I am going with a friend of mine tomorrow night to check out a car that, if it's right, he'll buy (a MkII pre FL vRS incidentally).

If he does, he'll need me to drive it home and has asked me if I am insured to drive it. Now I know the water tight thing to do would be to buy some temp insurance to be 100% certain, but I have the extension on my policy to drive other cars.

 

My certificate says the following in relation to who is insured:

 

....who may also drive any private motor car not owned by him or hired to him under a hire purchase or lease agreement.

 

and then

 

....cover in respect of this extension is limited to third party risks only.

 

I knew that to be the case before I even looked at the certificate, however my understanding is that the car MUST already be insured in order to be able to use the extension, although the policy document says nothing relating to this.

 

I'm not actually insured to drive a car if it's not insured independently am I?

 

I did just come across this on a google search:

 

The car itself does not always need to be insured elsewhere, but must comply otherwise with the law by having a valid MOT certificate and road tax.  Check your policy wording for the extent of cover and exclusions that apply; they do tend to vary from insurer to insurer.

 

Sort of contradicts what I was thinking.

A vehicle needs to be insured to be on the UK public highway.

Then a driver insured to be driving in that vehicle. The extension is allowing the driver to be driving, but the car does not have 'Current Valid Insurance.'

The driver will be the one committing the Offence.

 

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-insurance

http://www.gov.uk/vehicle-insurance/driving-without-insurance

 

The grey area of driving to a Pre-Booked MOT is just that.

 

george

That's pretty much what I already thought, I think there is a lot of info online trying to explore loopholes through what's not necessarily written into policy documents.

Why can't your friend drive it home? I'm asking as a pre-cursor to answering your question.

Feel free to look at our temporary cover:

 

http://www.skyinsurance.co.uk/temporary-car-insurance.html

Contact your insurer for any clarification needed. If it all went wrong, unsolicited advice from a forum would not stop the car being seized, 6 points and a big fine and possibly court stuff too. That's if just stopped, obviously more serious if it was involving a collision etc. Direct from the horses mouth and all that, noting date/time/name of person you speak with. 

 

My worry as totally unsolicited advice, based on the same understanding having normally seen the 'provided it is otherwise insured', but is that the car 'may' be otherwise insured by the seller, but when the V5C is signed by both parties he/she no longer legally be the registered keeper and does his insurance stand in that instance as 'otherwise insured'?  Above that I wouldn't trust anyone else's word on if it is insured or not, with or without producing a certificate (could have been stopped, could be fake) really not the sellers problem either. MID would be a good way to see if someone has cover on the vehicle if looking to use a 3rd party extension. But i'd still refer to my actual insurers in the first instance and certainly before driving the other vehicle. 

 

Personally, get him to insure himself and drop him off. 3rd party extension is just that 3rd party only, not worth risk IMO. 

Temp cover will only cost for a few pounds - i think it'll be worth it, just incase. 

 

Al. 

It only costs about £20 to temp cover it for a day, tell your mate to stop being cheap and to insure it.