Is my car insured if i park away from home overnight

moredough

I work 20 miles away from home. My house is at the bottom of a small hill. When it snows, I can't get up the hill unless I shovel the snow away and grit it. Last week I was an hour late because of this and that was only 3-4 inches. My boss has told me I must park away from my house at the top of the hill if there is any chance of snow. There isn't really anywhere safe to park the car at the top of the hill for about 1/2 mile. I am uneasy about leaving the car away from home anyway. I wonder what the position would be with my insurers if my car was not parked on my drive overnight like i said it would be when i took out the policy and something happened to it, For example if someone was to slide their car into it. A lot more possible when it snows. Pretty much impossible on my drive.

It's snowing quite heavily here now. Do I do what my boss asks and risk it with the insurance. Small risk I know but a risk none the less. or do i keep the car at home and risk being snowed in.

elaine373

A few years back my husbands car got stolen when he was miles away from home. He had no problem with the insurance claim. I was going to suggest talking to your insurers to be on the safe side but knowing how things go in the world, it might affect your premium. If its `normally`kept at your home then i personally wouldnt worry, but i am sure others will differ.

dacouch

As Elaine stated speak to your Insurers, it should not be a problem unless the new area you are parking in is a much higher rated area (It would be worth you finding a post code for an adjacent property before you ring them as they will probably ask you this).

You may be receiving a discount for having your car parked in your garage or on your drive so they may ask for this discount back (Its not too big a discount).

But the best advice is ring your Insurers and take the person who you speak to full name and note the date and time in case their are any disputes over it in the future.

minnie123

I think it's quite rude for your boss to be telling you were to park your car TBH. I would be very annoyed if that was me I like my car to be safe on my drive at night.

pinkpig08

Ask your boss if he would be prepared to pay for any damage if anything should happen to your car!

lisyloo

I think it's quite rude for your boss to be telling you were to park your car TBH

I can see both sides here.
I think employees have a duty to make "best efforts" to get to work and not take a duvet day at the drop of a hat (this is a general comment and not directed at moredough).

I have been walkking to the train station to get a train to work, whilst other colleagues have taken advantage of the situation not to show up.

If there are issues with safety of the car or yourself then you are justified in saying no and politely explaining that to your boss.
But if I as an employer I would expect employees to make best efforts to work which might mean
1) walking to a nearby train station
2) taking a PC home and logging onto a VPN
or indeed it could mean
3) parking on a main road and walking the short distance to the car if safe for both person and car.

I don't think employers should be unreasonable unt neither should employees and my guess is that the boss was strongly hinting that they expected best efforts to be made.

Rolandtheroadie

What if you couldnt get the car TO your home due to the snow. Would you stay with the car all night? Would you call your insurer to tell them it wasnt at your home address? Would you perhaps knock on a door where you were and ask what their postcode was?
What if it broke down and had to stay where it was overnight until you could have it recovered?
A bit of common sense is required.

zkw29

minnie123 wrote: »

I think it's quite rude for your boss to be telling you were to park your car TBH. I would be very annoyed if that was me I like my car to be safe on my drive at night.

But its the OP's responsibility to get to work on time. Maybe that means getting up a bit earlier when snow is forecast, or parking further away.

If you are only parking the car away from your home on a very rare occasion there would be no need to inform your insurer (in the same way you don't need to tell them you are staying with a relative for a couple of nights holiday). If there was a claim you could easily justify it not being kept where you said it would by showing how dangerous it was to drive on the hill that night.

Is there any way you could use public transport on those days? Or get a lift from a someone who works in the same direction?

philgee

I think most insurers ask where the car is "usually" kept overnight. Otherwise, we'd never be covered if we were away overnight!

Personally, I'd still park at home and if I couldn't drive up the hill, try a different method of transport.

Or snowchains!