Motor Car Insurance - open insurance

DeeFox

Registered User
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296
Can a person with open insurance drive a car that is uninsured?

For example, take a married couple who each have one car and the wife lets her insurance lapse as she uses her husbands car (and is named on insurance).
Can the husband (who has open insurance) drive the car that is no longer insured by the wife?

Thanks for any responses.
 
Doesn't the uninsured car need to be taxed and NCTed ?And don't you need a car to be insured to tax it?
 
Oh lovely, this can of worms again.

Lets short circuit all the crap before it begins.

Open insurance depends on what your policy says, many don't require the other car be insured at all. Others do. It all boils down to your policy wording.

Tax and NCT is at the drivers own risk.
 
The car still has tax on it and NCT not due for a few months.

Sorry, I don't really use this forum so I don't know how often this has been covered.

It seems like a bit of a loophole that the car can be driven even though it is not insured.
 
Read your policy though. Some insurers do not allow driving other cars, if the car is not taxed and/or insured. Others do not allow driving of spouses/partner's car. The divil is in the detail and just because insurer A allowed you to do it, does not mean that insurer B will have the same cover.
 
Can a person with open insurance drive a car that is uninsured?
I don't believe so. The other car must be insured and one's own policy must cover driving other cars (most do, on a 3rd party basis). Open insurance/driving usually means that anyone over 25 can drive the car that the policy relates to.
 
I was watching an episode of Motorway Cops, that UK based show recently, in that one the Cops stopped a husband who was driving his wifes car on the basis he had insurance, the missus car was off the road fora couple of months and uninsured. The cops checked and when it was confirmed the car had no insurance busted the guy, He got a fixed penalty and a clatter of points and had to walk home.

I was always of the view the other car had to be taxed and insured in its own right before anybody could drive it.
 
I was watching an episode of Motorway Cops, that UK based show recently, in that one the Cops stopped a husband who was driving his wifes car on the basis he had insurance, the missus car was off the road fora couple of months and uninsured. The cops checked and when it was confirmed the car had no insurance busted the guy, He got a fixed penalty and a clatter of points and had to walk home.

I was always of the view the other car had to be taxed and insured in its own right before anybody could drive it.

Irish law does not follow the UK in this regard.

It depends entirely on what your own policy says. AXA and Liberty do not require the other car to be insured. Others do. Simple answer read your policy carefully.
 
I am also insured with Axa, According to Axa, the other car Must be insured. Makes sence to me, otherwise you would insure a small 1 litre and drive a 2 litre on the policy.. Had this conversation with them when the introduced this perk years ago..
 
... It depends entirely on what your own policy says. ... Simple answer read your policy carefully.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I think the only thing more futile and annoying than a poster asking these "am I / he / she covered" type questions on an internet forum is another poster trying to answer them without seeing the minimum documentation required to make even a stab at any kind of advice i.e.

  • The policy booklet
  • The insurance certificate
  • The list of endorsements in force for that driver with that car on that policy with that insurer.
In my opinion any driver not competent to read and interpret the above document set for the two cars and two drivers concerned needs to seek professional help from their broker, insurer, motoring oranisation rep or even a solicitor. To think that someone at the far end of a fibre-optic cable can offer expert advice in these situations is unrealistic.

Motor insurance is a legal requirement and much too important for amateurs to attempt to guess at answers about complex contract matters, all IMHO of course.
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I think the only thing more futile and annoying than a poster asking these "am I / he / she covered" type questions on an internet forum is another poster trying to answer them without seeing the minimum documentation required to make even a stab at any kind of advice i.e.

  • The policy booklet
  • The insurance certificate
  • The list of endorsements in force for that driver with that car on that policy with that insurer.
In my opinion any driver not competent to read and interpret the above document set for the two cars and two drivers concerned needs to seek professional help from their broker, insurer, motoring oranisation rep or even a solicitor. To think that someone at the far end of a fibre-optic cable can offer expert advice in these situations is unrealistic.

Motor insurance is a legal requirement and much too important for amateurs to attempt to guess at answers about complex contract matters, all IMHO of course.

I am so shocked by this narrow minded, unhelpful comment.
 
I am so shocked by this narrow minded, unhelpful comment.
So you'd be willing to use guesswork to answer OP's question(s) and supply inaccurate information that could result in them getting into trouble with the Guards because they were uninsured at best or being uninsured in an accident at worst?

My tendency is to err on the side of caution where I have not seen any policy documentation, eliminate all guesswork and crystal-ball gazing, and refer the poster to the proper advisors.
 
Another point to note is that it is an offence not to display a valid insurance disk - even if you are insured.
 
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