Insurance - car stored in a garage

[Ian187]

Firstly I'm back to Porsche ownership after a few years
I've just insured myself via Bridle insurance and pretty happy with the quote, however I note they have put a few terms to the insurance, one of which being the car is subject to a garage endorsement.

Now I told the chap I garaged the car at night (which I do) but I'm just wondering what happens if I visit a friend and stay over? Is it not covered if it's not garaged? And if that is the case what happens if I visit a friend, but don't leave till 02:00??? or 04:00 or 06:00??

I guess maybe the details will be in the small print when I get the policy, but just wondering if anyone knew?
If they are going to be funny about it being in a garage all the time I'm not driving, then I'd rather pay a bit more and save the worry about going anywhere!

Thanks in anticipation

[Magic919]

Depends who they have insured you with. As ever, you need to read the policy and the specific endorsement applied.

[pork911]

likely to be 'ordinarliy stored' but of course check the policy

thought it better for premiums to park on the street so they don't know where to break in for the keys

[drjwilson]

Likely to say something along the lines of "Vehicle is not covered for theft, fire or vandalism (maybe between X and Y hours) whilst unattended within Z distance of your home address, unless stored in a locked garage."

But all policies vary so read yours carefully.

So ordinarily you will be covered if away from home, at a hotel, friend's house, work etc.
Unless your friend happens to be a near neighbour.

[drpep]

As above, check your policy but mine has to be garaged between 23:00 and 06:00 WHEN and only when it is in the 'insured postcode'. Makes sense if you think about it - would pretty much rule out any eurotrip otherwise!!

[blackburn]

Yep, my P car is expected to be in the garage when it's at home. Anything goes elsewhere (I'm pretty careful where I leave it though!)

[Ian187]

drpep said:

As above, check your policy but mine has to be garaged between 23:00 and 06:00 WHEN and only when it is in the 'insured postcode'. Makes sense if you think about it - would pretty much rule out any eurotrip otherwise!!

Thanks, makes sense, as you say I am covered for Eurotrips so would be a bit stupid otherwise. I'll check the small print in any case (just to make sure I'm not missing anything).

[sticks090460]

Usually has to be garaged if within 2 miles of home. Otherwise..........wherever. It's to stop people getting a discount by claiming the thing is locked away when the fact is it's really left on the street. And yes, they do...............

[surfymark]

So my car is garaged every night but every now and then I will come and home find we have a visitor who has parked on my driveway (blocking my garage). Does that mean my car becomes uninsured because I am unable to put it in the garage? Seems an odd ruling.

Also, a friend has a garage but mostly parks his car outside so did a quote on both. For some reason the quote without the garage was cheaper. I will be doing the same next time I renew.

cheers
M

[kingston12]

surfymark said:

So my car is garaged every night but every now and then I will come and home find we have a visitor who has parked on my driveway (blocking my garage). Does that mean my car becomes uninsured because I am unable to put it in the garage? Seems an odd ruling.

Also, a friend has a garage but mostly parks his car outside so did a quote on both. For some reason the quote without the garage was cheaper. I will be doing the same next time I renew.

cheers
M

Strange that the garage quote was actually cheaper, but I often find that it is only a few £ saving for a garage now (I guess it might be more if you live in a busy or higher risk area).

[daveyb662]

kingston12 said:

Strange that the garage quote was actually cheaper, but I often find that it is only a few £ saving for a garage now (I guess it might be more if you live in a busy or higher risk area).

tried both options when was my renewal and made absolutely no difference, hence told them it would be on the drive

[Durzel]

Logically speaking insurance would be completely unworkable if your car wasn't covered in whichever random places you park when you're out and about.

[surfymark]

kingston12 said:

surfymark said:

So my car is garaged every night but every now and then I will come and home find we have a visitor who has parked on my driveway (blocking my garage). Does that mean my car becomes uninsured because I am unable to put it in the garage? Seems an odd ruling.

Also, a friend has a garage but mostly parks his car outside so did a quote on both. For some reason the quote without the garage was cheaper. I will be doing the same next time I renew.

cheers
M

Strange that the garage quote was actually cheaper, but I often find that it is only a few £ saving for a garage now (I guess it might be more if you live in a busy or higher risk area).

So just did three quotes just to see. All 3 had identical details (I did it through confused.com - other insurance comparison sites are available) except 1 said Garaged, 1 said Driveway, 1 said Road.

On all 3 quotes Admiral was the cheapest. Garaged was £527, Driveway was £483 and Road was £475.

That makes no sense at all to me!

So if something happened to my car while it was in the garage and I had told them it would be parked on the Road. Where would I stand?

cheers
M

[Chris_]

I am moving house next week and will now have a garage rather than parking on the street. My insurance is going up by £80 for the remaining 7 months. Apparently it is now considered a higher risk

[kingston12]

Chris_ said:

I am moving house next week and will now have a garage rather than parking on the street. My insurance is going up by £80 for the remaining 7 months. Apparently it is now considered a higher risk

That is weird. Presumably it is because they think that theives could break into the garage and spend time breaking into the car whilst out of sight?

I will still be keeping mine in the garage, but it is a bit of a pain if it will actually cost me more to do this!

[daveyb662]

Also had experience of something VERY odd with Admiral, when bought an M3 and was getting this insured, they quoted me MORE if I activated the tracker!!!

[kVA]

Chris_ said:

I am moving house next week and will now have a garage rather than parking on the street. My insurance is going up by £80 for the remaining 7 months. Apparently it is now considered a higher risk

Yep. Almost impossible to steal a modern car without the keys (well, for it to be 'worth' anything when they dispose of it, anyway). If it's parked on the street, you'd have to burgle a lot of houses to make sure you got the right keys

I think someone did alude to this above?

Never had a garage myself and wouldn't put a car in it if I did - seen too many chipped door edges, hot soak problems and condensation issues (and I can't be arsed to open and close another door when I'm always late leaving home anyway!)

[cslwannabe]

Does sound bizarre paying more to garage your car although maybe there are more claims for damage occurring inside the garage (stored items falling onto the car or accidents while driving the car into the garage) than you would think. After all each new car seems to get wider than the old version yet garage door openings don't seem to increase to allow for this.

[sneakybear]

Bizarre indeed! My insurance (with bridle too) is some 250 less for having a garage, or should I say was... At my last address I had access to a garage and now it's on the street, in the same risk level apparently (Sydenham to Fulham - go figure!), so I have experience of this recently.

Either way the cost of renting a garage in either location would be 5 a week so some 260 a year... so pretty even all in - although I do worry about it (but not as much as leaving it on the street in Sydenham!)

Back to the OP question, check the underwriter text! Mine used to not be insured if it was not garaged between 22:00 and 06:00 in 'ordinary' use. Here ordinary meant 'most of the time but not exceeding x days a year'.

[Chris_]

It is the theft issue apparently. In the last 5 years we have twice had our cars hit while parked in the street, yet this was considered less of a concern. I thought that I would have been doing myself a favour by saying that it would be left in the garage. At least it gives me an excuse to find something else to put in there