Car insurance

[adsdcc]

Morning all,

Just wondering how people deal/dealt with car insurance while at Halton?

Could we claim it's 'off-road' if parked up at Halton and unused for a couple months?

Any advice would be appreciated

Cheers

 

[Fu Fu Valve]

Even if you claim it's off road you still have to insure it since the government changed the rules. I'm sure you'll be able to use it while your there.

Options are easy - leave it as registered at the current address (or parents) and class it as being away from home for a while and tell the insurance nothing. Or register it as being at Halton and let the insurance company know about the extras security and safe parking you now have.

 

[penfold93]

If you are insured then its a good idea to make sure you are covered for business use. If you are not then you cannot claim for motor mileage allowance, get you home or any other personal motor vehicle petrol claim without it

 

[justintime129]

If you are insured then its a good idea to make sure you are covered for business use. If you are not then you cannot claim for motor mileage allowance, get you home or any other personal motor vehicle petrol claim without it

Just out of interest is buiness insurance more expensive. Also what you say is it just MOD directive or does it come from the motor insurance industry.

 

[Fu Fu Valve]

Depends on your insurer - no extra cost on mine.
Cars are usually insured for Social, Domestic and Pleasure - driving to work can (and usually is) classed as business.
Occasionally the penny pinchers will check a travel claim and if you aren't insured for Business they can stop any payment.
I've been out a few years now and the company i work for like you to have it as well, covers their arse as well as yours if you have to go somewhere on company business and use your own car.

 

[ScoobTech]

For what we need it for, business insurance is usually only a small addition or free. As we are not actually using our own vehicles as part of a business to make money.

 

[Martin Blank]

Also if you are using it to travel to and from work/duty ensure you have commuting which isn't the same as business.
Last year a few people here fell foul of the Social Domestic and Pleasure when driving their car or motorbike into work every day you must also have commuting cover for that now.

 

[Elwood]

You cannot class the vehicle as being off-road if you are keeping it in the car park on camp. Also as you are only there for 10 weeks (and you need insurance to drive to Halton, and then home) your saving will be minimal, and may even cost you more in Admin fees etc.

You may want to use it on your free weekends as well.

 

[Mag2grid]

Depends on your insurer - no extra cost on mine.
Cars are usually insured for Social, Domestic and Pleasure - driving to work can (and usually is) classed as business.
Occasionally the penny pinchers will check a travel claim and if you aren't insured for Business they can stop any payment.
I've been out a few years now and the company i work for like you to have it as well, covers their arse as well as yours if you have to go somewhere on company business and use your own car.

It's only classed as a business journey if you receive some remuneration for using your vehicle to travel to or from your normal place of work.

you can opt for SDP+commuting which covers your journey to and from your normal place of business but you dont get fuel money or another form of allowance towards running the vehicle.

of course if you then use your car during the course of your duties for work related purposes (is driving to a meeting off site, transporting documents etc) then you need business class insurance.

You are best being honest with your insurers, if you tell them it's registered at your home address but realistically it spends only 10 days of of the 10 weeks you are Halton at your home address you will have broken the T&C's, as you need to tell them where the vehicle will be spending most of its time.

i have seen (at the roadside) insurance companies cancel someone's cover as they lied about where the vehicle was being kept for over half of the week. No insurance means people like me come along and whack 6 points on your licence and make your wallet £300 lighter.

For what it's worth my insurers when I went through the College of Knowledge just simply placed a note on my file stating the vehicle would be in Sleaford for 32 weeks, no additional charges.

the final thing is that I'm sure to take a vehicle onto camp,and keep it their it needs to be taxed, MOT'd and insured.

 

[Blue72]

You need to be very careful with the question of "use" - if you have a Social, Domestic & pleasure policy - you're on risky ground using it to travel to your place of work at all. S,D,P & Commuting will cover you to your "usual place of work" and back - so for those who don;t have a "usual" location it's no good, and you'd need to (technically speaking) inform your insurers if you temporarily have a different "usual", as it were. (At which point most insurers would probably either scratch their heads and ask why you're telling them, or charge you an admin fee for noting it on their system!). If your commute varies, then basic business use costs next to nothing to add and is a sensible route to go. If you're self employed business use is a must whether or not you are able to claim back your business mileage.

 

[adsdcc]

Cheers for the replies lads. I'm just going to do it by the book and pay the extra then hopefully claim it back if it goes down after Halton. Doesn't seem worth the risk of just winging it