Almost Canadian

Nonsense. Section 151 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 mandates that the insurer has to pay. Here is a link to it:

Road Traffic Act 1988

I appreciate that this piece of legislation may no longer apply (it has been some years since I left England) but, if it has, I imagine that it has been replaced by something very similar.

I am amazed that, as someone that used to work for an insurer in the UK, you are not aware of this provision as, from my experience of representing insurers, it was/is the bain of their lives.

Dashie

I'm talking about the UK. The dealer does not own the car once it leaves with the new owner, it is held as security against the loan by the finance company, either provided by the dealer, or arranged independently by the owner. When I bought a car on finance, my obligation was to the bank, not the dealer I bought it from. I suppose that technically, the car is paid for in the eyes of the dealer, because the finance company/bank/loan paid them for it. If you default on that loan, the dealer doesn't come looking for money, the finance company does.

In the same way that you can't just sell a house and run away without paying back the mortgage company. The mortgage company is noted as an interest on the property, but at no time does it legally own it or appear on the deeds. It is also not the mortgage company's responsibility to insure the property, but they will stipulate that the owner must take out insurance.

Dashie

I have previously stated that the Aviva policy doesn't cover anything insured elsewhere, as per the policy wording, it is unlikely that they will consider the vehicle to be part of their third party liability when using it to borrow someone else's car, particularly when it should be insured elsewhere. I also said that they would likely establish liability for the vehicle within the policy, essentially establishing ownership/liability for the car.

If the car is owned by the policyholder, no issue except for that of dual insurance as per the wording. If the car is not owned and it's just an extension, they would expect to be able to pass the claim onto the main insurer. I did not say that they wouldn't pay, I said that they would likely make a song and dance over who was responsible.

Aware of the RTA, thank you.

Dashie

I was thinking the same, might be worth looking at hiring something if the insurance is that much.

What is proof of ownership if not considered to be the V5? I know it doesn't say owner on it, but as far as I'm aware, there's nothing else that does either.

Almost Canadian

My reference to dealer was an illustrative one. In your case, it was very likely that the finance company legally owned the vehicle until such time that the financing was paid in full. You could not sell the vehicle as you did not own it.

No, it is completely different. You owned the house; you granted a mortgage to the mortgage company that provides the mortgage company with remedies in the event of your default. The terms of the mortgage dictate what terms you granted to the mortgage company.

In theory, you can sell the house and run off without paying the bank. This is because you own legal title to the house

Tangram

I suspect that this may be what is being referred to "From 14 January 2005 the FSA also regulated the motor industry, applicable when insurance products were sold in conjunction with the vehicle purchase. This regulation, which covered around 5,000 motor dealers, focused heavily on the FSA's "Treating Customers Fairly"[11] principles that were supposed to be representative of the motor dealers' trading style"

It relates to unsavory practices at dealerships.

BTW, we just had my wife's father's car insured for us to drive whilst in the UK. 70 pounds of the realm for a month, taken out by the policy holder to protect his "interest" in his own car.

MrFloyd

Working in insurance myself I can't see any issues with her being added as a named driver on the policy for a couple of weeks. Foreign licences are valid in the UK for 12 months from date of entry.

dbd33

This is the simplest thing. In the past, in order to drive my parents' cars we have:

- done this

- changed the vehicle policy to "any driver over 25" so as to avoid having to name the visitors

- been named but using our UK license numbers (even though we had Ontario ones)

- just driven the car and said nuffink.

lf1

Over the past few months, I have added temporary drivers to my UK policy. Both we're using Cdn Lic. Cost was between £25 and £45 with NFU mutual.

Jerseygirl

Just to be clear...did you inform the insurance company they were not UK residents and held Canadian DLs?

lf1

One was visiting. The other is a UK resident Insurer was informed of all the facts re their residency, driving lic status and the usual raft of insurance related questions.

Jerseygirl

Thanks for clarifying.

Alberta_Rose

My parents used to be able to get me covered to drive their car when I visited. The last two visits, their company refused me.
My m.i.l. is apparently still able to get coverage for my dh when he visits!

I did try telling parents they should change their insurers, but in the end I have had to rent a car.

I too found it interesting that no questions were asked about my ability to drive a manual, as I merrily kangarooed down the street!

I did consider renting an automatic, but was pissed at the price hike!!!

Jerseygirl

Hubby ordered a car from Kayak...it linked him to Rentalcars.com. We hired a car for approx $240 for 12 days for a full size manual car. When the confirmation came through it was through Hertz. When we collected it at Manchester Airport it was an automatic Ford Galaxy..diesel. Not worth the hassle and cost of trying to drive someone else's car for that price.

withabix

1) learn to drive a proper car

2) all European car hire firms charge double for automatics - they cost more to start with and they don't get the same volume discounts from the manufacturers.


A tip for anyone renting in the UK - if you rent at an airport branch of the big companies, you will nearly always be upgraded several groups if you book a small car (as they often don't keep them at airport branches) and quite often will get upgraded to an automatic anyway (because they keep most of their automatics at airport branches).