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Something To Be Aware Of.....

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ToraToraTora | 13:19 Mon 09th Nov 2020 | Motoring
41 Answers
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-motorists-told-insurance-might-be-invalid-for-non-essential-trips-during-lockdown-12128401
If a claim arises expect to have the insurance company scrutinise the purpose of your journey.
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//Even a lack of MoT is no reason - it has to be shown the vehicle is dangerous.//

Even then it would not work. I won't bore you with the legal jargon contained in S148 but one of the reasons insurers cannot deny liability is "the condition of the vehicle."
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I'm not saying illegality invalidates insurance. Many times I have pointed it out to the "void" brigade. All I'm saying is that any illegality an IC becomes aware of gives them a stick with which to beat a claimant. The link mentions "invalidate" that's wrong but it does mean that the IC have a reason to not pay out or limit payout.
Togo /// Togo I would like to see the reply from a tooled up, violent, mad as hell, villain when the insurance firm tells em that they have invalidated their cover ///

That type is rarely insured
NJ - surely they can avoid payment for damage to your own car as policies normally state that the vehicle should be in roadworthy condition.
My policy states.. that any change to the current policy in force will be notified in writing.
//NJ - surely they can avoid payment for damage to your own car as policies normally state that the vehicle should be in roadworthy condition.//

Yes they can. S148 relates to the cover required by the RTA (which is personal injury to Third Parties - which includes passengers - or damage to property owned by them). That said, they would have to show that the vehicle being unroadworthy contributed in whole or part to the damage. They would have trouble, for example, claiming that a car damaged whilst parked suffered the damage because it was unroadworthy.
13.10 (Deemed Illegal) I would be more than happy for them to spend their money on lawyers to try and prove that, and pay for mine on winning. :0)
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whoooosh!
NJ

//Would taking your wife / husband to work count as non essential , I wonder//

What do you think ?
It would be an interesting situation if driving your wife to work were classed as legal but driving yourself home afterwards were not; you'd have to sit outside her place of work all day.
13.29, The way things are heading, they could turn round and say , she could have taken the bus, but then you could say that on the way back " going shopping" or traveling to you're place of exercise, see how many loop holes there are in this so called insurance nonsense. :0)
//NJ

//Would taking your wife / husband to work count as non essential , I wonder//

What do you think ?//

I think (a) the regulations are nonsense (see why below) and (b) even if it was deemed you had left home "illegally" that would not invalidate your motor insurance. (Bear in mind that it is "leaving home" which the legislation seeks to restrict. It doesn't restrict how you travel once you've left).

There are 13 "exceptions" under which you may leave home. But the Act specifically says that

"...the the circumstances in which a person has a reasonable excuse include where one of the exceptions set out in regulation 6 applies;".

This indicates quite clearly that the list is not exhaustive and that other reasons may be seen as an acceptable exception. So, your wife must go to work (few people go to work for fun) and cannot work at home; she cannot drive or cannot park and a car is the only way of getting there. So it is necessary for you to leave home to drive her there.

This part of the legislation ("Restrictions on Leaving Home") is really nonsense because it is so broad that it means virtually anybody can leave home at virtually any time they choose. They can choose any one of 13 listed exceptions and if none of them fits their circumstances they can make one up of their own. I cannot really see how anybody would be foolish enough to fall foul of it.

Back to the insurance question, a person under a curfew ordered by a court must not leave home during certain hours. If they do and they drive their car (which is otherwise all legal) are they driving uninsured? Of course not. There is not a court in the land who will find them guilty of driving without insurance and not an insurer in the country who would get away with refusing to meet a claim.
Thanks NJ

Could the insurers argue successfully that she could have taken the bus/public transport ?
I stopped using whataboutery.com for insurance years ago so I doubt I'd have a problem.

IF we were 'in lockdown' which we're not, yet.
Am in full agreement with the judge on this. While a feel strongly that rules on lockdown aught to be followed a can't see claims being turned down for driving to a freinds house or to a castle an 100 miles away. Anyway if insurers are planning this to they should warn us and give a refund on are premiums as there covering us for less
Surely when the insurance was taken out there was no agreement as to essential journeys. Either they provide insurance for trips or they don't.
//Could the insurers argue successfully that she could have taken the bus/public transport ?//

They might try. But insurers are going down a very slippery path if they seek to deny cover for people who are almost certainly driving legally. My analogy of the person on a curfew demonstrates the difficulties they would face. As mentioned, by the same principle, anybody speeding (i.e. travelling illegally) would also face the same problem and quite simply, they don't.

The idea of the Coronavirus legislation is to prevent people mixing. It doesn't achieve that aim but that's another argument - that's the idea. A husband driving his wife to work presents no risk to the aim of the legislation. Firstly, I cannot see the police even thinking of taking action against the driver under the Coronavirus legislation in those circumstances. But if they did issue a fixed penalty and the driver took the matter to court I cannot imagine any court finding that he left home without a reasonable excuse.
Thanks
Its been obvious from the beginning even for a novice like me that laws that are made over night by any government, or an insurance company who may choose to try and bend a perfectly legal insurance policy in their favor will leave many loop holes wide open for argument, and has been said many times, most of them impossible to enforce.

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