Insurance advice needed. Please can someone help?
Discussion
My son is owner and registered keeper of a 2007 MINI One. It is currently insured by him in his name with my wife and I as named drivers on his policy. He is currently abroad and will not return until April 2015 at the earliest and may be back for only a few weeks before he goes off again but he will return permanently to UK at some point in 2015.
His insurance will become due for renewal in January 2015 and because he is young will be approaching £1000 so my wife and I would like to insure it in one of our names as it would then cost around £250 and have him as a named driver for the short time that he is likely to be here.
Our insurance broker says that you can no longer insure a car unless you are either the owner or registered keeper. Is this correct?
I know that you used to be able to do this as both of my children bought their first cars (old classic Sunbeams) when they were aged 13 and the wife and I insured and drove them until the boys were old enough to drive even though we were neither the owners or registered keepers. It seems absurd that now we will either have to insure a car in my son's name when he will not be around to drive it OR we have to re-register the car to one of us and add another keeper to the V5 when the car will still be his!
Anyone who knows the categorically correct answer or even a company that would insure us, I would be grateful.
Oily
His insurance will become due for renewal in January 2015 and because he is young will be approaching £1000 so my wife and I would like to insure it in one of our names as it would then cost around £250 and have him as a named driver for the short time that he is likely to be here.
Our insurance broker says that you can no longer insure a car unless you are either the owner or registered keeper. Is this correct?
I know that you used to be able to do this as both of my children bought their first cars (old classic Sunbeams) when they were aged 13 and the wife and I insured and drove them until the boys were old enough to drive even though we were neither the owners or registered keepers. It seems absurd that now we will either have to insure a car in my son's name when he will not be around to drive it OR we have to re-register the car to one of us and add another keeper to the V5 when the car will still be his!
Anyone who knows the categorically correct answer or even a company that would insure us, I would be grateful.
Oily
Whilst I have not done it recently I have certainly also insured a car that did not belong to me. I do remember though that not every insurance company will do it. I found mine by using one of the comparison sites. There is a box or soemthing that says you are not the owner and then asks who is. The premium will go up as they view you are a higher risk as the car does not belong to you and in theory you have less attachment to it!
So the V5 just records who's is the 'Registered Keeper' not who is the owner?
If my son gives the car to me (or sells it for a nominal sum), I would own it but he could remain Registered Keeper. When he comes back I could give it back to him and he would then be owner AND registered keeper.
Obviously I would declare to the insurers that I am the car's owner but NOT registered keeper.
It was all much, much simpler in the old days! The ridiculous thing is that we are trying desperately hard to make sure that we are 100% correctly and legally insured but it is more tricky to do because they are trying to stop people being uninsured!
Oily
If my son gives the car to me (or sells it for a nominal sum), I would own it but he could remain Registered Keeper. When he comes back I could give it back to him and he would then be owner AND registered keeper.
Obviously I would declare to the insurers that I am the car's owner but NOT registered keeper.
It was all much, much simpler in the old days! The ridiculous thing is that we are trying desperately hard to make sure that we are 100% correctly and legally insured but it is more tricky to do because they are trying to stop people being uninsured!
Oily
I'm not sure what you're getting at by the 'old days'. You've never been able to insure anything without having an 'insurable interest' in it.
It's accepted that your name as the registered keeper on the V5 is insurable interest in the case of a car. The fact that you've insured cars without the V5 being in your name means nothing more to me than you never claimed. If the car had been written off, you would have had an issue as if you'd sent the V5 in to the insurers in order to obtain settlement, they would've queried why the V5 was in one name and the policy in another.
Clearly you do have an insurable interest as, if you wrote the car off, your son would expect settlement. But that will be hard to explain to the sorts of 'computer says no' people that staff insurance call centres. So I'd simply change the registered keeper on the V5 to you or your wife. I appreciate that will result in one extra owner but it's easily explained come sale time.
It's accepted that your name as the registered keeper on the V5 is insurable interest in the case of a car. The fact that you've insured cars without the V5 being in your name means nothing more to me than you never claimed. If the car had been written off, you would have had an issue as if you'd sent the V5 in to the insurers in order to obtain settlement, they would've queried why the V5 was in one name and the policy in another.
Clearly you do have an insurable interest as, if you wrote the car off, your son would expect settlement. But that will be hard to explain to the sorts of 'computer says no' people that staff insurance call centres. So I'd simply change the registered keeper on the V5 to you or your wife. I appreciate that will result in one extra owner but it's easily explained come sale time.
Oily Puddles said:
Our insurance broker says that you can no longer insure a car unless you are either the owner or registered keeper. Is this correct?
No, it's tosh.You must have an insurable interest, (which you do have, as you are financially responsible to your son for it whilst you are using it) and many insurers take this to be owner/keeper, but it isn't set in stone. Many people insure lease cars where they are neither the owner nor it their name on the V5.
You just need to find the right insurer who will do it. Problem is, human beings have little say in private car insurance now, and it's all run by computers.
Hmm....... Very different views being expressed here.
My wife and I originally bought the car brand new and wegave it to our son a couple of years ago free of charge. He registered the car as his and is shown a keeper on the V5. I think that as such we have a definite 'insurable interest' that we could argue if we ever needed to.
I thought going to see a broker in person would resolve the problems I was getting with "computer says no" on the internet but sadly not.
I intend to phone a few different companies and try to speak to a real person who can then have the full story explained to them (and recorded on their tape machine). Hopefully if anyone allows us to insure the car there will not be any problems as the full facts will have been explained when we took the policy out.
Does anyone currently have a car insured that is registered to someone else? If yes which Insurance Company do you use?
Thanks,
Oily
My wife and I originally bought the car brand new and wegave it to our son a couple of years ago free of charge. He registered the car as his and is shown a keeper on the V5. I think that as such we have a definite 'insurable interest' that we could argue if we ever needed to.
I thought going to see a broker in person would resolve the problems I was getting with "computer says no" on the internet but sadly not.
I intend to phone a few different companies and try to speak to a real person who can then have the full story explained to them (and recorded on their tape machine). Hopefully if anyone allows us to insure the car there will not be any problems as the full facts will have been explained when we took the policy out.
Does anyone currently have a car insured that is registered to someone else? If yes which Insurance Company do you use?
Thanks,
Oily
Oily Puddles said:
Hmm....... Very different views being expressed here.
My wife and I originally bought the car brand new and wegave it to our son a couple of years ago free of charge. He registered the car as his and is shown a keeper on the V5. I think that as such we have a definite 'insurable interest' that we could argue if we ever needed to.
I thought going to see a broker in person would resolve the problems I was getting with "computer says no" on the internet but sadly not.
I intend to phone a few different companies and try to speak to a real person who can then have the full story explained to them (and recorded on their tape machine). Hopefully if anyone allows us to insure the car there will not be any problems as the full facts will have been explained when we took the policy out.
Does anyone currently have a car insured that is registered to someone else? If yes which Insurance Company do you use?
Thanks,
Oily
I am the registered keeper of my wife's car, as she will do things like forgetting to do anything with the tax reminder. We have used Octagon in the past, who allow you to insure a vehicle registered to someone else. Since then we've moved to Quotemehappy.com.My wife and I originally bought the car brand new and wegave it to our son a couple of years ago free of charge. He registered the car as his and is shown a keeper on the V5. I think that as such we have a definite 'insurable interest' that we could argue if we ever needed to.
I thought going to see a broker in person would resolve the problems I was getting with "computer says no" on the internet but sadly not.
I intend to phone a few different companies and try to speak to a real person who can then have the full story explained to them (and recorded on their tape machine). Hopefully if anyone allows us to insure the car there will not be any problems as the full facts will have been explained when we took the policy out.
Does anyone currently have a car insured that is registered to someone else? If yes which Insurance Company do you use?
Thanks,
Oily
PistonBroker said:
I'm not sure what you're getting at by the 'old days'. You've never been able to insure anything without having an 'insurable interest' in it.
It's accepted that your name as the registered keeper on the V5 is insurable interest in the case of a car. The fact that you've insured cars without the V5 being in your name means nothing more to me than you never claimed. If the car had been written off, you would have had an issue as if you'd sent the V5 in to the insurers in order to obtain settlement, they would've queried why the V5 was in one name and the policy in another.
Clearly you do have an insurable interest as, if you wrote the car off, your son would expect settlement. But that will be hard to explain to the sorts of 'computer says no' people that staff insurance call centres. So I'd simply change the registered keeper on the V5 to you or your wife. I appreciate that will result in one extra owner but it's easily explained come sale time.
Wrong. My partner insurers our daily driver which I own, and it states on the insurance document that she is neither the registered keeper or owner. It's accepted that your name as the registered keeper on the V5 is insurable interest in the case of a car. The fact that you've insured cars without the V5 being in your name means nothing more to me than you never claimed. If the car had been written off, you would have had an issue as if you'd sent the V5 in to the insurers in order to obtain settlement, they would've queried why the V5 was in one name and the policy in another.
Clearly you do have an insurable interest as, if you wrote the car off, your son would expect settlement. But that will be hard to explain to the sorts of 'computer says no' people that staff insurance call centres. So I'd simply change the registered keeper on the V5 to you or your wife. I appreciate that will result in one extra owner but it's easily explained come sale time.
98elise said:
Wrong. My partner insurers our daily driver which I own, and it states on the insurance document that she is neither the registered keeper or owner.
Most Insurers do not have a problem insuring a car own/registered in your spouse or partners name, the vast majority would have a problem offering cover to the OP unless they reregister the car. Oily Puddles said:
98elise
Would you mind telling me who you use as your insurers as I will contact them and try to do the same.
Oily
Direct line. Would you mind telling me who you use as your insurers as I will contact them and try to do the same.
Oily
When we had only one car we used to swap insurance yearly to keep both NCD going (ie one insured with the other named). As we were swaping I needed to make it clear that I was insured as the keeper and owner, so my partner was neither (which is the genuine situation). They were happy to insure it that way.
When we got a second car it just happened that my partner was insured on the mondeo, so I insured the other car. Thats the way its stayed ever since.
As someone else has says they might be more accepting of wife/partners as its common to have multiple shared cars.
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