Legal requirement for Insurance address to match address on my drivers license?

wassupbob

I've just insured my car for the year(almost £200 cheaper than last year ) and gone through the usual steps of providing proof of address, NCB, sending a copy of my drivers license etc...

My new insurer has accepted all of these but has informed me that it is a legal requirement that the address I'm insured at matches the address on my license. This came as news to me?

I currently rent and have always kept most of my details on my "home" address, i.e. my parents. This is so I don't have to change these details every time I move. For example Bank addresses/Mobile phone bill etc..

For the past few years I've had my home address on my license but various rental addresses(where I was actually living obviously) on my insurance. My new insurer indicated that these would have invalidated any claims I made, had there been any.

Is this common knowledge? Having talked to a few friends a number of them have old addresses on their license and are unaware of any legal requirement to change them for the purposes of their insurance.

Anyway I've just discovered its free to update the address on my license so I'm going to go ahead and get it done as I have no idea how long it will take to get back.

Just wondering if anyone else is in a similar situation?

marleyboy

Yep, its a legal requirement that you register your car using your current address, that must match your driving licence and insurance.

It should normally take upto two weeks once you send off your licence, but be assured you can still legally drive the vehicle whilst your licence is being processed.

InsideInsurance

There is no legal requirement for the "address" on your insurance to match your driving license. Indeed you can have multiple address on your insurance (home, location of vehicle over night and correspondence).

The only real question is if you legally must have your vehicle and driving license as at your home address (where you live) and not use a correspondence address (your parents). Certainly the Government website implies that you do but its not accurate in many other things so may not be on this.

wassupbob

Thanks for the replies.

By "address" I mean where I said I was living and where the car would be kept at night.

So the question here is whether the license is valid if the address on it is not the address I live at?

Iceweasel

Your driver's licence need to be an address via which you can be contacted - so a relatives address would be fine.

But not a previous address that you no longer have any connection with.

Same with the registration document - the V5C.

The insurance company need to know where the vehicle is regularly kept overnight - that's all - but the correspondence address could well be different.

You could have 3 different addresses and the vehicle kept overnight at a 4th.

For the vast majority of people these address are one and the same - but some of us live complicated lives.

Of course you will always find someone will think that there is something underhand going on.

Your licence is valid whatever address is on it as long as any mail sent there eventually reaches you.

AdrianC

I wonder... Is your parents' address a higher risk area than your insured/home address? If so, I wonder if they're suspecting you of being economical with the truth in order to reduce your premium.

Car_54

marleyboy wrote: »

Yep, its a legal requirement that you register your car using your current address, that must match your driving licence and insurance.

Can you cite any legislation to support that assertion?

The registered keeper doesn't need to have a licence, let alone the same address.

The insurer can decide for himself what to accept, there is no legal restriction.

pc1271

I seem to remember that the address on your licence must be an address where you are known and receive correspondence, not necessarily where you sleep.

pc1271

That said, it s free and straightforward to update your address if you spend any length of time in a rental property

GabbaGabbaHey

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The only real question is if you legally must have your vehicle and driving license as at your home address (where you live) and not use a correspondence address (your parents). Certainly the Government website implies that you do but its not accurate in many other things so may not be on this.

How would that work if you used a Post Office Box or some other sort of mail retention service as your correspondence address, perhaps because you don't have a fixed "home" address?

InsideInsurance

Iceweasel wrote: »

The insurance company need to know where the vehicle is regularly kept overnight - that's all - but the correspondence address could well be different.

Insurers generally want to know where you sleep and where your car is as two separate things with the perception that if your car is on your driveway then the risks may be different to if you are leaving your car on a driveway 3 streets away and thus wont hear the alarm etc. Hence forms get you to declare where you live and then most have the option of "another address" or similar on the "where kept overnight" question.

Most web systems dont allow you to declare a correspondence address but all back office systems I have known do allow this to be declared separately. Again often for the student type situations where you have to declare yourself as at your term address but Mum/Dad want the policy documents going to their address to ensure its actually insured etc.