Insuring a car for a couple of months before selling

[Mij91]

Hello all,

I recently took on a car from my brother to sell on (he was offered minimal for part-exchange and I'd done quite a bit of work on it recently so it will be a nice car for someone as a runabout/first motor). I have some work to do on my car such as a suspension refresh and fuel pump swap. It would be nice to not have to rush this / worry about breaking something that renders the daily unusable.

How do people normally insure a car for this manner? I just want to use it to runabout so it'll be minimal mileage.

I normally pay a policy upfront in full but was thinking it would be easier to pay monthly then cancel when the car sells?

TIA

[Rough101]

You can get short policies and month to month stuff, but last time I looked, by the time you get to 3 months you’re as well paying for a year.

[essayer]

See if your current insurer will add a ‘temporary additional vehicle’ to your policy

[Sebring440]

Normally when you pay monthly, it's a finance agreement with a third party lender. Of course the lender may be another arm of the insurance company (Aviva for example).

So you think you're paying monthly, but the insurance company has been paid for the full year by the lender. So cancelling after three or four months does not simply mean that you stop the payments.

[Bobupndown]

Bowlers said:

essayer said:

See if your current insurer will add a ‘temporary additional vehicle’ to your policy

Just this month we added a temporary car on our policy with the insurer (nodding dog). A very reasonable price for the duration selected.

Was looking at this as well. My existing company looking for £68 to add a Peugeot 108 to my policy for a week.

[Mr Tidy]

I bought a car in December 2019, put that on the policy then added the old one (BMW Z4 Coupe) as a temporary additional vehicle for £46 a month.

They wouldn't do it for more than 3 months IIRC, but I sold it in about 7 weeks thankfully. Although given what happened to car prices in mid-2020 I probably should have kept it until then.

[richhead]

it might be just cheaper to insure for a year then cancel and pay whatever fee they charge

[Gericho]

Take out a full year then you'll have to pay around £50 cancellation fee plus whatever insurance you used so far.

You can also check if you have DOC on your current policy but keep proof handly because you'll stopped given the car itself will not show up on the MID i.e. uninsured.

[Mij91]

Thanks all for the advice, I'll give my insurer a call but leaning towards paying for the year and then just cancelling when the car sells. All input has been appreciated!

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Gericho said:

Take out a full year then you'll have to pay around £50 cancellation fee plus whatever insurance you used so far.

You can also check if you have DOC on your current policy but keep proof handly because you'll stopped given the car itself will not show up on the MID i.e. uninsured.

This advice is total and utter rubbish.

To drive other cars on your insurance:

It must belong to someone else.
It must be insured by the 'someone else'
If the above is complied with, your insurance (if it even covers driving other vehicles) will only give minimum legal of third party only.

[Sheepshanks]

Gericho said:

You can also check if you have DOC on your current policy but keep proof handly because you'll stopped given the car itself will not show up on the MID i.e. uninsured.

If the car is taxed and not SORN'd then it needs its own insurance policy.