Driving another car on 3rd party insurance
 

I have heard conflicting stories on this, some say you are road legal some say you are not. Lets say if I have fully comp insurance on my car and it covers me to drive any other car 3rd party only. If I drive another car which has no other insurance policy on it am I road legal or not ? Is it not true that while am I in the car it is insured. I have a friend who has even bought a second car and registered it in his brothers name and only drives it 3rd party through his other fully comp policy. There is no policy on the 2nd vehicle. (its only a £900 Mondeo). :confused: :confused:

I'm pretty sure the 2nd car has to have insurance on it for someone else to drive it.....

i beleive the other car has to have a registered keeper and also an insurance policy, I may be wrong though.

Keep in mind that if you hit another car, the 3rd party cover will only rectify damage caused to the 3rd party vehicle.

An old friend, drove my brothers scooby on 3rd party cover, although another car wasn't involved, he lost control and wrote it off.

My brother was left with no pay out and no car, with a further 4 years left to pay off his loan and have nothing to show for it. 3rd party cover is really only worth it if you are driving around in scrap.

Yeah, I believe that the other car needs to have insurance on it.
Also, what is your mate going to do when his Mondeo needs road tax? As to get tax you must provide an MOT and insurance certificate for that car, going in with a policy for another car and saying you use the 3rd party cover from that policy is not acceptable.

Is it not also a legal requirement for any vehicle that it must have insurance??:wonder:

Mondeo needs to be insured. Your friend is driving around uninsured. Tell them, if they don't listen you're in a pickle (a - hope they get caught. b - tell the police in case they hit another car or worse hurt someone)

BTW a copper on here has explained this in the past - I'll try find it... with good old google now.

IF IT DOES NOT SAY on your certificate then you are NOT covered.... Simple as that! If you have to do a producer thats what they will look for, if its not stated that you can drive another persons car with their permission you will get done for driving with no insurance.

Also even if you do have cover, if you drive a car that is not insured by anyone else, the second you leave the car un-attended in a public place that has access from the highway it is no longer insured and thus illegally parked.

That's what I was trying to get at above as well.

I've always been under the impression that in order to drive another car third party under your insurance policy the car has to be insured under the owners policy before it's legal.

Come tax time he's totally snookered!

i dont think it has to be, i seen it on police camera action before when a car got pulled because it was not insured in the database but the guy driving it was returning it from from a garage and his insurance covered it so they let him go

I've worked as an insurance claims advisor for, erm, a long time !

If you have a policy in your own name, this allows you to drive any other vehicle which you neither own nor have leased, on a third party basis.

The other vehicle does not require to be insured for the cover to kick in (although I think the police might have a word with the owner of the vehicle).

HTH

Andy Mc

PS If there is cover on the vehicle being driven (ie a policy for that car) then there is usually an almighty "bun-fight" as to which of the insurers must deal with the third party claim ! :D

Andy
I am sorry to say but you are absolutely, categorically wrong on this and are potentially encouraging people to drive other people's cars insured!

Many insurers are withdrawing cover to drive other vehicles. Hereunder is the relevant section from my own policy:

Can I drive other people's cars under my own insurance?
No. The Driving Other Cars extension has historically allowed policyholders only to drive cars that do not belong to them and are not hired to them under a hire purchase agreement, subject to the owner's permission. The cover provided is Third Party only cover which does not cover damage to the car they are driving, but does cover liability for damage and injury to third parties. This cover operates only whilst the Policyholder is driving and was designed to be used in emergency situations only.

Our experience has shown that many drivers do not fully understand the extent or purpose of this cover and that many are utilising it without fully understanding the true cover this extension provides. To support initiatives to reduce deliberate and inadvertent uninsured driving we have removed the extension from this insurance.

This means that you and any named drivers are only insured to drive vehicles clearly identified on either your Certificate of Motor Insurance or your Insurance Schedule, which should be kept with your Certificate.

If you want to add an additional temporary car or an additional driver to your insurance you can contact us and we can arrange for a car or driver to be added to your insurance subject to normal restrictions. We will then send you an amended schedule showing the additional car or driver details.

If you need to be added to a family or friends vehicle in order to be able to drive it, they can contact their insurer who will be able to arrange this for them subject to normal restrictions.

What company was that?

Tesco reduced the cover to "emergency" situation only. So while without my car for 6 weeks was that an emergency? It was for me. They also would not add someone else's car onto the policy as they had thier own insurance. I would have to be added to their policy as a named driver.

Now with Liverpool Victoria where the 'old-fashioned' interpretation applies:thumb: and saved a few quid too.

In theory you are insured whilst in the car. If you step out of the vehicle you are then leaving un un-insured car on the public highway, which is an offence.

thats exactly how I understood it, as I have used this extension to take other peoples cars for an MOT, and obviosly the car itself was not insured as they would arrange that after they had passed in order to then tax the car. At least I know I was legal.

RAC Direct (i.e. Norwich Union)

It will see withdrawal by more companies in the future, due to abuse by drivers that habitually drive on it :)

Yep, lots of the direct companies have already dropped it, although as a broker i haven't experienced many companies we use dropping it.....yet

make sure whoever owns the car keeps it off the road when parke up and dont get out the car unless you are off road :lol1: otherwise the registered keeper will get 6 points,it happened to me when a neighbour grassed on me for no roadtax the police came round discovered i had no insurance either 6 points and fines a plenty.the car was for sale and i never drove it when the insurance ran out btw

bttt
 

you are insured to drive the car but the minute you park the car the car is no longer insured , unless the owner has it insured and we all know its illeagle to have a vehicle parked on a road repairable at public expense .
all cars need to be insured in the first instance then you will have no problem .

in the old days this little scam used to work but not any more unfortunately
its a sign of the time and the law getting WISER .

one way to get by is to get someone with a traders policy to add your second vehicle to it then you drive it on third party only .
its a grey area so tread carefully .

ps stop being tight and insure the car its only going to be peanuts campared to a subaru or xyzzz .:eek2:

The law states that the driver only require 3rd party cover as a minimum for a vehicle to be on the road. If you pay for this cover how is the car insured when you leave it?

Dont know why everyone is arguing, just look at your Certificate.. it tells you what you are "INSURED" to drive on it.. And at the end of the day you are not going to stand and aruge with a custody sargent about whats written in black and white ;)

I checked this with my insurance company. I had a Jaguar and bought another car and transferred the insurance. I wanted to clean up the Jag' and sell it privately possibly needing to test drive it to prospective buyers (I don't let prospects drive). I found out that, theoretically, if I had transferred ownership to my wife then I would have been covered to drive it on my "Drive another car owned by another" facility on my insurance. As said Jag' above needed to be taxed and MoT-ed which it was but it became illegal if I parked up on public highway.

This can be useful if, for example, you are boozing with someone who may be a bit worse for wear and you can legitimately drive them home in his/her vehicle if you are yourself OK boozewise. dl

Check with you own company as may vary from insurance company to insurance company, but with tesco you ARE covered to drive other vehicles third party only, with the owners permission, if the other vehicle isnt insured you are still covered TPO to drive it, however the moment you step foot out of the car it isnt insured so would be illegal to leave it parked on the road.

The driving other cars cover doesnt apply if:
-your not the policy holder
-<25 yrs old
-in the motor trade......and a few other occupations that I cant remember

but as I said, check with your own company first as it may differ

Both my cars are insured Fully Comp thanks Growler GRRRR and the Audi TDI is only slightly cheaper than my Impreza Type R amazingly. Most companies even quoted me more on the Audi, than Moley WRX got me on the Impreza. 8 years NCB and no claims on both cars. Interesting this one as I rung my insurance company once and asked them and they stated for me to drive another vehicle under their policy it did not need to have any other policy on it.

Road tax is nearly up on my mates car and he is just going to sell it now, as he cant get it taxed again.

Like Davey says if it states on your certificate in black and white you may legally drive any other car not belonging to you then where is the arguement. It doesn't say you may legally drive any other car not belonging to you provided it has an insurance policy on it. If you never get out of the vehicle it is insured at all times ??

key point -

you must be in the vehicle or in charge of the vehicle for this little loop hole to be of advantage .

park up and your car is not insured simple as abc unless the keeper has the vehicle insured .

the law is wise to this now so dont try it on eh get insured like all the MASSES its the way forward ,al be it expensive lol :thumb:

3rd party
 

you used to be able to drive another car on 3rd party and take a pull but now the other car has to be insured properly by the person whose name is on the log book,then you can drive it saying the person has lent it to you,but if you ask your broker they will tell you that it is only for emergencies but it doesnt say this on your policy,My girl friend got pulled in my car the other week and said that she was driving 3rd party and they couldnt do anything but if the police want to be funny with you they will just phone the insurance and tell them,depends on if your driving a 20,000 pound car on a 3rd party metro ince.:norty: :norty:

The cover that you benefit from is described on the policy document. Unless it clearly states that the car must be insured elsewhere, then it need not. When asked most insurance company employees will state that 'we take it to mean...'; those interpretations have no legal bearing whatsoever.

Simon

well i currently own a corsa which covers me to drive my scooby 3rd party only, under sumbody elses name on the log book.i have been pulled over by police they checked it all out over the radios and they just reminded me that if i do crash that i am only 3rd party insured.the person whos name is on the log book DOES NOT have it insured himself .

conditions of my cover were that i must have the owners permission and the car be taxed and moted and NOT insured by somebody else and i am covered to drive it have it stated on my policy certificate which i keep in my scooby for when mr policeman wants to see it

Can open.....

.....worms everywhere!