Insurance question

swannee_D_3

my insurance covers me to drive any car with the drivers consent,

I want to borrow a mate's estate to pick something up, this car is not actually insured by him, he keeps it on his drive for camping trips etc and insures it for a month or so in the summer,

is my insurance valid or does the actual car have to be insured by someone else to validate it, iyswim?

vaio

depends on what your policy says, some require the other car to be insured in it's own right.

Cool_Username

Give your insurance company a ring - they'll give you a more accurate answer than anyone on here will be able to provide.

vaio

Nope, read your policy, it states the actual position, call centre staff have been known to get it wrong

Quentin

Good advice from vaio.

If you ever contact cs for any contract related info (eg. anything to do with money/cancellations/points of law etc) and you intend to act as a result of their answer, then insist they confirm in writing!

karenx

More often than not the other car HAS to be insured, otherwise whats to stop people buying a cheap banger and insuring it and having another more expensive to insure car and register it in someone elses name and they drive it all the time. Resulting in cheap insurance if they otherwise couldnt of afforded it for that particular car.

neilmcl

karenx wrote: »

More often than not the other car HAS to be insured, otherwise whats to stop people buying a cheap banger and insuring it and having another more expensive to insure car and register it in someone elses name and they drive it all the time. Resulting in cheap insurance if they otherwise couldnt of afforded it for that particular car.

But don't forget the other car would be insured third party only.

karenx

Alot of people only insure a car third party anyway

kwaks

karenx wrote: »

More often than not the other car HAS to be insured, otherwise whats to stop people buying a cheap banger and insuring it and having another more expensive to insure car and register it in someone elses name and they drive it all the time. Resulting in cheap insurance if they otherwise couldnt of afforded it for that particular car.

The authorities would like you to think this, and some insurers are following suit. It is not the norm however, and what stops people doing what you suggest is that as soon as the driver exits the vehicle the car becomes uninsured again. This means no parking on areas with public access, needs two to fill with petrol etc etc which kinda negates the reasons for having a car. Also insurance must be sought to obtain road tax. The current rules allow the car to be towed and crushed if uninsured on the public highway, this is a sufficient deterrant to people only insuring their "cheap" car.

@OP, depends on the wording of your policy, but you should not get out the vehicle even for loading if you do use it. Make sure the vehicle is taxed and MOT'd and has no defects at all. Any ANPR hits will result in a tug so car has to be 100%, and carry your insurance docs with you.

In reality I would have expected your friend to have surrendered the road tax, in which case its not worth doing.

karenx

You can also get done for no insurance that way. Happened to my friend. He was very silly and bought a porsche at a young age then found out couldnt afford the insurance. As he was already on his mums insurance for her car he stupidly registered the porsche in his dads name and drove about in it "thinking" he was insured third party. He was however involved in a crash and the police came out, they checked his insurance and found it was invalid as the car itself was not insured. So he now has an IN10, a ban and a loan for 15k for a car that was wrote off and not given a payout as no insurance. Sold the wrote off car on ebay for £1100 as scrap.

Not saying this is the exact situation of the OP, but just pointing out the worst case senario.

vaio

kwaks wrote: »

The authorities would like you to think this, and some insurers are following suit. It is not the norm however, and what stops people doing what you suggest is that as soon as the driver exits the vehicle the car becomes uninsured again. This means no parking on areas with public access, needs two to fill with petrol etc etc which kinda negates the reasons for having a car. Also insurance must be sought to obtain road tax. The current rules allow the car to be towed and crushed if uninsured on the public highway, this is a sufficient deterrant to people only insuring their "cheap" car.

@OP, depends on the wording of your policy, but you should not get out the vehicle even for loading if you do use it. Make sure the vehicle is taxed and MOT'd and has no defects at all. Any ANPR hits will result in a tug so car has to be 100%, and carry your insurance docs with you.

In reality I would have expected your friend to have surrendered the road tax, in which case its not worth doing.

I’m sure one of the experts will be along soon with their views but I thought this too about getting out of the vehicle.

In the case of MOT less cars being driven to tests there is case law that held that normal interruptions to the journey (brief trip into a shop and stopping for petrol) are still OK i.e. the car is still being “driven to a pre-arranged MOT” even it was stationary and driverless parked outside a shop or in a petrol station.

It seems illogical not to extend the same principle to DOC cover but that’ll be down to the discretion of a magistrate/judge (or maybe the FOS?) and on a case by case basis.

Whether I’d risk an IS10 on my licence relying on the logic/common sense of the legal system, I’m not so sure.