Car Insurance at Different Address?

pborojon

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Daveyjp's student example is an interesting one.

My cars were always registered at my parent's address when I was a student, even though I spent 7 months of each year living elsewhere.

I can't believe that insurers actually expect you to change your address every time you go home for vacations and every time you go back to university. That would be ridiculously onerous.

I'd be interested to hear if someone's got an insurer to merely note the term-time address on the policy (whilst leaving the home address as the main address), as that's surely the more sensible way to do it.

I had an accident (and claimed) whilst at university too, and it wasn't a problem at the time.

This is what as commonly known as a fronted policy, if you were living away from your parents address for 7 months of the year then the university address was clearly the main address for the vehicle. You're not expected to notify of a change of address every time you go back to your parents as it's the main overnight post code which is relevant. Insurers are not here to avoid paying claims but some people try to make it as easy as possible for them!

raskazz

If the location where the car is kept is genuinely going to be split between two addresses, switching between them a few times in the policy year, then the insurer will just take the highest risk area for the purposes of rating the premium.

This is, of course, assuming that the proposer is actually open regarding the circumstances of the risk at inception.

MarkyMarkD

pborojon wrote: »

This is what as commonly known as a fronted policy, if you were living away from your parents address for 7 months of the year then the university address was clearly the main address for the vehicle. You're not expected to notify of a change of address every time you go back to your parents as it's the main overnight post code which is relevant. Insurers are not here to avoid paying claims but some people try to make it as easy as possible for them!

That's not what's known as a fronted policy at all.

A fronted policy would be one taken out in my parents' names when I was actually the vehicle owner and main driver.

I don't agree that it would be correct to merely disclose the term-time address either. 5 months at the other address is a huge proportion of the time on risk. And the parents could live in inner city Liverpool whilst the term-time address is a campus university in the middle of nowhere.

I think the right solution is to disclose both up-front, and as others have posted, the policy should then be rated in the highest risk of the two.

What's interesting about the student situation is that standard proposal forms (and the sort of ones used by confused.com and similar) don't offer the option of entering two addresses. Surely the industry should make it more obvious to students that they should provide both sets of details?

pborojon

Sorry to disagree but it is a fronted policy. I've seen a fair few in my time it doesn't just mean taking it out in your parents names. The front is the parents address when it's kept at a term time address.

raskazz

pborojon wrote: »

Sorry to disagree but it is a fronted policy. I've seen a fair few in my time it doesn't just mean taking it out in your parents names. The front is the parents address when it's kept at a term time address.

Fronting is where a lower risk driver is stated as main user, i.e. as a 'front' to cover the fact that a higher risk named driver is actually the main user.

A discrepancy in terms of an address can be an indication of fronting, but in MarkyMarkD's case, if he was the main user and this was disclosed correctly to the insurer then it was not fronting.

MarkyMarkD

pborojon Your understanding of what constitutes fronting appears to differ from general practice, including the BBC:

A fraud called "fronting" occurs when a young person has a car in their own name, but the insurer is falsely told that a parent is the main driver.

(from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/7052569.stm). Actually the BBC's wording there is pretty inaccurate - most fronting cases involve the parent having the vehicle in their name and also claiming to be the main driver. But that's splitting hairs - addresses doesn't come into it.

raskazz is quite right that address differences may bring fronting to insurers' attention, but I suspect that in a majority of fronting cases the young person still lives at home so the address would be correct.

sassybooboos

surely common sense needed.!!!!!!!!
everyone would declare an address in a nicer area to get cheaper insurance if this was legal.

same goes for saying car kept in garage if really its kept on road.

it is all common sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!