Car insurance whilst people test-drive car I am selling

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Quite simply they cannot drive it unless they are insured.

Even thinking about it, say they are insured on your extended policy but prong it. With the loss of NCB, years to get that back, higher premiums along the way, some twit could cause you thousands of pounds of trouble.

For me, either they show insurance I can check out or they don't drive.

forgotmyname

Get your policy extended to cover them, Unless the car is not worth the cost.

As already mentioned even if they were insured it would only be 3rd party so it wont cover damage to your car.

Any damage to your car during the test drive wont be covered, You would need to try and claim teh money back
from them. Costly & quite possible you wont get a penny back.

fivetide

What a lot of messing about.

Get the money off them up front. If they bend it they've bought it, test drives on that basis only! As long as they are insured 3rd party (usually have to have a fully comp policy of their own, be over 25 and have a full (non auto) license to qualify) you'll be fine.

Alternatively, if they don't have insurance and the car isn't too old, they should be able to get temporary cover from soemone like dayinsure for £20ish depending on car.

5t.

thenudeone

Hammyman wrote: »

if you allow someone to test drive your car without insurance and they get stopped you will get a fine and points equivalent to having no insurance as well.

Yes - and the car will be seized by the police, and recovered by a garage who will charge a statutory fee (£xxx's) to give you it back.

And IF you allow anyone to drive your car without insurance, you would deserve it.

evilempire

Easy answer. You take the buyer out for a test drive with you driving and if he wants to take it for a drive himself, he can after he's bought it. Get the cash off him, fill out the receipt, etc and tell him that he can have an accompanied test drive in HIS car for 15 minutes at his own risk. If he doesn't like it, he can have his money back and no hard feelings.

I did this recently and the pratt driving it took the car through the red line before he had got to the end of the road. I simply got out, told him he had no chance of getting any cash back after driving like that and walked away. He didn't like it, but at least it was his car he was wrecking.

vaio

fivetide wrote: »

What a lot of messing about.

Get the money off them up front. If they bend it they've bought it, test drives on that basis only! As long as they are insured 3rd party (usually have to have a fully comp policy of their own, be over 25 and have a full (non auto) license to qualify) you'll be fine........5t.

That’s the way to go.

There was another similar discussion on here recently and I think the upshot was that if you look at their insurance documents and allow them to drive on that basis then you get points & fine for causing or permitting uninsured use if it subsequently turns out that the documents were forged or otherwise invalid.

There was a form of words that avoided this, think it was called “conditional permission” so you say something like “you can drive it only if you have valid insurance” but don’t check their documents.

That way if they are insured then no problem and if they aren’t then they are driving without your permission & so you don’t get points/fine.

This is fine legal nit picking and in any event still wouldn’t cover any damage to your car so I’d still be inclined to go for the “you bend it you bought it” option.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i would still (even if a policy cert was handed me) phone thier insurance to see if its still inforce, many people get cover then cancel before the payment date so they can produce a cert at the roadside to an officer (wich really doesnt work as they will check) but to someone selling a car, a cert is produced and then you think oky doky no problems, untill some really bad luck happens and you lose a car and incure points for permitting.

George_Michael

There was another similar discussion on here recently and I think the upshot was that if you look at their insurance documents and allow them to drive on that basis then you get points & fine for causing or permitting uninsured use if it subsequently turns out that the documents were forged or otherwise invalid.

The RTA clearly states that you are not commiting an offence if you allow a vehicle to be driven without 3rd party insurance in place providing that you didn't know, and didn't have reason to belive that this was the case.
If someone had shown you what appeared to be a genuine certificate, which had been forged or cancelled , you could legitimately claim that you were unaware that it was invalid, hence under the RTA, you were not guilty of anything.

Incyder

On the rare occasion I sell a car I don't let anyone test drive it, regardless of their insurance. I will take them for a good 10 miles as a passenger. My car, my rules. I've never known someone not buy it for that reason but if they did, it wouldn't bother me.

vaio

George_Michael wrote: »

The RTA clearly states that you are not commiting an offence if you allow a vehicle to be driven without 3rd party insurance in place providing that you didn't know, and didn't have reason to belive that this was the case.
If someone had shown you what appeared to be a genuine certificate, which had been forged or cancelled , you could legitimately claim that you were unaware that it was invalid, hence under the RTA, you were not guilty of anything.

Which section of RTA are you referring to?

I thought that lack of insurance (and causing or permitting) is an absolute offence and doesn’t need intent or knowledge, so it doesn’t matter whether you thought it was insured, either it is insured and you are not guilty or it’s not insured and you are guilty.

There is one defence but that only applies to driving vehicles owned by your employer and in the course of your work.