Death of a spouse. Implications for the cars log book

smjxm09

If a married spouse dies and the V5C log book is in their name, does the widow/widower become the second keeper on the V5C when the DVLA are informed, so devaluing the car?

Also, does the ownership of the vehicle have to change if the car is owned outright by the spouse that has died? 

MyRealNameToo

smjxm09 said:

If a married spouse dies and the V5C log book is in their name, does the widow/widower become the second keeper on the V5C when the DVLA are informed, so devaluing the car?

Also, does the ownership of the vehicle have to change?

Yes, the keeper has to be a living person and so it will be noted as the second keeper. 

The will will determine who becomes the owner, assuming the decreased rather than a finance company owned it in the first place. 

Keep_pedalling

Who the hell worries about this sort of thing when they have just lost their spouse? Yes it needs transferred to a new keeper and that person will need to tax it as well. The estate administrator needs to claim back any unused tax.

Car_54

The widow/widower should only name him/herself as keeper if he/she is actually going to inherit the car.

Ownership will be determined by the will, if any, subject to probate if necessary.

An additional keeper will make little or no difference to the car's value, and certainly not to the new owner, who has essentially got a free car.

smjxm09

Keep_pedalling said:

Who the hell worries about this sort of thing when they have just lost their spouse? Yes it needs transferred to a new keeper and that person will need to tax it as well. The estate administrator needs to claim back any unused tax.

I worry about it, as I now expect to die first.  As the car has yet to be delivered I think I should now get the car put in my wife's name as owner and V5 keeper 

MyRealNameToo

Keep_pedalling said:

Who the hell worries about this sort of thing when they have just lost their spouse? Yes it needs transferred to a new keeper and that person will need to tax it as well. The estate administrator needs to claim back any unused tax.

A friends spouse was given 4-6 years to live with a degenerative neural condition, as time went on the prognosis kept getting shorter. She actually survived just under 7 years but the last 18 months there was zero quality of life.

Whilst when she actually passed he obviously went to pieces anyway but with so much fore notice they had been planning for all these sorts of things and had been dealt with in a very practical if arguably cold way but it was part of their way of dealing with inevitable. 

Sea_Shell

Keep_pedalling said:

Who the hell worries about this sort of thing when they have just lost their spouse? Yes it needs transferred to a new keeper and that person will need to tax it as well. The estate administrator needs to claim back any unused tax.

I thought the insurance on the vehicle would effectively be invalid upon death too.

So if they both drove the car as "theirs", then these issues do need to be thought about very soon after a death.

The insurer would get a very bad press, however, if the surviving spouse had a claim thrown out, if they had an accident before having a chance to sort the paperwork out.

So would an insurer dig their heels in?!

redofromstart

I lost my husband last year unexpectedly.  He had several vehicles in his name and it was slightly complicated to sort them.  Essentially they go into limbo for a bit, and even using the 'tell us once thing' meant it took the DVLA a few months to write to me.

It is wider than the ownership thing.  The vehicle tax ends with the death of the owner and technically you can't re-tax the vehicle because you are not the owner.  I was named driver on his car insurance  and they allowed me to transfer that to my name for the balance of the policy which was helpful but i still couldn't drive it because I couldn't tax it.  The one I wasn't named on was allowed to continue for theft only for 30 days.  

There was no will, and I didn't need probate. If I had had either then I could have sold the vehicle without transferring it to my name.  What I actually did was transfer the car to my name as his spouse and in line with the DVLA instructions, and part exchanged it.  The garage said that it didn't matter to them that it made me the third owner on a 16 plate car.  

For the other vehicles I just did the online transfer of the V5 on the basis that I did have consent of the owner (me as I inherited everything), and have had no problems as a consequence. Three gifted to family, and one sold to a private buyer.  Vehicle tax refunded as part of that, and then the DVLA sent me another small cheque once they had processed his death.

Hope this helps.  It was just another stress in the mountain of Sadmin that I wouldn't wish on anybody.

Sea_Shell

redofromstart said:

I lost my husband last year unexpectedly.  He had several vehicles in his name and it was slightly complicated to sort them.  Essentially they go into limbo for a bit, and even using the 'tell us once thing' meant it took the DVLA a few months to write to me.

It is wider than the ownership thing.  The vehicle tax ends with the death of the owner and technically you can't re-tax the vehicle because you are not the owner.  I was named driver on his car insurance  and they allowed me to transfer that to my name for the balance of the policy which was helpful but i still couldn't drive it because I couldn't tax it.  The one I wasn't named on was allowed to continue for theft only for 30 days.  

There was no will, and I didn't need probate. If I had had either then I could have sold the vehicle without transferring it to my name.  What I actually did was transfer the car to my name as his spouse and in line with the DVLA instructions, and part exchanged it.  The garage said that it didn't matter to them that it made me the third owner on a 16 plate car.  

For the other vehicles I just did the online transfer of the V5 on the basis that I did have consent of the owner (me as I inherited everything), and have had no problems as a consequence. Three gifted to family, and one sold to a private buyer.  Vehicle tax refunded as part of that, and then the DVLA sent me another small cheque once they had processed his death.

Hope this helps.  It was just another stress in the mountain of Sadmin that I wouldn't wish on anybody.

Sorry for your loss, but a very informative post.

Why couldn't you do the on line ownership transfer for the car you were a driver of, so you could tax it?

MyRealNameToo

Sea_Shell said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Who the hell worries about this sort of thing when they have just lost their spouse? Yes it needs transferred to a new keeper and that person will need to tax it as well. The estate administrator needs to claim back any unused tax.

I thought the insurance on the vehicle would effectively be invalid upon death too.

So if they both drove the car as "theirs", then these issues do need to be thought about very soon after a death.

The insurer would get a very bad press, however, if the surviving spouse had a claim thrown out, if they had an accident before having a chance to sort the paperwork out.

So would an insurer dig their heels in?!

No, they will change the insurance to be "the estate of" and it's not invalidated. 

Most won't offer a renewal after the policyholder passing so there may be an issue if you notify them the day before the renewal that the policyholder has died 

Sea_Shell

MyRealNameToo said:

Sea_Shell said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Who the hell worries about this sort of thing when they have just lost their spouse? Yes it needs transferred to a new keeper and that person will need to tax it as well. The estate administrator needs to claim back any unused tax.

I thought the insurance on the vehicle would effectively be invalid upon death too.

So if they both drove the car as "theirs", then these issues do need to be thought about very soon after a death.

The insurer would get a very bad press, however, if the surviving spouse had a claim thrown out, if they had an accident before having a chance to sort the paperwork out.

So would an insurer dig their heels in?!

No, they will change the insurance to be "the estate of" and it's not invalidated. 

Most won't offer a renewal after the policyholder passing so there may be an issue if you notify them the day before the renewal that the policyholder has died 

If they are notified?

What if you haven't notified them yet, in your grief?   Which was my original point, in reply to @Keep_pedalling