Caught for driving with no insurance....check your small print!

I didn't make it clear - my sister isn't insured on the car because she has bought another car and is selling this one at some point in the near future, hence why it was available. Fox, I understand what you are saying and I had checked my insurance certificate which makes no reference to the other car needing to be insured. Had it mentioned this or at least said 'The policy holder may drive other cars in accordance with the terms in section x' I would have dug deeper.

In hindsight I clearly should have researched this further anyhow but this was an honest mistake and I'm just looking for some advice, perhaps someone might have done similar before etc.
 
Ahleckz said:
That makes no sense whatsoever though. Surely, you could go out and get one of these policies that allows you to drive any other car that isn't insured, on a cheap to insure car. Then go out buy a different car that you wouldn't have been able to afford to insure and drive that 3rd party... It seems like a gaping loop hole and I'm sure it can't be dependent on policy wording. Surely any car that is driven needs to be covered by its own insurance (outwith trade and what not).
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DoC cover normally isn't valid on a car you own. It also isn't as simple as having the logbook in someone elses name before that's mentioned :p
 
Ahleckz said:
That makes no sense whatsoever though. Surely, you could go out and get one of these policies that allows you to drive any other car that isn't insured, on a cheap to insure car. Then go out buy a different car that you wouldn't have been able to afford to insure and drive that 3rd party... It seems like a gaping loop hole and I'm sure it can't be dependent on policy wording.
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It isn't a gaping loop hole at all because you can only drive cars you DONT OWN under the drive other car extension. Whether these other cars are insured in their own right or not is entirely down to each individual insurer.

If you bought a Ferrari and a Panda and insured the Panda you couldnt drive the Ferrari because it belongs to you.
 
Ahleckz said:
That makes no sense whatsoever though. Surely, you could go out and get one of these policies that allows you to drive any other car that isn't insured, on a cheap to insure car. Then go out buy a different car that you wouldn't have been able to afford to insure and drive that 3rd party... It seems like a gaping loop hole and I'm sure it can't be dependent on policy wording. Surely any car that is driven needs to be covered by its own insurance (outwith trade and what not).
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The "gaping loop hole" is covered by the fact that every DOC policy will mention that the car must not be "owned" by the driver using the DOC extension. Sure, you can lie, register the car in another person's name but insurance fraud is insurance fraud.

(Beaten by Fox)
 
Nick1881 said:
Wait, you called 999 because your car broke down? Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong?
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I'm probably opening myself up here for even more criticism than I have already received (you should know better etc..) but having answered numerous 999 calls in a former life I can categorically defend the reasons for calling 999. The car was broken down in lane one of a busy dual carriageway and therefore (as someone else has stated) I was posing a risk to others and there was no safe way to remove the car without their help.
 
as already said it says owned, not registered

different things.

Jonny said:
I'm probably opening myself up here for even more criticism than I have already received (you should know better etc..) but having answered numerous 999 calls in a former life I can categorically defend the reasons for calling 999. The car was broken down in lane one of a busy dual carriageway and therefore (as someone else has stated) I was posing a risk to others and there was no safe way to remove the car without their help.
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did it not have a hard shoulder by the way ?
 
No, no hard shoulder it's only a mile or so long with a few parking bays on the side. My accelerator stopped working and I ended up coasting to within about 50 yards of the parking bay.
 
whitecrook said:
So your sister didn't have insurance on her own car?
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Seems not... but then she wasn't driving it either. A small risk of fire/theft etc... but hardly a big deal if it's not worth much and is just sitting on the drive any way.

To be fair, 6 point does seem harsh when it was just a simple mistake to make. However - the penalty does reflect the seriousness of the situation. You could be been in a serious accident, uninsured. That kind of thing can ruin people's lives so the harsh penalty if justified.

Moral of the story - always make sure you are insured, don't make assumptions!
 
Jonny said:
I didn't make it clear - my sister isn't insured on the car because she has bought another car and is selling this one at some point in the near future, hence why it was available. Fox, I understand what you are saying and I had checked my insurance certificate which makes no reference to the other car needing to be insured. Had it mentioned this or at least said 'The policy holder may drive other cars in accordance with the terms in section x' I would have dug deeper.

In hindsight I clearly should have researched this further anyhow but this was an honest mistake and I'm just looking for some advice, perhaps someone might have done similar before etc.
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Read the thread you muppets he has said why his sister didn't have insurance.
 
Jonny said:
No, no hard shoulder it's only a mile or so long with a few parking bays on the side. My accelerator stopped working and I ended up coasting to within about 50 yards of the parking bay.
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if theres no hard shoulder then you've done the right thing.

No use blocking a dual carriageway for up to an hour while waiting for your breakdown truck to arrive.

Thats assuming they would even get out and attempt to recover the vehicle in the middle of a busy dual carriageway without assistance from the police / highways agency at all, which i'm not sure they would.
 
Thanks to all the people who have given helpful non-judgmental comments. I think I'm just going to take the six points, learn from it and be thankful that no-one was hurt etc. For the record MrLoL I called the AA whilst I was waiting for the police to arrive so that I could try and expedite things and they asked me to call back after the police had arrived as they wouldn't send anyone until they were there and the car was in a place of safety.
 
Thought it was common knowledge about the car needing insurance for you to drive it 3rd party, well thats what I was always told by my parents, dont know many insurers that do, few and far between these days what with all the insurance fraud on the market.

Why would they put in detail on the certificate about the car needing to be registered owned tax insured washer fluid full etc. etc., it would be 20 pages long, hence the small print, my insurance send me a booklet with everything you need to know.
 
Ahleckz said:
That makes no sense whatsoever though. Surely, you could go out and get one of these policies that allows you to drive any other car that isn't insured, on a cheap to insure car. Then go out buy a different car that you wouldn't have been able to afford to insure and drive that 3rd party... It seems like a gaping loop hole and I'm sure it can't be dependent on policy wording. Surely any car that is driven needs to be covered by its own insurance (outwith trade and what not).
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Of course, besides the issue of you owning the car, if the car in question is not insured its self then you cannot leave it unattended on the road (or anywhere with public access that is covered under the RTA), as your insurance will usually only cover you whilst you are with the vehicle. So you could drive your car around, but could only park it on your driveway.

This is, at least how my policy worked with Quinn many years ago.
 
Ahleckz said:
That makes no sense whatsoever though. Surely, you could go out and get one of these policies that allows you to drive any other car that isn't insured, on a cheap to insure car. Then go out buy a different car that you wouldn't have been able to afford to insure and drive that 3rd party... It seems like a gaping loop hole and I'm sure it can't be dependent on policy wording. Surely any car that is driven needs to be covered by its own insurance (outwith trade and what not).
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How are you proposing to tax any of these cars?
 
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