Car Sold - do I have to cancel insurance?

[Jimmyarm]

saaby93 said:

srob said:

So if youve bought a car and you dont know the previous owners insurance is still running and you say 'no' to above question thinking they mean 'do you have another policy covering it' I guess that means technically your insurance is invalid.

Not if you don't know it is, you can only answer questions to the best of your knowledge..

[caiss4]

Interesting this one. I insured a car in January this year with a cash back offer. After a couple of months I received the £50 cash back and a month after that I sold the car. I had already 'replaced' it and so had taken out another policy.

I rang the insurance company to advise them that I'd sold the car, was not going to replace it and was I due a refund. After some deliberation I was told that as it had been a cashback offer I owed the insurance company £30 to cancel the policy!! Naturally I said no thanks, I'll let it run and expire. I was then advised that this was illegal and so I asked that they provide me with the relevant legislation that made paying for a policy for an asset that you no longer owned illegal.

Nothing heard except for a request to return the cover note which I duly did. Bizarrely a month later I received a refund cheque for the unused part of the premium.

[Fish981]

J500ANT said:

If the new owner has a bump and the police/someone checks the database, they may come straight to you. I'd cancel, just incase.

(This advice comes from experience as the agreived 3rd party insurance3
jointly claimed against us AND the new owner/policy holder - just incase we hadn't sold it)

Edited by J500ANT on Tuesday 29th September 22:57

This.

I was chased for months because, whilst I'd cancelled the insurance, the insurer hadn't informed MID. This despite the current owner having also given his details at the scene.

As soon as it's sold, cancel it. If the new owner doesn't insure it your policy may become liable.

[BertBert]

It's pretty clear that by selling the car, the fundamental basis on which the insurance was issued has changed. You are *obliged* to tell the insurance company this.

If you effectively do nothing with the policy for a couple of months until you put a new car on, then I doubt anything will happen if you don't tell the ins co.

However if you continue to use the old policy (maybe using the drive another car clause), bad consequences could arise.

Bert