington

Hi.

I'm going to lend my car to my sister whilst I don't need it for a bit. I want to keep up my own insurance on it so its active when I need it, but want her to have her own insurance so that any accidents she has don't affect my ncd.

Is she going to have any problems getting insurance for a car she doesn't own?

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snoringunicorn

That depends on the insurer. Your sister will be better off if she has her own policy now (but then I can't see why you'd be lending her yours of course ) or has held insurance in the (recent) past. It also depends on the length of time you are going to be lending it to her for. If it is only a short period of time - say a month, then she is going to find it almost impossible for an insurer to set up a standard policy for her. If she takes out an annual policy and then cancels it, the cancellation charges will be humungous. Since you intend keeping your insurance policy on, if your sister has a good claims record, it is almost certainly going to be cheaper to add her to your policy as an additional driver, though again, you would have to be specific on the proposal form as to who the car belonged to, and whose *care and control* it usually remained in .

looks like you need a good old fashioned broker, not an internet type policy, to give you some good advice on this.
J

IanWorthington

It will be for long enough to make an annual policy worthwhile.

An alternative would be for me to transfer the car to her name, but how would that affect my insurance when I needed to use it?

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lisyloo

The cheapest way by far is to put her on your insurance.
This wil affect your insurance if she has an accident.

If you are overly worried about it or don't trust her to pay your excess etc. then my advice would be not to lend her your car.

That might sound mean, but it isn't.
You have to think of the long term impact of of an ongoing greivance on your realationship and that of your other family members.

If you lend somebody something, whilst they should take care of it, you can't expect it to come back as if it's been in a glass cabinet.
The car might get stone chips, knocked in a car park or someone else could drive into it, totally independently of anything your sister does.

You have to decied whether you trust her or not.

tinkerbell84

She might have problems insuring it in her name.

Why not insure in her name (transfer ownership if necessary) and go on as a named driver for the times you use it? No point paying for your own insurance. Your ncb will last 2 years from the end of this policy anyway.

If you both held fully comp cover on the car, you'd get half payout from each policy in the event of a claim. It can be quite messy, and isn't really advisable to 'double insure'.

Where's Raskazz when you need them?

pennyinmypocket

I'm afraid you will have to keep it in your own name. In order to insure something you have to have an 'insurable interest' ie. some sort of financial interest in it. As the car doesn't belong to your sister it should remain in your name. I have known claims not to be paid out at all because the car doesn't actually belong to the person who insured it. Better to have to pay your excess and lose your NCD than to lose your car completely.

IanWorthington

Many thanks to all. The value of the car -- financially or emotionally -- is not so great as to be the source of any familiar disharrmony.

What about if I reduce my insurance to 3rd party and transfer ownership to her until such time as I need it again? Does that work?

(Why does this have to be so difficult? When I lived in the US I lent my gf my car and she insured it separately. When she wrecked it -- which she did spectacularly -- her insurance paid up with no effect on mine.)

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