Insurance - car owner but not a driver.

Mojisola

Does anyone have any experience of this? My Dad still has his much-loved, owned-from-new car but has given up driving due to age. He is going to keep the car so that it can be used when my siblings come to stay. I'll have to take it out occasionally to keep it running but the steering is too heavy for me to use it very much.

His insurance has come up for renewal and I've realised that he is no longer the "main driver" so he shouldn't renew it in his name. I've already got insurance on my car. How do we insure his now? Should I take it out in my name? Can you insure a car you don't own?

MarkyMarkD

There is no reason at all why your father cannot insure the car in his name. You do not have to be the main driver to insure a car.

But he should correctly specify the main driver - presumably one of his children.

IMHO it does not matter if the insured doesn't ever drive the car - as long as the main driver is honestly disclosed and everyone who drives the car is named.

There would be a danger of accusations of fronting if this was a Fiesta/Clio/similar small car that he had just bought and which only the children drove. But I cannot see them using that argument if he has demonstrably owned it and driven it from new, and all the bills are in his name.

It would be advisable for the repair bills etc. STILL to be in his name, if possible, just in case the fronting accusation came up, but once again as long as he isn't claiming to be main driver I don't think that will be an issue.

Mojisola

Thanks for that, Marky. I thought that the insured person had to be the main driver. That makes things much easier.