Car and insurance in ex- wife's name. Guidance needed please.

rosie383

I am asking on behalf of a friend so may not have all specific details.
In a nutshell, a wife left her husband, and has taken every scrap of paperwork from the house. Both family cars were registered in her name and she was the one who always sorted out bills, insurance etc.

Now, we renewed the tax online for the car which our friend is driving, so we know that he definitely had insurance a couple of weeks ago, but we don't know when the insurance is due for renewal or if she will cancel it. Obviously he doesn't want to drive uninsured, but has no contact details for his ex, so can't ask her anything.
How can he find out when the insurance is due for renewal, and are the company under any obligation to tell him if it is cancelled? He doesn't know if he is on the policy as the main driver, or if his wife put herself as main driver for both vehicles. If he rings the insurance company, would he be able to transfer the insurance into his name?
And can he get insured for the vehicle if she is the registered owner?
Any helpful and non-judgemental advice will be appreciated please.

redux

I don't know, but I assume that insurers are used to such tricky issues arising from time to time

Knowing the identity of the insurer is the biggest step. If that's available it can't do much harm to actually ring for a chat broadly around the subject, even though it may be more tricky to pass security details to discuss the actual account or the instructions given by their client. I can't see that they would refuse to even confirm or deny that the car is insured.

If the car is being driven without insurance, if the wife has cancelled it early or allowed it to lapse at renewal date, and not informed the husband, then I hope that if charges arise of driving without insurance that the wife would be charged as an accessory to that, as whatever their personal dispute she shouldn't be acting to procure her husband committing a crime.

But I'm not a lawyer

I think there are databases where you might be able to look up whether the car is insured. Well, you know it was when you renewed the tax, but it's from then on.

Here is one, but it doesn't give the expiry date - http://ownvehicle.askmid.com/ It might be tedious to check it a couple of times a day, but it's peace of mind if nothing better can be found

If the insurer is not known, or anyway, it might be worth asking the Association of British Insurers for advice, though this is only a guess whether it will be useful

dacouch

If the wife is the policyholder, the Insurers would not normally discuss the policy with the husband, there are a few exceptions such as Admiral.

The Insurers would not normally allow the husband to adjust the policy or transfer it into his name (Again Admiral may allow changes but I doubt they would allow a transfer).

The alternative is to take out new Insurance in his name, being registered in his wife's name is not ideal though.

Can they not sit down and make arrangements, if he tells her that as registered keeper she may end up picking up parking tickets and speeding etc etc so in her benefit to transfer ownership.

Joe_Horner

You can also find out who the insurer is from MID if you've been involved in an accident in the last 7 years. It costs £4 but gives insurer and policy number. Maybe put the wedding date as "date of accident?"

You'll have to make a false declaration saying that you were in an accident but the declaration says : " I understand that it is an offence to wrongfully obtain information of this nature without reasonable cause" and I'd suggest that finding out if you're covered faster than the 5 days they aim to respond in for other forms of contact is reasonable if you need to use the car!

Aternatively, they should be able to provide the same details to confirm whether cover is still in force - even if the car shows on askMID there's no guarantee she hasn't removed her ex as a named driver.

Email them on askmidsupport@mib.org.uk and explain that you need the details to confirm there's insurance in place. That IS what they're supposed to be there for, after all!. They'll probably charge though and aim to respond in 5 working days

davemorton

If the car is registered at your friends address, I would be filling out the appropriate form to 'change of ownership'. They will send out a letter to the address it is registered at to confirm the change. Could be worth doing incase she changes it over to her new address. (Or of course he could just pick up a few tickets in it then give her the car)

puppy999

to renew your tax on line than the car is insured and as Joe Horner said you can find out for £4 but if your not on the policy you cant drive it and if the logbook is in her name you cant insure it
If you have the car than you need a V62 to reg the car in your name it will cost you £25.........Good luck

rosie383

Thanks for the replies. I will look into the change of ownership form, but not sure that would work as his ex is still the registered keeper and wouldn't have signed that she has transferred ownership of the vehicle.
WE can also check out the ownvehicle site as mentioned above. Thanks for that Redux.

Lum

Note that just because the car is showing as insured (and you got a tax disc) does not mean that he is insured to drive it. She could have taken him off the policy and put only her own name on it. This would be enough to tax a car and not flag up ANPR.

I would be very careful about driving that car until you get the ownership and insurance sorted.

rosie383

Lum wrote: »

Note that just because the car is showing as insured (and you got a tax disc) does not mean that he is insured to drive it. She could have taken him off the policy and put only her own name on it. This would be enough to tax a car and not flag up ANPR.

I would be very careful about driving that car until you get the ownership and insurance sorted.

That is a very good point and one that I hadn't thought of. It would be odd for her just to take him off the insurance and keep a policy for herself as she has moved far away and is not going to be likely to drive the vehicle. Unfortunately the insurance company refused to speak to the husband yesterday as he is not the policy holder.
Is it okay to take out another policy in his name to insure the car for definite? Or is it not permissible to have 2 policies on the one car?

Quentin

Yes he can take out insurance irrespective of another in place.

But you need to sort this ownership issue as well.

fivetide

rosie383 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I will look into the change of ownership form, but not sure that would work as his ex is still the registered keeper and wouldn't have signed that she has transferred ownership of the vehicle.
WE can also check out the ownvehicle site as mentioned above. Thanks for that Redux.

The issue here is that the registered keeper may not be the owner.

Your friend has to be sure he can make a good claim to the car. Could bedifficult if it doesn't look like he's paid for it.

However, registering it in his name is easy. Apply for a V5C as said. The DVLA will write to the current registered keeper. Assuming that his ex hasn't changed the address it will come to him anyway.

If the DVLA hear nothing from the registered keeper they'll issue a new V5C in his name.

Again though, that does not mean he 'owns' the car. His ex could come looking!

5t.