Garage loan car not in MID - problem?

[danp]

Dropped in my car for an MoT etc and was given a car to use whilst they did so.

I was interested to know the engine size/ bhp etc of the loan car so looked it up on one of these free car check sites, there was also a link to check the insurance status and that came up as it having none in place. (askMID.com)

Garage says that it is insured, but wondering if it should thus be listed, or is that not necessarily the case with trade policies?

Thanks! Dan

[anonymous-user]

it is the drivers responsibility for insurance whatever you may be told.

[Ham_and_Jam]

danp said:

Dropped in my car for an MoT etc and was given a car to use whilst they did so.

I was interested to know the engine size/ bhp etc of the loan car so looked it up on one of these free car check sites, there was also a link to check the insurance status and that came up as it having none in place. (askMID.com)

Garage says that it is insured, but wondering if it should thus be listed, or is that not necessarily the case with trade policies?

Thanks! Dan

They won’t have a policy for every car, especially if they have a lot or turn them over regularly.

A trade policy will be in place to cover all their cars / drivers (you would hope). I doubt they would be stupid enough to allow customers to drive uninsured cars. The penalties are too big, and likelihood of getting caught almost certain at some point.

I’m sure if you asked they would show you the policy. I’ve never asked before but tend to frequent large dealerships so would hope it a prerequisite of that type of business.

[danp]

Ham_and_Jam said:

They won’t have a policy for every car, especially if they have a lot or turn them over regularly.

A trade policy will be in place to cover all their cars / drivers (you would hope). I doubt they would be stupid enough to allow customers to drive uninsured cars. The penalties are too big, and likelihood of getting caught almost certain at some point.

I’m sure if you asked they would show you the policy. I’ve never asked before but tend to frequent large dealerships so would hope it a prerequisite of that type of business.

Thanks, it’s not a big garage - they probably have half a dozen loaners but have been around a while and have a good reputation, so I’d be surprised if it’s not legit.

Thought the cars would be listed however, even if under a group/ trade policy. eg:

“
To comply with the 4th EU Motor Directive, the UK Government established the Motor Insurance Database. The database records the insurance details of all vehicles within the UK and is managed by the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB).

The Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Information Centre and Compensatory) Regulations 2003 place a legal requirement on fleet and motor trade policyholders to supply accurate and timely vehicle updates to the MID, or else face fines of up to £5,000.
“

from: https://www.allianz.co.uk/business/business-insura...

[bearman68]

Ach, this is a nightmare.

We run courtesy cars, and run trade insurance on them, and have access to the database.
In May we renewed our insurance policy. It took 6 weeks or so for our cars to show on the MID. It was very concerning. The brokers were constantly reassuring us that we were insured, while the cars were not showing up on the MID.
I assume the cars were insured, as we had 10 or so running about at any one time, and no problems. But it was concerning to say the least, and I don't know where we would have stood if we gave a customer an uninsured car. I guess something like this has happened.

[rallycross]

Trade policy allows 14 days Max before updating on Mid ( you do this yourself via portal or some brokers do this for you). As per above sometimes it takes a while to show up.

Legally should still be covered by their trade policy but won’t help you if you get pulled by anpr if it’s still not showing up as being covered.

[martinbiz]

rallycross said:

Legally should still be covered by their trade policy but won’t help you if you get pulled by anpr if it’s still not showing up as being covered.

Well it will help if your insured, MID tells the police very little other than it's not on the data base and prompts them to make further checks, Seizing cars is generally the last resort and when they have a very strong suspicion there is no insurance and the suspect can't show otherwise

In this case I would be very surprised if the repairers trade policy alone covers the loaning of cars to customers, it will normally cover the policy holder and his employees to drive any car whilst it is in their care and in the course of carrying out their business, he would need to have an add on or a separate policy to allow customers to drive loan cars - which they may well have, but I would be checking first

OP I would just ask the repairer for a copy of the ins certificate so you can satisfy yourself you are covered rather than taking their word for it and you can keep it in the car just in case you get stopped

[TwigtheWonderkid]

The Spruce Goose said:

it is the drivers responsibility for insurance whatever you may be told.

With the exception of a company owned vehicle supplied to you where you are told insurance is in place. Whether a garage courtesy car would qualify under that exemption, I'm not sure.

[bearman68]

martinbiz said:

In this case I would be very surprised if the repairers trade policy alone covers the loaning of cars to customers, it will normally cover the policy holder and his employees to drive any car whilst it is in their care and in the course of carrying out their business, he would need to have an add on or a separate policy to allow customers to drive loan cars - which they may well have, but I would be checking first

Be surprised then. Most traders pay a little extra for this facility.

[Centurion07]

Beat me by 3mins!

[martinbiz]

bearman68 said:

martinbiz said:

In this case I would be very surprised if the repairers trade policy alone covers the loaning of cars to customers, it will normally cover the policy holder and his employees to drive any car whilst it is in their care and in the course of carrying out their business, he would need to have an add on or a separate policy to allow customers to drive loan cars - which they may well have, but I would be checking first

Be surprised then. Most traders pay a little extra for this facility.

Eh??? Read what I posted I said a trade policy alone and followed up by saying an add on or a separate extra policy would be needed, so pretty much the same, yes?

And the OP would go ahead at his peril without seeing an ins cert first

[MikeM6]

I recently had to purchase 24 hour cover for a courtesy car from a well established local garage, as previously customers had written off a car that was covered 3rd party only at the time.

[BossHogg]

Many moons ago when I had a courtesy car, the garage transferred my own insurance on to the courtesy car which I thought was strange.

[Jimmy No Hands]

When I sold cars we added cars directly onto MID through a portal, they didn't always show up straight away. Could sometimes take a week or more. You'll be fine.

[loskie]

interesting thread this: I haven't looked at it but I seem to recall that my fully comp policy covers me to drive cars loaned to me by the motor trade whilst mine is in the garage.

I'm not talking about 3rd party DOC cover but a like for like policy whilst mine is in the garage.

I will have to double check this.

Que all the PH know alls telling me I'm talking pish.

[Phil Dicky]

BossHogg said:

Many moons ago when I had a courtesy car, the garage transferred my own insurance on to the courtesy car which I thought was strange.

Surely the garage couldn't do this, only you could and I would have thought the 'admin' fee would make this pointless too.

[Sheepshanks]

rallycross said:

Legally should still be covered by their trade policy but won’t help you if you get pulled by anpr if it’s still not showing up as being covered.

In that case it would be helpful if there was an insurance cert (even a blanket one), which included the insurer details so the police could call them, in the car.

I know it’s not a universal thing but some policies, LV and Aviva that I know of, cover courtesy cars anyway. And a lot of other policyholders will have DOC, although some do require the vehicle to have its own insurance.

[Old Merc]

bearman68 said:

martinbiz said:

In this case I would be very surprised if the repairers trade policy alone covers the loaning of cars to customers, it will normally cover the policy holder and his employees to drive any car whilst it is in their care and in the course of carrying out their business, he would need to have an add on or a separate policy to allow customers to drive loan cars - which they may well have, but I would be checking first

Be surprised then. Most traders pay a little extra for this facility. [/quot

---

When I was in business I found it almost impossible to get our loan car covered for any customer to just jump in and drive away, without checks and forms etc etc. I found it far easier to get the customer to insure it themselves. Normally a simple phone call to their insurer. Their car is off the road in my care and insured under my traders policy, transfer cover from their car to our loan car. They would then have to sign a disclaimer saying they have insured our loan car.

[cmvtec]

This is an interesting one, we've just had a fortnight with a VW Golf loaner car. Backstory is we went to collect our BMW E93 from a small dealer and it wasn't ready for collection. We'd sold the old car, so the garage loaned us their courtesy car.

We were told we needed to insure it before we could take it. We'd already arranged to insure the BMW from that day and didn't want to change it - our insurer allowed us to insure the car on top of our policy for about £30 for a week. The garage were happy to refund us for this as it was their error that the BMW wasn't ready when they said it would be.

It went on the MID two days into our loan period.

[BossHogg]

Phil Dicky said:

Surely the garage couldn't do this, only you could and I would have thought the 'admin' fee would make this pointless too.

The repairs were done through my car insurance and it was the insurance company that did it.