Car insurance, practical advice please

[CLEMENTINA]

My husband was diagnosed at Christmas, and is no longer driving. We have taken him off the insurance and informed DVLA. My son and his partner could be much more helpful if I could insure a car for them to use, but they would, according to the insurers I have tried, be in effect the keepers of the car, even though I am the owner. For various reasons I do not want to transfer ownership to them, but I want them to keep the car at their house which is only 2 miles away, and I want to retain ownership and direct debits for all related car expenses.

Has anyone experienced problems like this? I know you probably can't direct me to individual insurers, but it would be helpful to know if my proposed scenario is a non-starter?

 

[jugglingmum]

The legal owner of the car and the keeper are different things.

You could draw up a simple letter to your son and his partner, saying that they will keep the vehicle at their house, and that you are still the legal owner and pay the required running costs. Then send the log book off showing change of keeper (but not owner).

The log book should record the keeper of the vehicle not the owner. And the insurance and log book need to tie in if ever shown to the police (they got a bit shirty when the log book and my name and the insurance was in OH's with me as named driver when I had to show documents after a crash)

You may wish to recheck quotes with insurance companies first.

 

[ITBookworm]

I am not 100% sure but I seem to think that what DVLA or an insurance company consider as the "keeper" of a car does NOT need to be the legal owner. Quite how that would work out in practice I don't know....

From the insurance side for example you would need to confirm the you were the policy holder (so if the car was stolen for example the insurance company would pay you rather than your son) but that everything else, driver, place car was kept etc was your son.

I think it should be technically possible but whether it would be worth setting it up ...

If you do a google search for "keeper of car is not legal owner" you can find references to this.

Good Luck.

 

[nmintueo]

Yes, the owner and the keeper may not be the same thing; that should be no bar to insurance.

The keeper and the 'main driver' may not be the same thing, and that might or might not be a problem depending on your situation and your insurers.

Make sure you're clear and on record with the insurers about the situation, and shop around to see who'll cover you and for what premium.

Can I Insure A Car If I'm Not the Registered Keeper?
http://www.money.co.uk/article/1009114-can-i-insure-a-car-if-im-not-the-registered-keeper.htm

"some insurers refuse to cover anyone but the registered keeper as the 'main driver'"​

Q743: Is there a difference between the registered keeper and the owner of a vehicle?
https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q743.htm

"Most insurance companies insist that the person who they insure is the primary user of the vehicle and can specify that the person is the registered keeper."​

At worst, I expect your son could be the registered keeper and the main user and get insurance for himself and his partner, and you'd still be the owner and pay all the bills (whether directly or by reimbursing your son). But the premium would depend on his age, his postcode, his driving record etc, not yours.

 

[WIFE]

My husband was diagnosed at Christmas, and is no longer driving. We have taken him off the insurance and informed DVLA. My son and his partner could be much more helpful if I could insure a car for them to use, but they would, according to the insurers I have tried, be in effect the keepers of the car, even though I am the owner. For various reasons I do not want to transfer ownership to them, but I want them to keep the car at their house which is only 2 miles away, and I want to retain ownership and direct debits for all related car expenses.

Has anyone experienced problems like this? I know you probably can't direct me to individual insurers, but it would be helpful to know if my proposed scenario is a non-starter?

Hi Clementina

When my husband had to give up driving last year I asked the insurance company to keep the policy in his name but with me as the only named driver. Might work the other way round for you with the car and policy registered in your name but with your son and his partner as the named drivers.

Good luck

 

[Rathbone]

I am the registered keeper and insurer of a car that the insurance company knows is housed permanently at my son's place and he is shown on the policy as the main driver. If you would like to know the insurance company do PM me. X

 

[john51]

My car, while I am still allowed to drive is on personal lease. I am not the owner or registered keeper.
This is no problem for my insurer (its the one with the phone which isnt on comparison websites).
They have recorded the fact that I have dementia, but have not changed the premium. The lovely person I spoke to said that I had done all I needed so far as they were concerned, and that I am no greater risk now than before, until my accident record proves differently

John

 

[CLEMENTINA]

Thanks

That's given me hope to keep trying other companies; there are minor issues about the chosen named drivers, but all in all I am now much more hopeful. Thank you for the replies!

 

[CLEMENTINA]

Thanks again

Just read the rest of the replies to date, (sorry, am new to the forum!).Thanks to inmintueo, ITBookworm, jugglingmum (that sounds complicated), and WIFE. I will go away and digest all the helpful comments, and report if successful.

 

[jaymor]

When my husband stopped driving we cancelled his policy and at the same time I advised my insurance company that he would no longer be a named driver on my car insurance. My insurance went up. When i said surely it should go down as there was now only one risk the lady said no, the risk was higher because there was no one to share a long drive with me. So having someone with dementia driving lowered the risk of an Accident on a long drive. Not in my world it didn't.

Just another thing you can't win with when dealing with dementia.

Jay

 

[jugglingmum]

Unless there was a condition on your insurance that you always had to travel together then can't see how this works. I am doing a 7 hour round trip to London on Saturday, without OH so no sharing of the driving.

Insurance doesn't make sense, 16 years ago when I got married, I phoned insurance company to advise of change of name, and got a refund as premium had gone down. We'd been living together for 9 years by then, with both of us as named drivers on each others policies, so nothing changed - just didn't make sense.

And one of our policies used to be invalid if anyone living in the house is under 25 with a full driving licence (not checked it recently).

Maybe using a broker would be the way to go, I know we all tend to insure direct nowdays, but a broker may be able to get some better quotes with unusual cover required

 

[jaymor]

Unless there was a condition on your insurance that you always had to travel together then can't see how this works. I am doing a 7 hour round trip to London on Saturday, without OH so no sharing of the driving.

Insurance doesn't make sense, 16 years ago when I got married, I phoned insurance company to advise of change of name, and got a refund as premium had gone down. We'd been living together for 9 years by then, with both of us as named drivers on each others policies, so nothing changed - just didn't make sense.

And one of our policies used to be invalid if anyone living in the house is under 25 with a full driving licence (not checked it recently).

Maybe using a broker would be the way to go, I know we all tend to insure direct nowdays, but a broker may be able to get some better quotes with unusual cover required

My policy was just a straight forward one, he was just a named driver. In fact he has never driven any of my cars, he was just there for emergency purposes only. If we went anywhere it was always in his car. Just another way to extort money.

Jay

 

[ASH74]

....we had "borrowed" FIL's car after he was told not to drive by various docs (to remove temptation)....all the time encouraging him to contact the DVLA....while investigations were ongoing we let the insurers know and FIL was still on the policy but not as the main driver....moment the DVLA revoked his licence insurance was invalid so my husband had to insure in his name until we convinced FIL to sell the car......insurance company was extremely helpful.......but we had been involved and in contact with them as FIL doesn't have a credit card so we were paying every year and they already had permission from FIL that we could talk to them etc.


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[Lady Phoenix]

Why Not Phone The Insurance Company And See What They Want To Do?

Why not actually ring an insurance company on their 0800 number and ske them?

You explain the situation to them, being 100% accurate with your information and they will use whatever information you give them to give you an answer.

Ive worked in home insurance (Which is different) in the past and I know that there is a general ruling that states that an item on loan is allowed to be insured as if the borrower actually owned the item. Otherwise you can not hold an insurance policy. So, for example, I could not insure your wedding ring for damages, but if you lent it to me I could.
I would assume that the most likely scenario would be in place.

- Sons are named as "borrowinfg" the car and are therefore classed as the registered keeper. This would enable them to insure and use the car. I guess they may require some paperwork to prove this and they may put a time limit on the policy.

- Father is named as the main insurer but with the additional endorsement that he can not drive it while diagnosed with with Dementia. Your sons would be named as additional drivers.

I woud suspect the first scenario is more likely as they do like the main policy holder to be driving more mileage than the names drivers, which obvioulsy wont be the case here.

In any case, be 100% honest with them and they will help you as best they can. If they cant help you, thank them, be polite and ask them for information on what to do next. They may advise you that its against company policy and may advise you of a certain company to try next. They may tell you is unlawful and would advise you of how to make it lawful. Or it could be something else.

One BIG tip with insurance companies. Learn to read between the lines and listen out for hypothetical situations. They arent allowed to tell you how to bend the rules directly.

Let me give you an example of a call I had when I worked for a famous extended warranty company

Call - My son lost his phone
Me - Im sorry, we dont cover for loss, we do however, cover for irretreivable loss
call - But my son lost his phone at school
me - Then Im afraid its not covered. However, if he had lost it on the way home from school, for example, dropped it and it fell into a river and it would be far too dangerous to expect him to retieve it then it would be covered,
Call - Did I say he lost it at school? Im sorry, I meant he lost is on the way to school. It fell out of his pocket and bounced into a river
Me - Ill send you out a claim form madam.

That last bit was 100% irrelevant to this thread but it just remined me of that call.

 

[Jinx]

When my husband stopped driving we cancelled his policy and at the same time I advised my insurance company that he would no longer be a named driver on my car insurance. My insurance went up. When i said surely it should go down as there was now only one risk the lady said no, the risk was higher because there was no one to share a long drive with me. So having someone with dementia driving lowered the risk of an Accident on a long drive. Not in my world it didn't.

Just another thing you can't win with when dealing with dementia.

Jay

Yes my premium went up too when I took my husband off the policy so I asked If I could put 37 year old daughter on instead for occasional use and they wanted to charge me even more! Can't win...


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[LadyA]

Sometimes insurance companies do seem a bit arbitrary in decisions, premiums and the like, don't they? Dau and I are with the same company for car insurance. My renewal has always been much lower than hers, because of her age, but now she's almost 30, and has a full no-claims discount, we expected that surely, this year, her premium would be the same as mine. Nope. Mine came in at 280euro. Hers, when it arrived a couple of weeks ago was a whopping 489! I told her to phone them and ask why it was so much - or just go somewhere else, because they really were just chancing it! She phoned, and said "Hi. I wasn't even going to bother phoning you, because your premium is so high - but I was talking to my mother, who is also with you, and she said her insurance was only 280. Can you explain to me why mine is so ridiculously high?" And suddenly, her premium too was able to be done for 280 euro.