Car Insurance question

hotrocks68

Hi everyone.....

Silly question this to whoever replies but thanks in advance.

So my car insurance expires 1st June.
If i sell my car this week,obviously i will inform the insurance company.However i might not be getting a replacement car for 2 or 3 weeks.So do i lose my years no claims,being there will be a break? Or do the insurance company 'freeze' my policy until i get another car?

Thanks

Quentin

Assuming your insurer agrees to a "break" with no car, your policy will proceed till the original end date.

If you remain claim free, then your NCD won't be affected by the "break" in covering a car.

Check with your insurer that they allow you to keep the policy going without insuring a car - some insist you cancel the policy once they discover you aren't using it, or don't get a replacement within a small timeframe.

If that happens you will have no NCD added for the part year, and will incur cancellation charges.

Also check with your insurer before buying your chosen replacement that they are prepared to cover it.

Ectophile

Last time I sold a car and started looking for a new one, my insurance company let the policy continue, but only for 2 weeks. After that, it was cancelled.

They restored my NCB when I found the car I wanted a few weeks later.

Scrounger

hotrocks68 wrote: »

If i sell my car this week,obviously i will inform the insurance company.

Is it even necessary to inform the insurance company until you find a new car?

After all, you won't be making any claims and nor will the new owner (as the policy won't cover them, nor will they know any of your policy details to attempt to claim).

You simply "forgot to cancel " - is that a crime?

Scrounger

Sooetie

By Law you have to inform the Insurer of any changes.

I just cancelled my insurance as I had to scrap my car - £50 charge on the insurance but i do have a certificate of NCD

arcon5

If the new owner have an accident driving withou insurance I believe the claimant can fall on your insurance... I think! Somebody else will clarify this...

Why not phone them and say 'I'm thinking about selling my car and getting a new one a few weeks after.. What will happen?'

Scrounger

Sooetie wrote: »

By Law you have to inform the Insurer of any changes.

What law is that?

Non-disclosure would possibly invalidate the policyholder from a subsequent claim on the policy but in this case that shouldn't be a problem.

Where's Quentin when you need him?

Scrounger

Foxy-Stoat_3

Scrounger wrote: »

What law is that?

Non-disclosure would possibly invalidate the policyholder from a subsequent claim on the policy but in this case that shouldn't be a problem.

Where's Quentin when you need him?

Scrounger

They mean under the terms and conditions of your insurance, not law, standard miss used term round these parts.

I would write a letter saying please find attached certificate of insurance, please cancel the policy from this date blah blah blah and keep a photocopy and bin the original. Keep all photocopies of sale receipt and copies of completed log books.

That way if the person who bought your car from you happened to;
1. Have a fault accident
2. Didn't take out car insurance
3. Third party found out that the vehicle was still insured
4. Successfully lodged a claim with your insurers
5. Successfully got a pay out from your insurers even though they didn't insure the driver and none of the details matched their data base
6. All this happened before you insured your next car in 3 weeks

You can produce the "letter" stating that you instructed them to cancel the policy, why haven't you done this???

I very much doubt they would pay out anyway as looking at the tales of woes on these boards, insures not paying out because they didn't spell a name on the policy correctly or didn't tell them they said a bad word 10 years ago they rejected a claim etc etc, am sure if it was a "genuine" error by the post office for not delivering a "letter" on time they will pay out for someone elses accident.

Or if you are worried about it, cancel the policy and pay £50 for the privilege and lose this years NCD entitlement and go about your business.

shaun_from_Africa

They mean under the terms and conditions of your insurance, not law, standard miss used term round these parts.

I suppose that it could be argued that the T&C's of the insurance policy were agreed by both parties, then by failing to abide by those T&C's, a policyholder has broken the contract and by failing to inform the insurance company that they no longer own the car, they have breeched the Fraud act.

3. Fraud by failing to disclose information

A person is in breach of this section if he—

a)dishonestly fails to disclose to another person
information which he is under a legal duty to disclose, and

b)intends, by failing to disclose the information—

(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
(such as accruing NCD)

(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to
a risk of loss.

Although in reality, I can't see a case being brought.

dacouch

arcon5 wrote: »

If the new owner have an accident driving withou insurance I believe the claimant can fall on your insurance... I think! Somebody else will clarify this...

Why not phone them and say 'I'm thinking about selling my car and getting a new one a few weeks after.. What will happen?'

You're correct, if the new owner did not insure the car, then had a fault accident and was identified any third parties would claim against the original owner's (Who had not cancelled) insurance. They are obliged to pay thanks to the Road Traffic Act, the Insurers would then pursue the OP for the money they had paid out

thenudeone

If you "forget" to tell your insurer you've sold your car, then someone else drives it and has an accident but isn't insured, then YOUR insurer will be forced to pay up under this law:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/151
esp. subsection 2) b)

Effectively what it means is that if a judgement is obtained in court against any person who was driving the car, even if it was stolen or TWOC'd at the time, the insurer of the car must pay up EVEN IF the driver wasn't the policyholder or named on the policy, and EVEN IF they don't have a driving licence. The only exception is that a passenger who knew or suspected the vehicle was stolen/TWOC'd can't claim.

Guess who YOUR insurance company would then come after to repay them, because the policyholder (YOU) had failed to comply with the policy conditions?

Hello Bankrupt City. Goodbye - savings, investments, car, house.

An example is here:
http://www.lv.com/upload/lv-rebrand-2009/pdfs/insurance/car/21121973_lv-motor-doi.pdf

2. Duty and revealing information
You must ...tell us as soon as possible about any changes,
for example, a change to the main driver, any claims/convictions/
endorsements, any modifications to the car, change to the use, drivers, car or address, which have happened since the insurance started or was last renewed. Failure to do so may invalidate this insurance.
6. Compulsory insurance laws
If under the law of any country we must make a payment which we wouldn’t otherwise have to make, you must repay that amount to us.