Hurlabrick

My buddy has kindly offered me his car to drive for the first 2/3 weeks in Canada until we buy our car.


I asked him about insurance and he blithely dismissed my concerns saying 'oh, you would be covered under my insurance no problem'.


Is this common in Canada? I know it isn't in the UK! I just don't want to be driving anyones car if I am not correctly insured for it!

scrubbedexpat091

In BC you would be covered. No need to buy extra coverage when borrowing a car that is already insured.

http://www.icbc.com/FAQ/Pages/Lending-a-Vehicle.aspx


This is for BC. Can't say what it's like in other provinces.

Hurlabrick

Ah OK, thanks. So he isn't necessarily wrong (he can be a bit cavalier about things like this).


It would be Ontario and yes, it would be for personal use only - no work or commuting etc.

Piff Poff

He'd be covered in Alberta too

Novocastrian

^ and in Ontario.

Aviator

Provided any drivers meet the conditions of insurance. Some of our policies have a 10 year driving experience requirement (10 Year North American experience is in the T & C). If you take the documents into the broker and ask them, they can look at the policy and advise.

Novocastrian

Fair point. No harm in checking although I never had insurance in ON containing such a clause.

Hurlabrick

Great, thanks as usual guys. Easiest if I insist on him adding me as a named driver - or better still rent my own!!

Piff Poff

Put it this way, we have had people come and stay with us and use our cars, they have been covered, haven't had to tell insurance. We did ask when my Stepson under age 21 borrowed the car - were told no problems as long as he had our permission.

nikki dreaming

Unless the policy is some kind of commercial based with specific exclusions, then providing you have owners consent to drive , you are covered under their policy, no harm to double check but you should be good to go.

Aviator

Does not work like that here, there are no named driver. The vehicle is covered, and the driver if they have the owners consent. Always best to check with the insurer. In BC we have to name the primary driver, so depends how long you will have it that may be something to look into. All our vehicles have a 10 year restriction and commercials restricted to employees only.

Bad form to have a crash and not be covered. Cheaper to use his and check the policy surely?

MillieF

I rang this morning to add our 16 year old son to the policies of our cars. Great they said, this is noted, but there will be no charge, and we need no further info until he has a full license as he is covered under your policy phew...that was a relief...so I think the same goes for here inNB!

Best of luck

DandNHill

I worked for TD insurance for a short while. The way they presented it in the training was "you lend your car, you lend your insurance"

dbd33

That's because the insurance covers the car and not the driver. Once the car is insured it's covered equivalent to "any driver" coverage in the UK. It may be that there are insurers in Ontario that will issue a policy to "any driver ten years licensed" or "any driver over 25" but I haven't heard of that. Policies excluding specific people from specific vehicles are common so, in effect, "Ferrari: any driver except Gozit, the young person in the house" or "Golf Cart: any driver except dbd, the husband with all the speeding tickets" but not policies excluding categories of people.

Where declaring drivers comes in is in rating the policy. The company is covering the car for all drivers but wants paying based on the likely drivers. So they want to know about all drivers in the household not explicitly excluded from vehicles and will make an assumption about which people are going to use which cars the most. This is an area of rate competition; if one company assumes 2 cars 2 drivers rate them as if one person always uses each car and another assumes both drivers always use the more expensive car, the first company will be cheaper. Note that companies use sources other than application forms to see who lives in the house and that some use tokens, like house arrest bracelets, to see who actually drives.

Anyway, it'd be an odd policy that excluded temporary use by new immigrants.

SchnookoLoly

You should be fine with it. We had a similar arrangement with my parents when we came for visits, and when we first moved to Canada. Dad called the insurance company just to double check, it was all fine. As DandNHill said, you lend your car you lend the insurance, and as dbd clarified, it's the car that's insured, not the driver. So if you get in an accident it'll be your friend that's liable for the damages and any increase in premiums, it's basically a risk he's taking by lending you the car.

He should just double check with his insurance that it's all fine.