DOC Insurance for Test Driving Uninsured Car

Marty06

My car is currently SORN. It has a valid MOT.

I am wanting to sell the car. I had wondered whether if I bought 6 months road tax, would someone be able to test drive it without me purchasing insurance on the vehicle, if their own insurance policy allowed them to drive other cars on a third party basis (i.e. DOC cover)?

When I looked at renewing the road tax online it said I must have an insurance policy on the car in order to get road tax. I'm guessing there's no way round this, but I have seen some advice online which says someone can drive an uninsured car with a DOC policy in place, on one-off occassions (like test driving, or in an emergency), as long as you accept it will be third party only, and you cannot park the car on the road.

Anyone have any advice or been in a similar situation?

harveybobbles

They will be covered on their insurance to drive any other car, however, said car must be insured.

iolanthe07

It is possible to get car insurance for a very short time - even a day or two. Policies that allow people to drive other cars on a RTA basis usually insist that the car they drive is insured.

Marty06

Thanks for your responses. I don’t doubt that this might be correct, but I am just trying to understand the logic and get to the bottom of it.

Why must the car be insured? If the a person with DOC drove an otherwise uninsured car and caused an accident, they would claim on their own insurance under the DOC provision. Is that correct?

So what purpose does the “car” having additional insurance have? Say I had bought third party insurance for the car, even for a day, is there any reason that I would ever need to make a claim on my own car insurance, if I never drove the car? Is it because I would need to use this insurance, for example, if the car burst into flames when the other person was driving and killed them, or others?



Is it all up to the insurance company - i.e. if a company didn't say anything about the other car not being insured would it be OK to drive it with the DOC cover? Or is it just a straightforward law that any car on the road has to be insured by the owner/registered keeper of the car?

Again – I’m just trying to understand the logic and rationale, partly because I’ve seen other people say completely the opposite to the advice here! Thanks!

Nilrem

Check the DOC cover on the insurance, some policies will allow you to drive another car if it doesn't have a policy for it, some will require the car to be covered by it's own policy in addition to whatever cover your DOC offers.

Never make any assumptions with regards to insurance, as coverage differs even on policies from the same insurance company (or even for different drivers on the same policy!), and it can be a very expensive assumption if you get it wrong, so always check the policy to see what it allows/is covered.

Remember DOC very rarely covers damage to the "other car" and is normally only the bare minimum third party cover required by law.

Re the taxing of the car, my understanding is, that you cannot get Road Tax without a valid policy for the car covering at the very least the day you are buying the tax (and i've heard of some post offices etc refusing if you've got less than a week of cover/short term note).

Marty06

Thanks for your reply. But I still don’t feel I’ve fully got to the bottom of this yet…

Again my question is: if it is, in theory (depending on the policy wording) possible and legal to drive an otherwise uninsured car with only DOC cover BUT the registered keeper/owner can’t get road tax without having insurance themselves, then are we actually concluding that is it therefore a legal obligation for the registered keeper to have insurance? If it is, then those who say it is possible to drive a car under DOC that is not otherwise insured must be wrong. If it is not, then why can’t I buy road tax for a vehicle that I only want other people to drive in order for them to see if they want to buy it?

My point is: why do the DVLA force you to buy insurance to tax the vehicle (which only the registered keeper can do), if it is actually legal for someone who is not the registered keeper to drive it on DOC cover? Are they ensuring you comply with a law (that you must have insurance on the car if you want to tax it, even if you never drive it on the public road) – if so, what law?

In terms of my personal situation, I’ve thought about buying short-term insurance, but the car might be on the market for a week, a month, two months and I don’t know which day anyone would actually want to drive it on.

So I am trying to avoid having to buy insurance when I don’t want to drive the car, and simply do the legal minimum to allow people to test drive it. I accept that without it being insured by me then any DOC cover of a test drvier would only be third party, but the car is old and I’m not going to make much money on it anyway (which is one reason I don’t want to waste money on insurance!) so I am prepared to take the risk that they write the car off.

rev_henry

I think the way to do it is to buy a weeks worth of temp cover (doesn't cost too much). Tax the car with that, then potential buyers will be covered as the vehicle has its own policy.

Marty06

rev_henry - yes, that is one way round it (though, as I said, I'm guessing it may take longer than a week to sell it): but is it legally necessary to do that? And potential buyers wouldn't be covered with my short-term insurance anyway if they themselves didn't have DOC, would they, as it would only insure me to drive it - and I don't want to drive the thing!!

pompeyrich

Marty06 wrote: »

So I am trying to avoid having to buy insurance when I don’t want to drive the car, and simply do the legal minimum to allow people to test drive it. I accept that without it being insured by me then any DOC cover of a test drvier would only be third party, but the car is old and I’m not going to make much money on it anyway (which is one reason I don’t want to waste money on insurance!) so I am prepared to take the risk that they write the car off.

I'm not sure about the insurance implications of DOCs etc but it wont be legal if it is driven or kept on a public road when SORN.

Marty06

Pompeyrich - yes, I realise this: this is why I'm trying to renew the road tax (and thus remove the SORN)...but can't because DVLA website says without insurance I can't tax the vehicle....hence my question about why this us the case. Do DVLA just say this because they assume I want to drive the vehicle, or is it a law that I must have insurance to tax the car?

Inactive

Marty06 wrote: »

, or is it a law that I must have insurance to tax the car?

This.

As well as a valid MOT if applicable.