Permanent need to use other drivers

sjb92

Hi everyone

Some friends of ours - a couple with three pre-school children - have asked us for some advice. The husband has just, out of the blue, been diagnosed with epilepsy after having a fit two weeks ago. He's been stopped from driving for a year.

Although they live in London and don't actually have to use their car that often, they now have an issue because he's given up work to be a stay at home dad, so he does more of the driving. Because they have three children in child seats they know they can't rely on friends to give them lifts (as not everyone has a car big enough). So they are looking to get some sort of car insurance which allows other drivers to drive their car. I know there are a few policies which are designed for people who are borrowing other cars, but this will (a) essentially be on an ongoing basis, but (b) possibly at short notice each time they need it and (c) probably involve lots of people driving their car over a year, rather than a handful who could be added as named drivers.

So, does anyone have any recommendations for how they should proceed? And if anyone has used any of the "borrowing a car" policies, would you recommend them, and know whether they could help here (e.g. by being open all hours, and being good at reusing people's details rather than having to enter a load of information time after time, etc.)...

Or if there's another solution I've missed, please say!

Thanks in advance for your help, and Merry Christmas everyone.

Quentin

Google any driver car insurance to find policies that will do what is wanted here

[Deleted User]

I presume they know the people who will be driving? Could they just add them as named drivers on their own policy?

sjb92

Right now they don't - it could be a large number of family, friends, etc and we assumed that adding lots of people on the off chance would create an unnecessary increase in premium... but I guess they could draw up a list of "regulars" who are most likely to be called upon.

sjb92

Quentin wrote: »

Google any driver car insurance to find policies that will do what is wanted here

Thank you. I hadn't found this. Think I might tell them to go through a broker to (hopefully) cut the cost of this by specifying e.g. Any driver over age 30, etc...

Thanks again

Mojisola

sjb92 wrote: »

Thank you. I hadn't found this. Think I might tell them to go through a broker to (hopefully) cut the cost of this by specifying e.g. Any driver over age 30, etc...

When my Dad stopped driving but still wanted to keep his car for us to use when taking him out, his insurance company kept the policy in his name (although it was specified that he was not insured to drive) and covered any driver over 50 rather than listing named drivers.

Aretnap

sjb92 wrote: »

Right now they don't - it could be a large number of family, friends, etc and we assumed that adding lots of people on the off chance would create an unnecessary increase in premium... but I guess they could draw up a list of "regulars" who are most likely to be called upon.

Adding named drivers doesn't necessarily increase the premium by any significant amount, unless they're younger then the policyholder, or have a worse claims history etc. In many cases it can actually reduce the premium.

The problem is more that a standard policy may have a maximum number of additional drivers that can be added, which would prevent him from adding a large number of people on the off-chance.

csgohan4

Is the policy holder meant to declare to insurer they have a declarable condition? Thereby rendering his policy inactive or cancelling his policy?

Quentin

csgohan4 wrote: »

Is the policy holder meant to declare to insurer they have a declarable condition? Thereby rendering his policy inactive or cancelling his policy?

Yes you are supposed to inform your insurer of conditions that need to be disclosed to dvla.

But whether that results in the policy ending would depend on the insurer.

Clearly not always. See #6

sjb92

Quentin wrote: »

Yes you are supposed to inform your insurer of conditions that need to be disclosed to dvla.

But whether that results in the policy ending would depend on the insurer.

Clearly not always. See #6

By chance their current policy runs out at the start of January, so they've got the chance to start from scratch.

Thanks to everyone for the help so far.