How to insure a car that you're about to sell?

[anonymous-user]

Im in the process of selling a car but its parked up now and not being used despite having long mot and tax left. what do I do when it comes for taking folks out for a test drive?

I don't know how long it will take to sell do don't know how long ill need the insurance for!

[Toaster Pilot]

RC1 said:

Im in the process of selling a car but its parked up now and not being used despite having long mot and tax left. what do I do when it comes for taking folks out for a test drive?

I don't know how long it will take to sell do don't know how long ill need the insurance for!

If they're driving you can't insure the car against that... they'd need to have insurance that covers them to drive other cars.

[Adrian E]

Don't cancel your insurance - presumably it's not worthless so if someone steals it off your drive you wouldn't be too happy?

Most companies will cover you for up to 30 days and mirror your NCB when you've insured your new car.

You're then into all the issues around allowing people to test drive your car, which will depend on the value and type of car to an extent. It's been covered a million times on here though and tends to bring out the pedants....

[V8forweekends]

If taxed it has to be insured. If you have cancelled insurance you can expect a fine.

Aviva let me cover my old and new cars for a month - but it wasn't cheap.

Test pilots need TP insurance as well - and agree to pay for it if they crash it.

[xRIEx]

Toaster Pilot said:

RC1 said:

Im in the process of selling a car but its parked up now and not being used despite having long mot and tax left. what do I do when it comes for taking folks out for a test drive?

I don't know how long it will take to sell do don't know how long ill need the insurance for!

If they're driving you can't insure the car against that... they'd need to have insurance that covers them to drive other cars.

DOC usually mandates that a policy is already in force that covers the car, and I believe it must be taxed, too.

[Toaster Pilot]

xRIEx said:

DOC usually mandates that a policy is already in force that covers the car, and I believe it must be taxed, too.

Not this again....

"usually" or "one obscure insurer has a clause buried deep in their T&Cs" ?

[anonymous-user]

ok this looks like a pita

I understood that if someone wants to test drive it and benefit from TP protection, that the car must be insured already

im thinking perhaps some short term temporary cover

[xRIEx]

Toaster Pilot said:

xRIEx said:

DOC usually mandates that a policy is already in force that covers the car, and I believe it must be taxed, too.

Not this again....

"usually" or "one obscure insurer has a clause buried deep in their T&Cs" ?

Fair play, then.

However, how can a vehicle be taxed and not insured in light of CIE? I'd be interested to know. The only example I could think of is if you're driving someone else's vehicle to a pre-booked MOT, or back from an IVA.

[Toaster Pilot]

xRIEx said:

Fair play, then.

However, how can a vehicle be taxed and not insured in light of CIE? I'd be interested to know. The only example I could think of is if you're driving someone else's vehicle to a pre-booked MOT, or back from an IVA.

Until the 1st Oct change - if it were "with trade" would be one example.

[JQ]

Adrian E said:

Don't cancel your insurance - presumably it's not worthless so if someone steals it off your drive you wouldn't be too happy?

Most companies will cover you for up to 30 days and mirror your NCB when you've insured your new car.

You're then into all the issues around allowing people to test drive your car, which will depend on the value and type of car to an extent. It's been covered a million times on here though and tends to bring out the pedants....

This is what I've always previously done. Has usually cost me £30 for a months insurance, which does focus the mind as they generally aren't prepared to extend it past 30 days.

[Adrian E]

RC1 said:

im thinking perhaps some short term temporary cover

Some will disagree, but my insurer (admiral) advised me against allowing a potential buyer of a car insured with them from taking out a one day policy for a test drive. Their justification being that it isn't legal to have 2 policies live on the same vehicle, due to attempts to prevent multiple claims for personal injury through crash for cash scams. Despite the legality issue, which I have not explored the accuracy of, it was also suggested that a bun fight over liability would result with both aiming to get out of paying anything.

The only solution appeared to be to maintain cover ourselves and to add potential purchasers to our insurance policy at their expense if they wished to test drive. Of course this meant my insurer benefiting from a bit of additional profit so clearly there's some self interest involved....

In the end it wasn't an issue as the buyer turned up with cash and didn't test drive - he was happy the condition matched the description and went on his merry way

[andy-xr]

I'd just stick it on dayinsure as and when, assuming it's priced to sell and it'd go quickly. If not, I'd probably take my chances on a private road

[V8forweekends]

Adrian E said:

Some will disagree, but my insurer (admiral) advised me against allowing a potential buyer of a car insured with them from taking out a one day policy for a test drive. Their justification being that it isn't legal to have 2 policies live on the same vehicle, due to attempts to prevent multiple claims for personal injury through crash for cash scams. Despite the legality issue, which I have not explored the accuracy of, it was also suggested that a bun fight over liability would result with both aiming to get out of paying anything.

The only solution appeared to be to maintain cover ourselves and to add potential purchasers to our insurance policy at their expense if they wished to test drive. Of course this meant my insurer benefiting from a bit of additional profit so clearly there's some self interest involved....

In the end it wasn't an issue as the buyer turned up with cash and didn't test drive - he was happy the condition matched the description and went on his merry way

We've done this before - there is no legal bar to having 2 policies on a single car.

[Adrian E]

V8forweekends said:

We've done this before - there is no legal bar to having 2 policies on a single car.

I remember when I was looking into it in the summer I found details on one of the consumer info sites that suggested it wasn't legal where a policy already exists, but there's clearly plenty of companies offering the service. Clearly an insurance monkey on the phone is no certainty of truth - can't find the link now in any case

[xRIEx]

V8forweekends said:

Adrian E said:

Some will disagree, but my insurer (admiral) advised me against allowing a potential buyer of a car insured with them from taking out a one day policy for a test drive. Their justification being that it isn't legal to have 2 policies live on the same vehicle, due to attempts to prevent multiple claims for personal injury through crash for cash scams. Despite the legality issue, which I have not explored the accuracy of, it was also suggested that a bun fight over liability would result with both aiming to get out of paying anything.

The only solution appeared to be to maintain cover ourselves and to add potential purchasers to our insurance policy at their expense if they wished to test drive. Of course this meant my insurer benefiting from a bit of additional profit so clearly there's some self interest involved....

In the end it wasn't an issue as the buyer turned up with cash and didn't test drive - he was happy the condition matched the description and went on his merry way

We've done this before - there is no legal bar to having 2 policies on a single car.

It may go against the terms of the policy (maybe of both policies); in the event of a claim each company will probably end up liable for half of the claim, but each will deduct their full excess (if applicable), so overall the policyholder is most likely to lose out.