Advice needed on car insurance for company car

[London1986]

Hi all

I currently own a car and have insurance with about 10 years no claims discount. 

I am about to receive a brand new Tesla through my company (3 year lease). It will be purely for personal use.

My questions...

1. Regarding car insurance for the new Tesla, I know this has to be done via the company. Do I need specialist business car insurance or will regular car insurance do as long as it is in my company name?

2. I will no longer be driving my current car so won't have personal insurance for at least 3 years. What happens to my 10 years ncd?

[Starfighter]

I am not an insurance expert but have had company cars in the past. Based on my experience-

Q1 - Depend on who the lease is made out for. If the company then they should be sorting the insurance. Make sure it covers SD&P as well as business use, not all do. If you are leasing the car then you will need insurance covering the type of business you do. If you are just travelling to meetings etc the Class 1 will do and adds little of anything to the cost of normal SD&P cover.

Q2 - if you have company provided insurance then you current no claims will lapse in 2 years. You could swap it to another car policy if that works for you. Most insured and partner policies done care who is the main driver. Keep records of the company insurance as many insurers will accept company insurance without a claim as equivalent to no claims. If you provide your own insurance then the 10 year no claims goes on the nice new Tesla.

[London1986]

Starfighter said:

I am not an insurance expert but have had company cars in the past. Based on my experience-

Q1 - Depend on who the lease is made out for. If the company then they should be sorting the insurance. Make sure it covers SD&P as well as business use, not all do. If you are leasing the car then you will need insurance covering the type of business you do. If you are just travelling to meetings etc the Class 1 will do and adds little of anything to the cost of normal SD&P cover.

The car will not be used for business use at all. It is purely for personal use but leased via my company for the tax benefits.

Starfighter said:

Q2 - if you have company provided insurance then you current no claims will lapse in 2 years. You could swap it to another car policy if that works for you. Most insured and partner policies done care who is the main driver. Keep records of the company insurance as many insurers will accept company insurance without a claim as equivalent to no claims. If you provide your own insurance then the 10 year no claims goes on the nice new Tesla.

I suppose I could transfer it to my wife's car

[Mr Tidy]

NCD generally expires after 2 years of non-use. But if you get confirmation from the company insurer of no accidents some will give NCD, albeit not necessarily full NCD.

[dibblecorse]

Just insure the car on a policy in your name using the NCD you have and complete the form with the companies details for the legal owner and registered keeper, we have just done this for my wife's recently acquired EV through her business, a decent broker like A Plan should be able to help no bother at all.

[London1986]

dibblecorse said:

Just insure the car on a policy in your name using the NCD you have and complete the form with the companies details for the legal owner and registered keeper, we have just done this for my wife's recently acquired EV through her business, a decent broker like A Plan should be able to help no bother at all.

Thanks a lot for this, that would be amazing. Hopefully it is that simple.

Out of interest, did you and your wife lease the car or buy it outright through the business? As I'm assuming if it's lease, then the lease company would be the legal owner?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

dibblecorse said:

Just insure the car on a policy in your name using the NCD you have and complete the form with the companies details for the legal owner and registered keeper, we have just done this for my wife's recently acquired EV through her business, a decent broker like A Plan should be able to help no bother at all.

^^^^This. Not all insurers will do it, but many will. So long as they know the car is a company owned/leased car that is being insured by you personally, and they're happy with that, all's good.

[London1986]

Ok perfect.

And just to confirm, the payment will be coming from the business account, not my personal account, but I assume there is no issues with that?

[Bluetec350]

dibblecorse said:

Just insure the car on a policy in your name using the NCD you have and complete the form with the companies details for the legal owner and registered keeper, we have just done this for my wife's recently acquired EV through her business, a decent broker like A Plan should be able to help no bother at all.

I'm not sure that you can do that . The car is not owned by you and the lease is with your employer. Yo have no insurable interest in the vehicle.
Things may have changed but that is certainly the way it used to be
Not sure from what you have said; is the company YOUR company or is it your employer. If you own the company that may change things

Edited by Bluetec350 on Thursday 22 December 13:51

[London1986]

Bluetec350 said:

Not sure from what you have said; is the company YOUR company or is it your employer. If you own the company that may change things

Edited by Bluetec350 on Thursday 22 December 13:51

Yes it is my company and I am the director. The car will be for personal use, not business use, and I will pay BIK on it.

I have done it through the business for the tax benefits and low BIK tax currently.

[dave4959]

Why not insure your partners car next year, then she insures it the year after etc etc
That's what we've done for last 6 years since I moved to company car.

[Sheepshanks]

Bluetec350 said:

dibblecorse said:

Just insure the car on a policy in your name using the NCD you have and complete the form with the companies details for the legal owner and registered keeper, we have just done this for my wife's recently acquired EV through her business, a decent broker like A Plan should be able to help no bother at all.

I'm not sure that you can do that . The car is not owned by you and the lease is with your employer. Yo have no insurable interest in the vehicle.
Things may have changed but that is certainly the way it used to be
Not sure from what you have said; is the company YOUR company or is it your employer. If you own the company that may change things

This has come up a few times and some people are adamant their insurer allows it, even when specifically told the lease is held by the company. IIRC Driect Line was mentioned as one insurer that was OK with it.

I agree it seems dodgy though - it could just be down to call centre operatives not fully understanding what they're being told. It's way more expensive to insure a car in a company name than your own.

[Sheepshanks]

dave4959 said:

Why not insure your partners car next year, then she insures it the year after etc etc
That's what we've done for last 6 years since I moved to company car.

It's possible this might have been messed up by the new rules saying insurance companies can't quote existing customers more than new ones, but insurers used to give introductory discounts so in practice there wasn't much, if any, difference between none and full NCB for new customers as long as your driving record was OK. When I opted out of having a company car LV= mirrored the NCB we had on our exisiting car.

Watch that DOC cover normally only covers the policyholder = if you ever rely on that it would be easy to get caught out by forgetting who was the current policyholder.

[dave4959]

Sheepshanks said:

dave4959 said:

Why not insure your partners car next year, then she insures it the year after etc etc
That's what we've done for last 6 years since I moved to company car.

It's possible this might have been messed up by the new rules saying insurance companies can't quote existing customers more than new ones, but insurers used to give introductory discounts so in practice there wasn't much, if any, difference between none and full NCB for new customers as long as your driving record was OK. When I opted out of having a company car LV= mirrored the NCB we had on our exisiting car.

Watch that DOC cover normally only covers the policyholder = if you ever rely on that it would be easy to get caught out by forgetting who was the current policyholder.

Yes correct, for example I have DOC cover this year, but definitely one to watch. Important for some, but I think I've maybe used DOC cover less than 2 or 3 times, so never really been bothered by it. If you had a company car, you wouldn't get DOC cover anyways.

As for prices, we both have 8 years+ NCD, married and in late 30's. Always seems around £300 whoever is main driver.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Bluetec350 said:

dibblecorse said:

Just insure the car on a policy in your name using the NCD you have and complete the form with the companies details for the legal owner and registered keeper, we have just done this for my wife's recently acquired EV through her business, a decent broker like A Plan should be able to help no bother at all.

I'm not sure that you can do that . The car is not owned by you and the lease is with your employer. Yo have no insurable interest in the vehicle.

He can do it and he does have an insurance interest. He's the main user and agreed to be responsible for the car. If the car is damaged, the company will look to him for reimbursement. That's his insurable interest.

If you think about it, the company aren't the owners either, the lease company are. But the company have an insurable interest because they have agreed to be responsible for the damage. They've passed that responsibility on to the OP. All above board, and whilst some insurers don't like it, many are fine. Just ensure they know the score.

[London1986]

Ok so just contacted the company I am leasing the car through (Vanarama) and they put me in touch with their insurance department who gave me a quote.

I can confirm I can do what others have advised in the post... insure in my name as a normal policy, even though it is a lease via my company. This is only possible because I am the director of my company. If I was an employee only, then this wouldn't have been possible.

So I can use my own name, I get to carry over my NCD, and use my business account to pay for it.

There is also a clause at the bottom of the quotation that reads the following...

"We are aware that the vehicle on this policy is a company leased vehicle.
In the event that the vehicle is written off or stolen, any payment will be paid to the company as named on your schedule"

Happy days!

Thanks all for your input.

[London1986]

dibblecorse said:

Just insure the car on a policy in your name using the NCD you have and complete the form with the companies details for the legal owner and registered keeper, we have just done this for my wife's recently acquired EV through her business, a decent broker like A Plan should be able to help no bother at all.

I have spoken to my accountant regarding this and he has mentioned that it is fine to put the policy under my own name, but I should make sure I put down that it is for business use. Can you confirm whether you did this for your wife?