Insurance miles

[supermono]

Following the other disclosure question on insurance, what's the position on the "How many miles do you do?" question. I never know in advance, being self employed. In a good year I'll do 24k, in a rubbish one maybe not even 5k.

If I give the lower figure then have a prang having covered 20k will they pay?

If I give the higher figure then discover after 12 months I've only done 5k will I get a refund?

What's the legal position? The question itself is ambiguous anyhow so makes me thing it's probably not even enforceable -- surely they're interested in knowing how many miles the vehicle will do -- or more correctly how many miles will each named driver do.

Any test cases?

SM

[Mr2Mike]

The legal position is that should you find yourself likely to exceed your stated mileage, it's your responsibility to inform your insurance company of this fact.

With insurance effectively being legalised robbery, they don't need much of an excuse to wriggle out of paying a claim.

[supermono]

The whole subject seems rather fuzzy though. Supposing the car did 25k since its last MOT. Wouldn't they have to prove it was me or a named driver who did it?

Surely I could argue that I often loan the car out to someone using their own 3rd party coverage and never kept a record of mileages.

I'd be very surprised if a court of law would give them the benefit of the doubt.

SM

[m-five]

Well, for the £50 extra mine cost to go from 10k miles without business cover to unlimited miles WITH business cover, I couldn't really go wrong.

(£920 10k, £970 unlimited)

[edc]

But if the Q is how many miles do 'you' do then this does not take in to account other named drivers on the policy who could legitiately bring the mileage total over the agreed limit.

[supermono]

And if it's "vehicle" that means they're trying to charge you for miles someone else may have done in your vehicle with your permission under their third party coverage...

I reckon the whole thing is just another unenforcable swindle designed to let insurance scamsters steal even more of our money.

And another thing. My car was bought new, zero miles. In year 1 I did an undisclosed amount of miles, year 2 part way through they want to know how many miles I've done so far. Who knows? I might have done 30k in year 1 and 1k in year 2 so far.

SM

[edc]

Found it. Try this line of approach with your insurer:

www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?s=a7478411d7f490597c2af9f6c11e4ca0&threadid=14847&highlight=insurance+mileage

[ledfoot]

How can the insurance company prove that you have exceeded 10K miles a year ? They never ask me for actual mileage when policy started.

[kevinday]

This is just another argument in favour of the rest-of-the-world style of insurance, where it is the vehicle that is insured and not the driver. In the real world does it matter if you drove the car, or somebody else? Errr No!