Elderly Father No Longer Able To Drive. What is best way to renew his car insurance

KarenT1978

For the past few years my 87 year old father has renewed his car insurance policy where the named drivers are himself and anyone over the age of 24 to whom he gives permission to drive the car. My mum is not able to drive. As my dads health has been failing the reality is he has not driven the car himself for over 18 months. My mum and dad want to hold on to their car as they see it as a symbol of what is now a limited independence. These days the car is almost solely used by other members of the family to drive mum and dad for their shopping, or to take them to doctors appointments or to to drive them to pensioners social gatherings etc.

The car is a ten year old Nissan micra 1.2 and last year the insurance renewal price was £600, obviously bumped up by my dads extreme age for a driver. Dad has now come to terms with the fact that he wont ever drive the car again, so it has been suggested by him that we take his name off the named drivers list and put myself as the main driver to help bring down his premium. I am curious as to what the implications of this are.

The car belongs to my mum and dad and would be kept at their house. Is it even possible to get a policy where in such circumstances I would be the main driver with anyone over the age of 24 also included as drivers so that other members of the family can drive them about.

Also, if it is possible to get a policy as described above, what would be the implications for my own car insurance in the scenario where if an accident occurred when my dads car was being driven by another member of the family. Given I am proposed to be the main named driver of my dads car would I have to declare any accidents that occurred in my dads car when renewing my own car insurance, i.e. what effect on my no claims discount would an accident in my dads car have, if I wasn't personally driving at the time of the accident.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

I would do it this way.


Who is the registered Keeper on the V5C?
Who used the car the most I.E does more miles.


It usually goes Main policy holder is the registered keeper and owner named drivers there after. But once a named driver uses the vehicle more they become the main driver and the policy should be updated when that occurs, then it becomes not policy holder not registered keeper not owner but main driver and sends the premium sky high.


If you will be the main driver, it will be better if your the registered keeper and owner, so mum and dad could uhum "sell" car to you for a £1.00 and give you a receipt for it then you become the owner in legal definition, they then register the v5c in your name filling in the relevant parts in the v5c you then insure the car in your name at the same address if you wish so long as you have access to collect the mail if you get any fines to deal with them, you then insure the car at the property like normal but you then become main policy holder main driver, and the rest named drivers get added as per normal.


a person who is named driver that has crashed or involved in a non fault accident declares the accident not the main policy holder to their insurers on their own policy, likewise if they have had an accident they should declare it as a named driver on another policy.

Quentin

As long as you are not the policyholder, any incidents that other drivers are involved in when driving this car are nothing to do with you and you need not worry about it affecting your own insurance policies

sheramber

Being the registered keeper is not proof of ownership although insurance tend to assume the registered keeper is the owner.
So your parents could retain ownership of the car while it was your name on the V5 as the registered keeper.

As long as the policy was in your father's name he would be assumed to be the main driver and the policy charged accordingly.

A policy in your name with you as registered keeper would work.

rs65

sheramber wrote: »

Being the registered keeper is not proof of ownership although insurance tend to assume the registered keeper is the owner.
So your parents could retain ownership of the car while it was your name on the V5 as the registered keeper.

As long as the policy was in your father's name he would be assumed to be the main driver and the policy charged accordingly.

A policy in your name with you as registered keeper would work.

Insurance doesn't assume the keeper is the owner. They ask if you are the owner and keeper and not being both will limit who you can insure with.

The father wouldn't be assumed to be the main driver if he is the policyholder. They ask who is the main driver.

OP if 'any driver' is important, I would stick to the current policy as its not widely available these days. No reason to take him off the policy but you must disclose who the correct main driver is.

KarenT1978

Having initially discussed it within the family whilst it might not be the most financially beneficial route to take we would like for Dad to remain if possible the owner and registered keeper of the car with one of his children named as the main driver. It appears to be important to my Dad to hang on to the car, if he can, for the moment.

He is currently insured with Direct Line. I have just spoken to Direct Line and they will not offer such a policy.

The chap on the phone stated that Direct Line will only offer a policy where the registered owner, keeper and main driver are the one and the same person,

Does anyone know of an insurance company which will allow the main driver to be a different person from the registered owner and keeper?

We are at the moment only looking to get a quote on this scenario and if it proves to be prohibitive then we will explore some of the other helpful suggestions already mentioned in this thread.

Thanks to everyone for the responses to date so far.

Quentin

A change of "main driver" should be OK with DL (assuming your dad remains the policyholder and is still a licence holder).


Speak to a manager, as the agent you spoke to has mislead you.

Daniel54

I had a similar situation with my mother about 18 months ago ,although she was paying quite a bit more than your father.

We bought a policy through Adrian Flux which covered any driver but specifically excluded the policyholder ,my mother.

I found them very helpful and efficient - might be worth giving them a ring