Motor Insurance and Named Driver

PrettyWoman

Good Morning

Looking for a bit of advice please regarding sharing a car with my son. He passed his test in July and having spent the previous 12 months driving him to and from his evening job at the local Hilton I was relieved that he could now drive himself, especially after the midnight finishes! He has been a named driver on my policy since passing his test and he paid the additional premium. The insurance has just come up for renewal and whilst doing the appropriate money saving searches I've come across something called fronting which I'd never heard of!

I'm now worried that the insurance company will not pay out if he had an accident because he drives himself to and from work in my car. I work from home so the car isn't used much in the day and I go to the gym or the supermarket. He isn't looking to get a car of his own as there really isn't a need as my husband also has a car and a motorbike so we have enough vehicles to contend with.

Last year the car did just under 5500 miles but hard to say how much of that was to the Hilton and how much was to the gym etc! Are we breaking the law? My husband and I have always been named drivers on each other's policies so we can drive each other's cars and just assumed it worked the same for our son, I know I should never assume though!

Many thanks 😊

Tom99

It is a question of who is the main driver. If you think that is your son, then that's what you need your policy to say.

If he has an accident going to work and it comes out that he does that every day then having you as the main driver might come into question.

MataNui

You will be OK. If the car belongs to you, is registered to you and was originally insured by you then they would find it difficult to contest any claim on the basis of fronting (you insuring a car in your name specifically for the use of another person, normally a younger driver).

A few years ago my step daughter wrote off my wife's car (OK, perhaps more than a few) but we had no issues with the insurance.

Aretnap

The first question is did your insurer actually ask who the main driver is (or mention it in their assumptions)? Not all insurers make the distinction - some just calculate the premium on the assumption that the riskiest driver will normally be using it. If you have one of those insurers then the question of fronting doesn't arise.

However if they did ask whether your son is the main driver or just an occasional driver then you have a duty to answer truthfully - and not doing so could invalidate any claim you make. If one of you uses the car to commute regularly and the other doesn't, then I imagine that person is likely to be regarded as the main driver unless you have good evidence that the other person does indeed use it more. So I would be worried about the possibility of your son having an accident, especially on his way to work.

If in doubt your best option is probably to phone the insurer and explain the situation, and declare your son as the main driver if necessary. It may cost a bit more - but it's better to pay more for a policy which will actually pay out.

(With husband/wife who is the main driver is generally much less of an issue, as you will usually be of similar ages and have similar risk profiles, so insurers won't really care either way. However they're quite sensitive to the issue of people buying cars for teenage children, and pretending that it's actually a second car for Mum in order to keep the premium down. Proving fronting can be as simple as looking at the contents of the CD rack - if it's full of gangsta rap and drum'n'bass (or whatever teenagers listen to these days) the it's unlikely to be Mum who normally uses the car!)

PrettyWoman

Thank you for the advice. The car was originally purchased by me on a PCP, I'm the registered keeper and the PCP comes out of my bank account. The only payment my son has made was the additional premium when I added him as a named driver. The insurance company never asked who was the main driver, just added his details like they did for my husband

In terms of journeys he has an average of 4 shifts a week over various days, I go to the gym 5 times a week and then a bit of shopping. It sounds ludicrous but thinking about logging individual journeys as even I'm not sure who would do more miles! Once he passed his test the petrol bill went down as it was two journeys to his place of work rather than four!

No CD's in the car as it has Bluetooth and connects to phones and the radio is tuned to radio 2 😉 All my shopping bags and yoga mat are in the boot and now I'm not sure if I'm overthinking all this 🤔

cajef

PrettyWoman wrote: »

and now I'm not sure if I'm overthinking all this 🤔

I think you are, it sounds like you both use the car pretty equally, fronting usually occurs if a youngster or new driver buys a car and is the main driver but someone insures it and declares that they are the main driver and puts the owner down as a named driver just to get cheaper insurance.

As you have contacted your insurance and are paying extra by adding your son it would appear that they have accepted the risk, no harm in giving them a call and checking.

FutureGirl

You should make sure the policy covers you for commuting, instead of just social, domestic and pleasure as well.

The insurance company would have asked who the main driver is, it's one of the first questions when inputting personal details.

Rolandtheroadie

FutureGirl wrote: »

You should make sure the policy covers you for commuting, instead of just social, domestic and pleasure as well.

The insurance company would have asked who the main driver is, it's one of the first questions when inputting personal details.

This was my thought, but make sure the son is covered for commuting.
There was a thread on the motoring board recently where the named driver was only covered for SDP.