Looking after a friends car while they're abroad

iamnumber3

A friend of mine is going abroad for six months and would like me to look after their car so it still gets used and as i don't currently have a car myself have leapt at the opportunity.
I'm almost 25 with 7 years driving experience, no no-claims and no history of claims or points on my licence.
We're unsure what would be the best option, wether to add me to their insurance for the period or i should get a seperate policy and then cancel it?
And are there any implications that we should be aware of?

Any help would be much appreciated!

victor2

Unless the owner wants to keep the insurance going for the sake of earning no-claims discount and possible visits back here, they might as well cancel their policy and get a bit of money back.
I would think it's better for you to have a policy in your name, but make sure the insurers know you're not the registered keeper. You don't want to be accused of "fronting" by becoming an additional driver when the main driver on the policy is not even in the country.

marlot

I'd check the cost of the insurance before you decide whether to go ahead.

And if you do, make sure you have a signed letter from them confirming you are allowed to use the car

Ebe_Scrooge

It's probably worth comparing the costs of you having your own policy vs being a named driver on their policy. If you do go for your own policy, Victor makes a very good point about making sure the insurance company know you're not the registered keeper - it won't be a problem, but just make sure it's made clear to them.

Mojisola

The owner can add you to their insurance and name you as the main driver for the period they are abroad. You should offer to pay for the six months' insurance.

Agree with the owner what happens if anything goes wrong with the car while they are away. Which garage do they want you to use? Who pays? If it's something that fails because it's reached the end of it's life, do you want to pay for full cost or will the owner pay a share?

johnnyreggae

Agree re cost but not with post 2 - the most sensible option is to ask about adding you as a named driver to the existing policy - if the owners is youngish then another younger driver might not make too much difference - otherwise you get the hassle of not being the owner, cancelling one policy & trying to sort out a short policy

Don't forget that in the first instance all speeding tickets & parking fines & road tax renewal will be sent to the car's owner so that needs to be sorted to prevent them getting dumped on for failure to respond

MX5huggy

I would get your own insurance, because if you have a claim on the owners policy their no claims will be trashed, costing hundreds for several years.

As long as they get a new policy within 2 years they can use their no claims again.

MarkyMarkD

Most insurers will not allow you to take out a policy on a car where you do not own it, are not the registered keeper, and are not the spouse of the owner or registered keeper, because you have no insurable interest in the car.

The right thing to do is definitely for the owner of the car to maintain their insurance, but notify the insurer that the main driver will be the additional driver for the 6 month period.

This does, however, leave the owner liable to the risk of the additional driver trashing the car in an accident, leading to loss of NCD and an excess which they will then have to recover from the OP! It is a generous thing to do on their part.