Insurance - which home address?

[l354uge]

I am soon moving in with my OH parents for 12 months to save for a house, and I'm unsure which address to now use for my insurance.

I've just taken out a multicar policy with admiral for myself and my OH and I put down our home address as our current "rented" address. Admiral then asked for a utility bill as proof as address, which I provided.

We are moving at the end of the month, but the arrangement will mean I won't directly be paying any utility bills.

The address on my driving licence, phone bill, voting address and V5 are set to my parents house, which is 200 miles away from my new place. (recently graduated, have moved house every 9-12 months so no point in changing)

So, which will legally be my "home address", my registered one or the one I live and keep the cars at? The insurers are not very clear and I won't have utility bills at either address, so how will I prove I live there?

I really don't want to be black listed or forced to pay out of my own pocket come claim time.

[caelite]

I had a similar situation a couple of years back. I phoned my insurer (Hastings at the time) for advice. I had no fixed address and was couch surfing between 3 places, with my licence, bank, V5 etc all registered to my parents about 80miles away.

Insurer advised me to register the insurance at my parents address, but give them the postcode for where the car was left most often and enter it as the 'overnight parking' address on the insurance form. They said this is there normal procedure for folk with different correspondence addresses to where there vehicle is normally. I ended up just giving them the postcode for my work car park.

[pozi]

Put it this way, you hypothetically live and work in our glorious crime capital London and park your cars there, meanwhile the V5 is at your parents house in a sleepy village close to the Yorkshire dales.

Do you A, take the low cost quote using your parents address, or B insure your vehicle at the location it is actually stored?

Following on, if you decide on A do you think the insurance company will mind when you need to make a claim saying your car vanished in London?

[l354uge]

pozi said:

Put it this way, you hypothetically live and work in our glorious crime capital London and park your cars there, meanwhile the V5 is at your parents house in a sleepy village close to the Yorkshire dales.

Do you A, take the low cost quote using your parents address, or B insure your vehicle at the location it is actually stored?

Following on, if you decide on A do you think the insurance company will mind when you need to make a claim saying your car vanished in London?

The "address car kept at" will be the address im actually living in, regardless of the "home address" I use

[pozi]

l354uge said:

The "address car kept at" will be the address im actually living in, regardless of the "home address" I use

In which case you have answered your own question, insure the cars at the location you are living in and keeping the cars at, that is your home address.

[Gavia]

l354uge said:

I am soon moving in with my OH parents for 12 months to save for a house, and I'm unsure which address to now use for my insurance.

I've just taken out a multicar policy with admiral for myself and my OH and I put down our home address as our current "rented" address. Admiral then asked for a utility bill as proof as address, which I provided.

We are moving at the end of the month, but the arrangement will mean I won't directly be paying any utility bills.

The address on my driving licence, phone bill, voting address and V5 are set to my parents house, which is 200 miles away from my new place. (recently graduated, have moved house every 9-12 months so no point in changing)

So, which will legally be my "home address", my registered one or the one I live and keep the cars at? The insurers are not very clear and I won't have utility bills at either address, so how will I prove I live there?

I really don't want to be black listed or forced to pay out of my own pocket come claim time.

What’s the issue here? You’re moving into your OH’s parents’ address, that’s your home address. The fact that you’ve decided not to bother updating the other official documents doesn’t alter that.

Paying bills has nothing to do with it. My brother still lived at home til he was 28 and paid no bills at all and that made no difference as to whether it was his home address or not. The reason Admiral asked for a utility bill was either because you’re not on the electoral register, or as part of their money laundering identification checks. Get on the electoral register at your OH’s address, it probably won’t affect their Council Tax bill, but if it does you should pay the difference.

[l354uge]

If it was that obvious I wouldn't be asking. I've been told by some people your address should be the same as your driving licence, others have said where you sleep most. I am asking if there's a clear legal definition before I ask Admiral, as I have been mis-told information by one of their advisers before.

[Gavia]

l354uge said:

If it was that obvious I wouldn't be asking. I've been told by some people your address should be the same as your driving licence, others have said where you sleep most. I am asking if there's a clear legal definition before I ask Admiral, as I have been mis-told information by one of their advisers before.

It’s down to each insurer. However, you don’t get some clever get out of jail free card by failing to update your driving licence address, there’s si a big fine for that.

Your home address is where you live. There is no debate on that in your situation. You have stated that you are moving into your OH’s parents address. That is your home address, no matter how much you try to wriggle out of it. I assume they live in an area that’s making your car insurance even more expensive.

[l354uge]

Gavia said:

It’s down to each insurer. However, you don’t get some clever get out of jail free card by failing to update your driving licence address, there’s si a big fine for that.

Your home address is where you live. There is no debate on that in your situation. You have stated that you are moving into your OH’s parents address. That is your home address, no matter how much you try to wriggle out of it. I assume they live in an area that’s making your car insurance even more expensive.

I haven't even started to get quotes at either yet, but thanks for assuming I'm trying to commit fraud.

Finally got the opinion of two members of the Admiral customer services team, they both agree that your "home address" is where the cars are kept most of the time, which begs the question why they also ask where its kept overnight...

OH house it is then.

[Gavia]

l354uge said:

I haven't even started to get quotes at either yet, but thanks for assuming I'm trying to commit fraud.

Finally got the opinion of two members of the Admiral customer services team, they both agree that your "home address" is where the cars are kept most of the time, which begs the question why they also ask where its kept overnight...

OH house it is then.

They’ll be asking that question as they want to know the answer. Most people will answer it the same as before, but some may differ and that might make the risk unacceptable to them.

[chunder27]

I spent about 15 years saying I lived at home with my Mum when I didn't, simply to save thousands on car insurance.,

In a loose defence I used to contract a lot, so was rarely living in the same place for long, but even so was totally wrong.

But it saved me thousands of pounds, and I had a claim in the middle of it!! Not my fault, just had to be careful what you say!

[caelite]

chunder27 said:

I spent about 15 years saying I lived at home with my Mum when I didn't, simply to save thousands on car insurance.,

In a loose defence I used to contract a lot, so was rarely living in the same place for long, but even so was totally wrong.

But it saved me thousands of pounds, and I had a claim in the middle of it!! Not my fault, just had to be careful what you say!

I mean, that is the easy way. If it was an excessive cost to me when I had my temporary address I would likely have done the same. However as it happens for me it only added £30 on to my policy so it was worth it for piece of mind. Same with modifications if I am honest, I declare 3 of my 5 or so as it signifies a reasonable increase rather than an astronomical one. There will be a large portion of folk who will jump down your throat on this on here though. The way I see it you are only playing the same game as the insurers, a handing over money for a service based on a calculated risk. As you say, you just need to be careful with what you say, and nowadays what you get quotes for.

With all that being said, mind the OP said he was with Admiral. Not many insurers will go over a car with a fine tooth comb, in fact many won't even send their own adjusters to check over an engineers report in my experience (2 years working in an insurance lockup). But Admiral and their subsidiaries have a reputation of being particularly anal when it comes to claim time, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole after some of the stories I have heard, even where the claimant has been entirely honest with them.

[Mr Tidy]

caelite said:

I declare 3 of my 5 or so as it signifies a reasonable increase rather than an astronomical one.

So you seem to be part of the problem that the rest of us have to pay for - Tw*t!