Car insurance

JennyWrennie

A dear friend died recently, very unexpected. To date we can’t find a Will. He was the owner of two very expensive cars. Whilst nobody is driving either of these at the moment, we feel they should be insured, in case of fire or theft? But how can you insure a car when the owner is deceased, and has no living blood relatives. Any thoughts please? 

Flugelhorn

there must be some way of the execs / adminstrators doing this ?

just thinking about people who have fancy cars on the drive (or maybe a not so fancy car but parked on the road) and the insurance suddenly ceases - possible that the new "owner" has no licence etc - 

cw8825

if he already had a policy, can it not be changed into the name of the estate?

Flugelhorn

cw8825 said:

if he already had a policy, can it not be changed into the name of the estate?

that is what would happen with other things - can it happen with car insurance?

I wonder if other problem is that they haven't found a will so no-one is exec and until they find (or don't find) a will - no-one can really be the administrator and act on behalf of the estate

DullGreyGuy

JennyWrennie said:

A dear friend died recently, very unexpected. To date we can’t find a Will. He was the owner of two very expensive cars. Whilst nobody is driving either of these at the moment, we feel they should be insured, in case of fire or theft? But how can you insure a car when the owner is deceased, and has no living blood relatives. Any thoughts please? 

Presumably they were insured before so will continue to be so, you need to advise the insurer of the death and they'll put the insurance into the "estate of". Probably more important to find the will to identify the executor. 

Mildly_Miffed

If there's no will, then the estate goes via the rules of intestacy.

https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will

Until such time as the assets of the estate are transferred to the beneficiaries, the administrator of the estate is liable. Who's dealing with that?

Were they insured before your friend's death? Have you spoken to the insurer/s?

JennyWrennie

As has been rightly surmised, we haven’t found a Will yet. We are friends who he described as ‘next of kin’ but that doesn’t mean anything now. The insurance company don’t know how to deal with it? The lawyer isn’t keen to get involved, if the estate goes to the Crown, it’s not easy to be reimbursed apparently. We are floundering in the dark. It’s all a bit of a mess. 

Keep_pedalling

The problem here is if there is no will and no close relatives there is no obvious person to administer the estate. Do you know if there are any distant relatives who might inherit? Did he also own his home? If he did that is something else that needs insurance, if not where are the cars currently situated?

This thread is probable better off on the deaths, funerals and probate board, so I will ask for it to be moved.

bunnygo

sorry for your loss.

car insurance stops when the main driver dies so nobody should be driving the vehicles. IF anyone is able to find the details, the insurers will normally add 30 days on to the policy to keep the vehicles covered while things get sorted out.

if someone used the 'tell us once' code given when the death was registered, the vehicles will also have no registered keeper and the tax will be cancelled too. Lots of hassle.

I hope you can make some progress.

Jono111

If there is no will and no living blood relative then the estate goes to the crown. Roughly translated means who cares if they get stolen.

JennyWrennie

To the best of our knowledge, there’s no known living blood relatives, and we’ve known him for over sixty years. Nobody has driven either car since his death, which isn’t registered yet as there had to be an inquest, which has slowed everything down. Yes, if everything goes to the government, who cares? But, we still hope to find a Will. He always told us he had written one? Just finding it is the problem.