Insurance. Have the rules changed?

[nomad]

Hi folks,
It's that time of year again so I'm ringing around for insurance quotes.

For background, my good lady and myself both have full no-claims in our own names.

A few years ago, we were sharing a car and the insurance company we were using at the time advised us to alternate who insured it (so I insure year 1 and her no-claim is dormant, then she insures year2 and my no-claims is dormant).
This means at the end of it, neither of us gets told out no-claims is "expired" when we try to insure a car in future.

This has been fine for many (5? 8?) years with a few previous insurers.
Today I rang a Brentacre (after a tip-off at RRG14), they refuse to insure the car in my name as the car is registered in my partners name. In their terms "I have no financial interest". I bought it originally but they don't count that

Their suggestion is to reregister it in my name then they can quote to insure it
I we had sent the V5 off every time we alternated the insurance the car would now have an extra 7 "previous owners" - my partner then me then her then me then ...

Hopefully this won't head to the sinbin as a rant, either the insurance companies have changed their rules or we have been using companies with different rules in the past and I'd like to know which...

ps. The main reasons I'm looking to change insurers are 2 problems this year that could have turned nasty, the insurers have apologised but I've kinda lost confidence 

many thanks.

[darrenh]

registered keeper does not out rank legal "owner". i really don't see what their problem is

[Copey]

That's a load of rubbish, of course you can insure a car that's not in your name! Have done it myself in the past! Shouldn't be a problem at all! Especially with it being your other half! Give A-Plan a go, Thatcham branch is who i use, always very helpful and a good price, hope you get it sorted mate

[ramirez]

It might be rubbish but I had the exact same issue about 18 months ago with a different insurer. I argued with them and spoke to a manager in the end (I would have left but I was halfway through a policy). I simply pointed out that we were married and we legally own half of everything the other had. Got there in the end, but left as soon as the policy was up. They lost (at the time 4 cars).

[nomad]

I rang Brentacre again to check I'd not been given duff info, they confirm they can only insure a vehicle if the vehicle is registered in my (or wifes) name

Sept 1, 2014 11:24:08 GMT Copey said:

That's a load of rubbish, of course you can insure a car that's not in your name! Have done it myself in the past! Shouldn't be a problem at all! Especially with it being your other half! Give A-Plan a go, Thatcham branch is who i use, always very helpful and a good price, hope you get it sorted mate

Thanks for the update. I rang A-plan, they are unable to insure in my name but they CAN insure in my parners name (as her name is on the logbook) or I can send off the logbook to get my name listed as the registered keeper.
If I insure in parners name, I risk my no-claims "expring" when I want to us it in future (not an option as I have 10+ years), and I'm not keen on adding another keeper on the logbook just so I can insure it in my name.

[dodgerover]

I had this argument a couple of years ago too, seems to come down to luck of the draw, I had one guy who didn't believe the registered owner wasn't necessarily the legal owner, in the end I asked if he had a car on finance and if it was registered to him or to the finance company, that eventually got through.....

[Deleted]

Its not the insurance co it is the under writers who are insisting it is the registered keeper who is the policy holder as there have ben problems in the past when it comes to pay outs, do they pay the insured or the registered keeper?
A lot of the problems were from people who had borrowed or hired cars which Obviously isn't going to be a problem if you are a happily married couple who share everything but the underwriters don't know who you or what your intentions are so they keep it simple.

[stevieclj]

As said above, I cannot understand where Insurance companies get off on the V5 not being in your name for insurance purposes.

It does nothing, but give the DVLA an address to send threats to. It certainly doesn't prove who "owns" a vehicle, just who the registered keeper is.

The insurance business, along with underwriters, is a shower of s***e that needs major overhaul, prices will then go down!

[darrenh]

Sept 2, 2014 11:45:36 GMT stevieclj said:

The insurance business, along with underwriters, is a shower of s***e that needs major overhaul, prices will then go down!

amen

[crazycruzer]

I had the same issue last year and ended up just swapping the car into my Wife's name. Hopefully you will have someone with half a brain on them who doesnt see the problem. it may be worth noting that you both have access to other vehicles too. You never know, that may assist