Have SORN'd a car - affect on insurance?

My elderly father is currently in care (maybe temporarily) and my sister and I are trying to sort his domestic affairs to suit his situation better. We both have the authority of an LPA - although for many things we're just working with him to put things in order. He has his mental faculties, but not easily able to use his phone etc. so the decisions are his and we're just activating them on his behalf at the moment. If nothing else, we need to save him some pennies as his care is expensive and it might be weeks before he's assessed for local authority assistance, even though that process has been started.

As he hasn't driven his car for several weeks and it's safely locked away in a garage behind locked gates, we've decided to SORN it and I'm also trying to cancel his RAC membership (they 'endeavour to reply within 30 days')and want to see what difference it might make to his car insurance.

As his insurers charge £25 for any changes made by phone and there's nothing in the policy wording about cars that aren't on the road, I wonder if anyone knows how this might impact on his car insurance, which is quite a large monthly expense? He has fully comp insurance with a decent no claims bonus.

It would be my guess, that as the car is not being driven, the risk is substantially reduced, so the premium should drop - as really he only needs theft and damage cover. But as I don't drive myself, I don't know how these things work - common sense might not apply!

Comments

  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    The premium won't change if it's sorned

    To save money you could consider cancelling

    See how much a laid up policy will cost to get the cover you want
  • BooJewels
    BooJewels Posts: 2,804
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    Thanks Quentin, the help is much appreciated. I have so much to try and sort out that it's bogging me down a bit - I'm having to address things I know little about.
    Quentin wrote: »
    The premium won't change if it's sorned
    Shame, it feels like it should, as the risk to them is clearly much reduced.
    Quentin wrote: »
    To save money you could consider cancelling

    See how much a laid up policy will cost to get the cover you want
    Thanks for the tip - knowing the right term makes it easier to look into it. I don't think his current insurers do such a policy (at least they don't publish it publicly), so I may need to cancel and start a new policy elsewhere.

    Will a change of that nature, if reversed in the future, have any impact on his premiums or no claims history etc? I don't think he'll ever drive again, but don't want my actions to have a financial penalty for him.
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    If you cancel the current policy then no NCD will be awarded for the current part year the policy will have run

    Any NCD he had at the start of the current policy year will remain valid (assuming that no claims have been made in the current policy year).

    To be sure that the NCD remains valid he would need to take out a new policy within 2 years
  • BooJewels
    BooJewels Posts: 2,804
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    Quentin wrote: »
    To be sure that the NCD remains valid he would need to take out a new policy within 2 years
    Thank you for the further information. If he is ever to return to driving, I would expect it to be much sooner than that, because any longer and other issues will likely prevent it. So it's good to know that there's a decent window anyway - if only because I can tell him that, as reassurance.

    Thanks for the help - I'll need to hit the phones tomorrow. I suspect that it might end up costing as much for a new policy as he still has to pay on the current one.
  • BooJewels
    BooJewels Posts: 2,804
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    I just wanted to update this, in case anyone does a search - as I hate it when I do and no solution is posted.

    I went back to his current insurer, once I had the DVLA confirmation of the SORN and they said they couldn't cover a laid up car, so I either had to re-tax it and continue as before, or cancel and go elsewhere.

    I went with the latter option - I got a laid up policy for about 16% of his original fully comp insurance and this covers accidental damage, fire and theft and I also went for the slightly more expensive option of insuring the excess too.

    Now I just need to find his driving licence which they want to see . . .
  • Kernel_Sanders
    Kernel_Sanders Posts: 3,617
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    edited 25 June 2019 at 4:46PM
    Why would this new company want to see his driving licence if they are only insuring it to be laid up? You don't need a driving licence to keep a sorned vehicle on your own property!

    Also(anybody), will another claim-free year count towards the NCD? If so, I have a cunning plan...
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