driving girlfriends insured car-add my name to policy or not?

Norman_Castle

stugib wrote: »

I read Norman's post differently.

The OP asked whether DOC meant he didn't have to add each other as a named driver.

Norman's reply I took as: DOC is TPO, named driver is same as full policy cover. Therefore if don't just want DOC, need to add as named drivers.

You, and I expect most other people read the post as intended. Both the op and their partner are insured to drive each others cars and was asking about the benefit of being a named driver. Instead of helpfully adding to my comment, Quentin is choosing to be officious.

magpiecottage

This thread does seem to have wandered from the original question.

What you can and cannot do will be defined on the policy.

The OP does need to be aware that if he and his girlfriend drive one another's cars on their personal policies the cover will almost certainly be third party only (as said elsewhere on this thread). That is not a problem if you have a banger which you only have TP cover on anyway but if you have a new vehicle (particularly if there is credit outstanding on it) it is not something you should contemplate.

If they are living together, they need to check not only that vehicles belonging to members of the same household are not excluded from driving other vehicles cover but that their respective insurers are aware that they have access to another vehicle. Whilst it is probably not going to be an issue if the situation arose part way through the year they will almost certainly want to know at renewal.

thenudeone

spacey2012 wrote: »

In the real world, the police do not give two monkeys, if they even mildly suspect you have no insurance, they will lift the car.

This is well off topic now, but I can assure that that police officers are regularly reminded that the MID database is not gospel truth, and that they must follow the legislation before seizing a car.

Law abiding citizens who have car insurance tend to get very very annoyed when their car is taken away unlawfully, and have a habit of taking the matter further. If mine was seized illegally, the next stop after writing a detailed complaint would be to see a solicitor about getting damages for unlawful property interference (and the cost of hiring a car).

I imagine that the frequency of reminders about the legislation would match very closely the frequency of claims against the police on this issue;)

Sam1123

Thank you all very much for the responses to my thread. I think in the case of doubt it's probably going to be best for us to contact our insurers and ask them outright if we're covered. Third party insurance isn't a term I really understood before making the thread, I'm now much more informed. Thanks for enlightening me.