Courtesy Car Insurance

[Cyberprog]

The wording does vary from insurer to insurer it would appear. My current NFU policy states;

"or any motor car loaned to the policyholder under NFU Mutual's Approved Repairer scheme"

Although I also have;

"Cyberprog may also drive a motor car or motorcycle registered in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man, which does not belong to them and is not hired to them under a hire purchase scheme"

and of course

"Please remember that cover for driving another car or motorcycle is limited to Third Party Only which means there is no cover for any loss or damage to the vehicle being driven"

[calibrax]

tr7v8 said:

calibrax said:

trashbat said:

A fully comp insurance policy usually says something like this from mine:

"The Insured whilst driving any private motor car not their property or hired to them"

Yes, but that clause only gives 3rd party cover (which is only valid if the vehicle is also insured by someone else and is therefore on the MIB database). So you are insured, but any damage to the car you're actually driving is not covered.

This depends on insurer & has been gone through countless times before. Mine certainly doesn't need the car to be insured by others for DOC to work.

Pretty sure that under continuous insurance rules it must also be covered outside of just your policy to be used on the road.

[CYMR0]

calibrax said:

Pretty sure that under continuous insurance rules it must also be covered outside of just your policy to be used on the road.

Yes, in general although if it is covered on your policy, it's insured for the purposes of your journey. Breach of continuous insurance enforcement is separate from the more serious RTA offence and is committed by the registered keeper, not by the driver.

In any event there's a good chance that this car is under a trade policy, which admittedly doesn't help a driver who is potentially (depending on what his policy says) still driving without insurance (as he's not covered on the trade policy) or if he is liable for third party losses (instead of being sued by the other driver's insurer, he can get sued by the garage's insurer instead).

Edited by CYMR0 on Wednesday 16th July 20:54

[LoonR1]

calibrax said:

Pretty sure that under continuous insurance rules it must also be covered outside of just your policy to be used on the road.

Technically speaking you could arguably be right, but practically speaking you're wrong. The only issue would be road tax, which is a separate offence and certainly not an issue for insurance.

[C. Grimsley]

As we use a shoddy car to help customers out at our garage the car is insured and is covered for ourselves as it's on the data base and we are insured as employees to drive any car. When it's lent to customers they are told they have to supply there own cover, as you can imagine you always get the I am insured to drive anything.

Reality speaking as the car is not covered by a single policy it doesn't have the third party option for anyone else to drive it third party on there own cover, we ask for cover to be proved but other than that what can you do.

It's a tricky situation that I personally wouldn't want to be in.


Carl

[CYMR0]

C. Grimsley said:

Reality speaking as the car is not covered by a single policy it doesn't have the third party option for anyone else to drive it third party on their own cover,

You have two problems here.

Firstly, a car doesn't always need to have its own insurance policy to be covered under someone else's driving other cars extension. Some customers will be right when they say they're covered to drive anything, or at least to the extent that they're OK to drive your car.

Secondly, not all policies provide that cover, or might exclude courtesy cars, etc. so you would have to see someone's complete policy documentation to figure it out. Some people won't have any cover for any other car, or won't have cover that extends to courtesy cars, in which case you would be right, they have no cover.

You seem to think that no one who drives your car is covered, and while you probably don't care about the car, you need to think what would happen if there was an accident.

1. Your insurer could come after you as well as the driver - if they run down a bus queue full of nuns and kittens, that means no more business;
2. You could be prosecuted for causing or permitting them to drive with no insurance, which could make it harder or impossible to get insurance in future (at least for a few years);
3. You could be refused insurance in future even if not prosecuted because of particular claim history.

As for what you can do - well sometimes you have to say 'no' to customers, but you need to make it clear what you need and what you will do. I don't know if it's possible for the garage to arrange 'any driver' insurance for the car (and maybe charge a small premium to customers to offset it) but you're risking a huge amount if you're letting the car go out with no insurance. When you say it's a tricky situation you wouldn't want to be in - if one of your customers crashes your car, and they don't come up with the cash to settle the claim - you could very easily find yourself in exactly that position.

[C. Grimsley]

CYMR0 said:

You have two problems here.

Firstly, a car doesn't always need to have its own insurance policy to be covered under someone else's driving other cars extension. Some customers will be right when they say they're covered to drive anything, or at least to the extent that they're OK to drive your car.

Secondly, not all policies provide that cover, or might exclude courtesy cars, etc. so you would have to see someone's complete policy documentation to figure it out. Some people won't have any cover for any other car, or won't have cover that extends to courtesy cars, in which case you would be right, they have no cover.

You seem to think that no one who drives your car is covered, and while you probably don't care about the car, you need to think what would happen if there was an accident.

1. Your insurer could come after you as well as the driver - if they run down a bus queue full of nuns and kittens, that means no more business;
2. You could be prosecuted for causing or permitting them to drive with no insurance, which could make it harder or impossible to get insurance in future (at least for a few years);
3. You could be refused insurance in future even if not prosecuted because of particular claim history.

As for what you can do - well sometimes you have to say 'no' to customers, but you need to make it clear what you need and what you will do. I don't know if it's possible for the garage to arrange 'any driver' insurance for the car (and maybe charge a small premium to customers to offset it) but you're risking a huge amount if you're letting the car go out with no insurance. When you say it's a tricky situation you wouldn't want to be in - if one of your customers crashes your car, and they don't come up with the cash to settle the claim - you could very easily find yourself in exactly that position.

I think you may have mistaken me, I don't let the car go unless it's proved to be insured. Either a day policy taken out or a written and emailed letter from there ins co to say it's covered.


Basically I mean, everybody who wants the car just literally wants you to throw them the keys and just let it go, we had a incident a few years ago and the claim was unreal, luckily our insurance wasn't needed.

Carl

[CYMR0]

Thanks - sorry for the confusion.

Sounds like you're way more switched on than the garage at the start of this thread.

[calibrax]

LoonR1 said:

calibrax said:

Pretty sure that under continuous insurance rules it must also be covered outside of just your policy to be used on the road.

Technically speaking you could arguably be right, but practically speaking you're wrong. The only issue would be road tax, which is a separate offence and certainly not an issue for insurance.

Ah ok... I stand corrected. (said the man in the orthopaedic shoes!)