Car Insurance Question

Grendel

Grendel

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Does anyone know if it's legal to insure a car you don't actually own?

Reason being - My business owns a Saab 1.9 which is currently insured under a business policy and the imminent renewal is £771.00, seriously!. However if the person who drives the car insures it under her own name, we can get it for £274 :eek:

I've done a trawl of the interweb but tbh there's so much mixed opinion out there I'm no further forward. So I was hoping someone here might know for definite if she can she insure the car herself, even though it's owned by my business?

TIA :)
 
Whenever I have taken out car insurance in the past I have always been asked who the registered owner of the vehicle is and 'the proposer' isn't the only option so it must be possible to insure a car you don't own. Surely a call to any insurance company would get you an answer as they will all work to the same rules.
 
you can insure a car you don't own - but you need to tell them, as almost all standard policy's charge extra.
 
Does the £274 policy cover Business mileage? Insured as a company car it will by default, a personal policy will not by default.

just a thought.
 
Like Susan (Rob!) said, ask an insurance company or broker, they should be able to give you a definitive answer rather than an "I think so".
 
AndrewA123 said:
Does the £274 policy cover Business mileage? Insured as a company car it will by default, a personal policy will not by default.

just a thought.
Click to expand...

That's a very good point Andrew, although the car would be used only for minimal business mileage it would probably have an effect on the premium.

Of course, I need to discuss this with an insurance company, I just wanted to have a rough idea of the ins and outs before hand, so thanks for the pointers :)
 
You'll need full business use, which will add a bit to the premium: perhaps £50-£100.

Also if she insures it she would have to pay for it herself I think, and if you want to re-imburse her for that cost you are probably going to have to tax her on that amount. As it's not her car you wont be able to do the usual 40p per mile expenses malarky. I've probably got that not quite right and its more complex than it looks as well! :lol:
 
Joe's tax point is very valid and taxable value is on new price and not secondhand. That could scupper things. It can't be a pool car and personally insured...
 
AndrewA123 said:
Does the £274 policy cover Business mileage? Insured as a company car it will by default, a personal policy will not by default.

just a thought.
Click to expand...

Second that. Why dont the tight gits just give you the car :D
 
-Rob- said:
Whenever I have taken out car insurance in the past I have always been asked who the registered owner of the vehicle is
Click to expand...

No such thing as the "registered owner", the v5c tells you who the registered keeper is but is not a title document.
 
Try a different insurance broker.
 
You can insure any vehicle you have a financial interest in.

A couple of things spring to mind if your going to insure the vehicle yourself are...

a) Would anybody else in the company then be insured to drive it as I'm guessing they would need fully comp + business cover on their insurance.

b) Your insurance company could get arsey if there was an accident with someone else in the car as if two companies were insuring the vehicle they would both fight it out as to who was liable to pay out ...

c) If there were an accident it would be your no claims up the spout (insurance companies will load your insurance even if you've got protected no claims)...

Theres a loads of whats and if's, I would stear well clear and let the company sort it out. Unless they somehow want to give you the car or let you buy it and sort out renumeration another way :)
 
I have full business use on my car at no extra cost.
It's a grey area, some insurers will and some won't, but many have free phone lines for quotes so worth a few phone calls
 
Have to dash off but will give this more thought and post again.

Turning over in my head scenarios.

Another employee in car. If insured by business, any injury to him/her would be excluded as it's covered by Employer's Liability. If insured by an individual (not emplyer) would be covered. Insurers may not be too happy about this situation.

Am also thinking about the use (as opposed to the driving) of the car by the business not being covered and yet a claim could (could it??) arise. The company would not be indemnified.

Retired from insurance 10 years ago and trying to get the grey matter working. Anyone else in insurance are to give an opinion on the above.

Will give it more thought and post again.

Ken
 
The £774 will be tax deductible by your business , if she pays the premium it won't, I have tried to transfer my insurance to a car a friend offered to lend me while mine was being repaired and the insurance company wouldn't do it as they wouldn't insure a car which I wasn't the registered keeper of.

The reason business use is so expensive is business users do 3-4x the average mileage, if you tell them she's driving 49k a year the premium will go up,does she carry any stock most companies exclude carrying of goods.

try www.choicequote.com for a quote,it's best to ring them up, they saved me £400 on my van insurance and it's gone down almost every year, last year I was ready to pay the premium they offered and he said i'll just do another quick check, 2 mins later he saved me another £30
 
When I looked at insuring the wife's car several companies refused to quote as she was not the registered keeper. (the car was in my name, changing it to hers would have meant another previous owner when we came to sell)
 
As long as you tell the insurance company the name of the actual owner, someone else can be the policyholder

For example.......wife owns the car but husband is the policyholder.....as long as the insurance company know the wife is the owner then there is no issue.

You may find that the policy increases once you tell them that the policyholder is not the owner of the vehicle

When I say owner, I mean registered keeper

The registered keeper and owner are totally different things
 
technically it is possible.

Say for example, for dad owned a car but didnt have a driving license. Nothing stopping him buying a car. He would be the owner, the name on the V5, but you could insure it in your name.

With business it gets a bit more complicated. You could insure your own car for Cat A business use which would allow YOU to use the vehicle for business purposes as well as SDP. Many insureres offr this upgrade for free or low cost. If the car was to be used for anyone connected to the business (subject to age restrictions etc depending on the vehicle. I.e. Your company ferrari with full cat B business use WOULD have an exclusion to stop the 18 yr old teaboy driving it around) then Cat B business is required and costs quite a few ££.
 
Lots of answers so far most saying that insurers don't like it and that is probably the case. You may find someone who will do it but I would be wary.

Firstly, lets start with the basics. I think someone has already referred to this - insurable interest. This is one of the fundamentals of all insurance. Someone above referred in a financial interest, that would be one type of insurable interest. If you made a contract with your employee to provide a car for her business use but stated that she was responsible for the car, she has insurable interest. Without this contract she doesn't.

If you pass the test of insurable interest, and find an insurer prepared to provide cover, there are still potential (albeit remote) problems to consider. The employer, having provided the car, still has responsibilities for the car. The insurance in the name of the employee is unlikely to indemnify the employer. I've been struggling to find a scenario (I did say it was remote). Lets say the car was not adequatley maintained and whilst parked the brakes failed and the runaway car seriously injured a pedestrian (more expensive than killing). The pedestrian may choose to sue the registered keeper and the employer jointly and a judgement may be filed against the employer for negligence in causing the injury as they had failed to ensure the car they owned was safe. The car insurance policy would not provide that indemnity to the employer.

Many years ago we used to offer Contingent Liability insurance to employers who provided a mileage allowance to employees to use there own car. Don't know if that is still done. Thus, you can see there was a remote possibility of a claim in those circumstances and I believe there is a greater possibility where the employer provides the car.

Sorry, that was long winded but I hope it helps you to consider all aspects.

My way forward would be to seek alternative quotes in the name of the company.

If I can help (confuse, you may say) any further, let me know.

Ken
 
Many thanks for the full and concise answers. It's been a great help and really appreciated :)
 
Gary said:
Some let you do it, some don't.
But it's def possible otherwise you wouldn't be able to insure a lease car.
Click to expand...

That's a totally differenet kettle of fish to whats being requested here...
 
With a lease car there is a clear insurable interest as responsibility is part of the contract. You would still need to look at the contingent liability of the company.

You may be better dealing via a good broker who will be better placed to give you advice on the current market situation. My background includes writing the policy wordings having considered the risks, etc., but I am 10 years out of date (probably longer as I spent 8 years doing admin/management things).

Ken
 
I'm going to speak to a broker later today (hopefully) so I'll update this thread with the outcome :)
 
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