Do you need insurance to park on the road?

Badger_Lady

I'm selling my car at the moment (hardly use it) and my insurance is due for renewal in a few weeks at a shocking £2011! I'm quite happy to just lapse the policy and stop driving the car.

But something niggles and says that I can't be without insurance if I'm parked on a public road. Am I right?

dacouch

Technically you do need insurance if you park your car on the road.

ukjoel

Yep - If its on the public road it will need tax and insurance.

If your not technically driving the car it may be worth looking at some restrictive milage policies as they will probably be a bit cheaper.

littlemrtinkle

can you park it on a relatives drive? whereabouts do you live i would rent you a space on my drive for a reasonable rate.

mattymoo

If you expect to sell it in the very near future you could look at Day Insurance or one of the other short term insurers. Works out more expensive in the long run but more flexible in the short term.

Katie-Kat-Kins

You could drop it to third party only so it is legal, or TPFT, but then if someone hits it while it is parked and drives away you have no recourse.

Shop around, I can't believe you can't get a better quote than that!

Badger_Lady

Thanks guys! Sorry I couldn't get back to you yesterday...

I don't know anyone with off-road parking, but will get some quotes for day insurance just in case I can't sell in time. Using confused.com, I found quotes for £800-odd a year (rather than £2,011), although ironically it went higher again when I quoted for TPFT...

You have confirmed what I thought though - my colleague was arguing that I shouldn't need insurance. I've blown him a raspberry.

lisyloo

I would have thought that any potential buyers will want to drive your car on the road anyway.
I wouldn't buy a car without driving it.

Quentin

lisyloo wrote: »

I would have thought that any potential buyers will want to drive your car on the road anyway.
I wouldn't buy a car without driving it.

If you want to drive another's car, then you need to do so under your own insurance cover. You can't expect a private seller to have some sort of catch all policy allowing potential customers cover.

lisyloo

If you want to drive another's car, then you need to do so under your own insurance cover. You can't expect a private seller to have some sort of catch all policy allowing potential customers cover.

I agree.
But aren't we often told on here that you can't drive an uninsured car and that the car has to be insured in it's own right?
I thought we were often warned that you could not use your own insurance to drive an uninsured car.
In fact there is another thread on here where the ABI are clamping down on it to stop people picking up uninsuired cars that have been inpounded by getting another driver to do it on their insurance.

If I've misunderstood then I apologies, but I definitely got the impression that the car needs to be insured in it's own right.

aliasojo

Badger, as shocking as it seems, your colleague was correct.

My son told me this a year ago and I didn't believe him so I called our local Police Station to check. The Police Officer told me there was no requirement to have insurance for a car that was not being driven BUT road tax was needed. Since you need insurance to get road tax, the car will at some point need to be insured simply for that reason.