Bought new car, transferred insurance, still have old car. Insurance help needed.

JDPower

Got myself in a bit of a fix. To start with, I've never owned two cars so this is probably a mistake on my part. My old car is having long term intermittent issues, so bought a new one (old one is with mechanics), transferred my insurance to the new car, assuming (wrongly?) the old car was not a problem as I'm insured to drive other cars (ie, I'm insured, any mechanic is insured, so it's insured. That was my thinkng anyway, feel free to call me dumb)

So now had a latter from the Insurance Database stating the other car is uninsured so I face a fine.

So what would people's recommendations be for making the other car legal, cheaply, till I get it back and sell it?

I'm looking at temporary insurance quotes at the mo, but is looking expensive (my existing insurer won't quote me a multi car policy as there is a cancellation pending for the old one, and a new multicar policy will probably be pointless for the sake of a month or two till it's fixed and sold).

Looking like my only option is to get it back asap and SORN it, which makes selling it tricky (ie test drives) :undecided

InsideInsurance

DOC doesnt cover you to drive other vehicles you own (and many policies dont have DOC anymore) or that are leased to you. If it did some would buy the cheapest car possible to insurer and then use that to cover their Ferrari or Bentley.

Your options are pretty much what you've said, get temp insurance or SORN the car or add the car back to the existing policy as a Temporary Additional Vehicle. With the admin fee factored in doing a TAV probably wont be much cheaper than temp cover but its worth getting a price to check.

The law changed not long ago that all vehicles must have insurance on them if they arent SORNed

JDPower

InsideInsurance wrote: »

DOC doesnt cover you to drive other vehicles you own (and many policies dont have DOC anymore) or that are leased to you. If it did some would buy the cheapest car possible to insurer and then use that to cover their Ferrari or Bentley.

Yeah, I realise that now, just didn't occur to me at the time.

Getting it insured for the month will be half the value of the car so think that is off the table. So looks like SORNing it is the only option.

Do people ever have any issue test driving an SORNed car you're selling?

InsideInsurance

JDPower wrote: »

Getting it insured for the month will be half the value of the car so think that is off the table. So looks like SORNing it is the only option.

Do people ever have any issue test driving an SORNed car you're selling?

Is that the same with it as a TAV on the existing policy?

If they have any sense they will have issues illegally driving a vehicle but since the tax disc is gone they may not realise you've SORNed it. You should obviously make appropriate checks on their insurance, as said before DOC is increasingly uncommon so you cannot just assume they have cover if they have a policy.

JDPower

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Is that the same with it as a TAV on the existing policy?

If they have any sense they will have issues illegally driving a vehicle but since the tax disc is gone they may not realise you've SORNed it. You should obviously make appropriate checks on their insurance, as said before DOC is increasingly uncommon so you cannot just assume they have cover if they have a policy.

I'm still waiting on my current insurer getting back to me with an additional vehicle quote.

And thanks for pointing out about checking any potential buyers insurance, never sold a car (other than for spares/repair/scrap) and wouldn't have occurred to me to check that before they drove! Didn't know DOC was being phased out either, it's still on my policy (just double checked!)

Quentin

JDPower wrote: »

Didn't know DOC was being phased out either, it's still on my policy (just double checked!)

It isn't!

JDPower wrote: »

.....Do people ever have any issue test driving an SORNed car you're selling?

Your SORN plan will mean it cannot be taken on a test drive irrespective of whether or not the prospect has DOC cover. (There will be no tax on it!)

JDPower

Quentin wrote: »

(There will be no tax on it!)

I had worked that much out

InsideInsurance

JDPower wrote: »

Didn't know DOC was being phased out either, it's still on my policy (just double checked!)

Its not being phased out, its just getting less common than it used to be. As always people are willing to switch insurers for less than £1 saving in premium and so companies are looking at which less commonly used sections can be cut to reduce the technical price and thus get their quotes cheaper

JDPower

Thanks for the replies, it is now back from the garage and on the drive SORNed so can relax for now