Courtesy Car Insurance
Discussion
A relation has just crashed his courtesy car into another vehicle, no-one was injured, the v. low value courtesy car has been written off and the other car will require extensive repairs.
The garage who supplied the courtesy car have said that they provide no insurance and it's down to him, his insurers have said "you're not covered."
I vaguely remember hearing that legally a courtesy car is a hire car and that car hire companies and garages are required to provide TPO cover under some part of the Road Traffic Act.
Does anyone know anything non-vague about this?
The garage who supplied the courtesy car have said that they provide no insurance and it's down to him, his insurers have said "you're not covered."
I vaguely remember hearing that legally a courtesy car is a hire car and that car hire companies and garages are required to provide TPO cover under some part of the Road Traffic Act.
Does anyone know anything non-vague about this?
Thanks for the replies, sorry not to have responded earlier.
The garage supplied my brother in law with a loan car while carrying out repair work on his venerable Land Rover, so the provision of the car was not connected to work carried out under his insurance. As suspected above by Aretnap the loan car was sub-shed and covering the cost for a replacement is unlikely to be a problem, the real issue is the cost of the third party works as the car he hit was less than 5 years old. The damaged car is currently being assessed for repairs.
I contacted a friend in the trade who spoke to his insurer about third party cover and the advice he was given was that if you pay for your loan car then this qualifies it as a hire car and the provider is legally obliged to provide a minimum of TPO cover to ensure the vehicle is insured. If however the car is leant to you, not for gain, then you are obliged to arrange your own cover, although it would be reasonable to expect the garage to explain the details of this arrangement to you, which they did not.
It's easy to be wise after the act, I have never asked a garage whether I am insured on a loan car but I have been informed by one to arrange my own cover, paid a nominal £10 a day at another and I know that one of my own policies provides TPO cover for any vehicle I drive with the owner's permission so I think I have always had cover, albeit more by luck than judgement.
A financially painful lesson.
The garage supplied my brother in law with a loan car while carrying out repair work on his venerable Land Rover, so the provision of the car was not connected to work carried out under his insurance. As suspected above by Aretnap the loan car was sub-shed and covering the cost for a replacement is unlikely to be a problem, the real issue is the cost of the third party works as the car he hit was less than 5 years old. The damaged car is currently being assessed for repairs.
I contacted a friend in the trade who spoke to his insurer about third party cover and the advice he was given was that if you pay for your loan car then this qualifies it as a hire car and the provider is legally obliged to provide a minimum of TPO cover to ensure the vehicle is insured. If however the car is leant to you, not for gain, then you are obliged to arrange your own cover, although it would be reasonable to expect the garage to explain the details of this arrangement to you, which they did not.
It's easy to be wise after the act, I have never asked a garage whether I am insured on a loan car but I have been informed by one to arrange my own cover, paid a nominal £10 a day at another and I know that one of my own policies provides TPO cover for any vehicle I drive with the owner's permission so I think I have always had cover, albeit more by luck than judgement.
A financially painful lesson.
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