Insured or Not?

[Siliconslave]

did OP drive to work though? He drove to a restaurant, then walked to work. Doesn't seem cut and dried really.

Also IMO commuting should cover any kind of basic business use adjacent to commuting, as long as it isn't the main purpose of your job.

Agreed - my office is in central London however most insurance companies need business cover as I drive to a train station, not my main place of work! Its just taking the Michael

 

[Maundie]

We included Business use to our policy as I sometimes have to use our car when hire cars aren't available (local Enterprise claim they need 2 weeks notice for a car) and it added about £7 to the overall policy, why risk it.

Our insurance policy class SDP & Commuting as driving to 1 place of work and then home, not nipping to another office on the way home etc.

 

[robj20]

I also thought you only got the policy terminated if they wouldn't have otherwise insured you.
Don't they normally just ask you to pay the extra plus admin fee.

 

[Rroff]

did OP drive to work though? He drove to a restaurant, then walked to work. Doesn't seem cut and dried really.

This is where it gets complicated as per what Haze said earlier, only someone like a solicitor with access to all the information can really say. Most insurers cover themselves against this kind of situation with a "regular same route" catch all. The OP would probably be in the clear if it was a one off, or they could lie it was a one off (but I really don't recommend that as it could even end up with them going to prison). (It is a bit more complicated than that but I can't really cover it fully in a post).

Agreed - my office is in central London however most insurance companies need business cover as I drive to a train station, not my main place of work! Its just taking the Michael

Pretty sure a good few now like Admiral will cover you if you are just driving to the station and then getting a train into work.

I also thought you only got the policy terminated if they wouldn't have otherwise insured you.
Don't they normally just ask you to pay the extra plus admin fee.

AFAIK there is no hard and fast rule with that one, they will also percentage it out in some circumstances i.e. if you quoted for 5000 miles, did 6000 and had an accident they may still cover you up to a certain percentage.

 

[mornshow16]

Without knowing their insurer's terms and conditions and related particulars it is impossible to say really, if it was a one off trip that "happened" to coincide with work they'd nominally be able to get away with it even if they'd previously said they were driving to work, but most insurers include "regular same route" on the day of working as a catch all for this kind of situation - the normal example being driving to a train station - so OP would have to lie if they did this regularly, which would then make matters a whole lot worse if they got caught out.

So basically I was only travelling to that location for work temporarily. It wasn’t my contractual single work place. I was often asked by my manager to cover different stores. And before you say anything, I know now how neglecting that was on my part about the insurance.

 

[Kenai]

So basically I was only travelling to that location for work temporarily. It wasn’t my contractual single work place. I was often asked by my manager to cover different stores. And before you say anything, I know now how neglecting that was on my part about the insurance.

If anything, that makes it worse, in that most insurers would probably expect you to take out Business usage for that sort of usage.

I think you'd need a very creative solicitor to argue your way out of this on the basis that despite going to work, your travel wasn't commuting or business usage because you parked in a public car park and stopped off for a sausage roll at Greggs on the way past.

 

[Uther]

I think you're screwed unfortunately. Maybe get a solicitor to help, but this whole thing is going to cost you.
Why did you say you were commuting when you knew you didn't have cover for that?

 

[mornshow16]

I think you're screwed unfortunately. Maybe get a solicitor to help, but this whole thing is going to cost you.
Why did you say you were commuting when you knew you didn't have cover for that?

I didn’t know mate. Lol I was first time driver and I did my insurance on the road on my phone. Didn’t pay attention. My fault

 

[mornshow16]

If anything, that makes it worse, in that most insurers would probably expect you to take out Business usage for that sort of usage.

I think you'd need a very creative solicitor to argue your way out of this on the basis that despite going to work, your travel wasn't commuting or business usage because you parked in a public car park and stopped off for a sausage roll at Greggs on the way past.

Would that stand though? I feel like they can just argue the journey’s purpose was to travel to work and back.. but the solicitor I spoke to seems to be confident that no matter what I was using the car for before the accident it matters that I left from Greggs to go home and not from work. When I told the insurance I did some shopping before going home they argued that I should have completed my journey to work and back before going shopping. Which if that is the case then I have another receipt to say I had breakfast before walking to work..

Basically it isn’t black and white I get it. Are there any solicitors here to give some advice? Basically to advise me to argue this or not, would it just be a waste of money or is there a good chance?

 

[Haze]

If anything, that makes it worse, in that most insurers would probably expect you to take out Business usage for that sort of usage.

I think you'd need a very creative solicitor to argue your way out of this on the basis that despite going to work, your travel wasn't commuting or business usage because you parked in a public car park and stopped off for a sausage roll at Greggs on the way past.

This ^^^ you need yet another type insurance of plolicy to comute to more than one place of work

 

[Haze]

I think you're screwed unfortunately. Maybe get a solicitor to help, but this whole thing is going to cost you.
Why did you say you were commuting when you knew you didn't have cover for that?

Already has a solicitor, but aparently needs our help as well...

 

[Kenai]

Would that stand though?

I doubt it, which is why I say you'd need a very creative solicitor to successfully argue on that basis.

 

[happy_2008]

Would that stand though? I feel like they can just argue the journey’s purpose was to travel to work and back.. but the solicitor I spoke to seems to be confident that no matter what I was using the car for before the accident it matters that I left from Greggs to go home and not from work. When I told the insurance I did some shopping before going home they argued that I should have completed my journey to work and back before going shopping. Which if that is the case then I have another receipt to say I had breakfast before walking to work..

Basically it isn’t black and white I get it. Are there any solicitors here to give some advice? Basically to advise me to argue this or not, would it just be a waste of money or is there a good chance?

Only reason you ended up at Greggs was because you commuted to that or nearby location for work. Had you disclosed commuting in your policy the premium would have increased.

 

[Rroff]

Would that stand though? I feel like they can just argue the journey’s purpose was to travel to work and back.. but the solicitor I spoke to seems to be confident that no matter what I was using the car for before the accident it matters that I left from Greggs to go home and not from work. When I told the insurance I did some shopping before going home they argued that I should have completed my journey to work and back before going shopping. Which if that is the case then I have another receipt to say I had breakfast before walking to work..

Basically it isn’t black and white I get it. Are there any solicitors here to give some advice? Basically to advise me to argue this or not, would it just be a waste of money or is there a good chance?

Technically if you had say stopped at a friends house for a couple of hours on the way home it would arguably no longer be commuting, but you'd need a legal professional to work the details on that and you aren't likely to get any committal as to your chances on here even from anyone who is a solicitor.

 

[Haggisman]

AFAIK there is no hard and fast rule with that one, they will also percentage it out in some circumstances i.e. if you quoted for 5000 miles, did 6000 and had an accident they may still cover you up to a certain percentage.

Be interesting to see a legal basis for that. They ask for a mileage estimate with no stipulation of how accurate that should be, and I think they'd be opening themselves up for a world of aggro trying to enforce it unless you were way off, or they could prove that you deliberately underestimated.

 

[Rroff]

Be interesting to see a legal basis for that. They ask for a mileage estimate with no stipulation of how accurate that should be, and I think they'd be opening themselves up for a world of aggro trying to enforce it unless you were way off, or they could prove that you deliberately underestimated.

My example was just illustrative - most insurances companies won't even blink an eye at 6000 miles on a 5000 mile estimate, but with more serious discrepancies one outcome is they will percentage adjust how much they will cover of a payout.

 

[tom_e]

Be interesting to see a legal basis for that. They ask for a mileage estimate with no stipulation of how accurate that should be, and I think they'd be opening themselves up for a world of aggro trying to enforce it unless you were way off, or they could prove that you deliberately underestimated.

My current bike insurer are the only one I've ever seen that actually stipulate in the documentation that I must inform them if I go over the milage estimate I've given.

 

[bigmike20vt]

My example was just illustrative - most insurances companies won't even blink an eye at 6000 miles on a 5000 mile estimate, but with more serious discrepancies one outcome is they will percentage adjust how much they will cover of a payout.

I asked about this a good few years ago now with a friend of a friend in the business and they said similar.

They also said its more of an issue with some specialist insurance policies where you maybe only insure a car for under £1000 miles a year (ie classic or show cars etc).

if you had one of those policies and then added 12k onto the milage you would possibly have an issue.

i must admit i double checked my policy after reading some of this thread... (I do have commuting on mine and tbh i dont think it added anything noticeable on it cost wise)

at renewal i am going to tweak my milage estimates. currently my ipace is on 12000 miles, i will lower that to 9k and my wifes i3 is insured for 8000 which i think i will up to 9000 miles.

but i am assuming it wont be the end of the world if i am a few miles out on it. (they wont even know for sure as they dont ask the exact milage on the car so only have my MOT to go on)

 

[Rroff]

at renewal i am going to tweak my milage estimates. currently my ipace is on 12000 miles, i will lower that to 9k and my wifes i3 is insured for 8000 which i think i will up to 9000 miles.

but i am assuming it wont be the end of the world if i am a few miles out on it. (they wont even know for sure as they dont ask the exact milage on the car so only have my MOT to go on)

I was surprised recently, dropped the mileage down on one vehicle I wasn't using much and it dropped the insurance cost down 10% when going by online estimates I was going from a mileage generally favourable for price to one which wasn't.

 

[Semple]

My example was just illustrative - most insurances companies won't even blink an eye at 6000 miles on a 5000 mile estimate, but with more serious discrepancies one outcome is they will percentage adjust how much they will cover of a payout.

When you consider the cost difference between declaring 5k vs 6k a year you're talking a few quid. It's also not unreasonable to expect someone who may have typically done 5500 miles a year might get the odd journey that tips them over 6k.

If you declared 5k and actually covered 10k without informing them, then I could see that causing some problems.