Understanding Your Car Insurance: Rules and Consequences of Lending Your Vehicle

You have the right to lend your car, but on condition that the occasional driver has a driving license and uses the vehicle under the conditions provided for in the insurance contract.

Insurers may offer more or less restrictive conduct clauses depending on the contract you have signed.

It is essential to check that the provisions of your contract authorize occasional driving of your vehicle. What could be the clauses of your contract?

Authorized drivers

Depending on your requests and/or the requirements of the insurance company, several cases are possible.

Exclusive driving designates you as the sole driver, without any possibility of loan and in return for a maximum price reduction.

Couple driving reserves driving for the contract holder and his or her spouse, civil partnership partner or named partner.

Family driving authorizes driving to people identified on the contract as additional drivers (children, etc.).

However, the insurer may prohibit the use of the vehicle for novice drivers (young drivers whose definition is mentioned in the contract).

Pay attention to your responsibility

Lending a vehicle to a third party engages your liability. Before lending your vehicle to a third party, you must first check whether your insurance contract authorizes the loan.

If the occasional driver is not covered by your contract, you can ask your insurer to add him to your contract by establishing an amendment to the contract for which the insurer can ask you for financial compensation.

And if you continually lend your vehicle to someone, you must also report this to your insurer.

What are the consequences in the event of an accident?

If the driver of your vehicle is not responsible for the accident, the third-party vehicle insurance will cover the repair of the damage.

If the person you entrusted your car to is responsible for the accident, your liability insurance will cover the damage to the other vehicle, but in most cases it will not cover the damage suffered by your vehicle and bodily injury suffered by the driver to whom you lent your vehicle (forfeiture of warranty).

Possible sanctions

Your insurer has two types of sanctions to penalize non-compliance with the conditions of the contract; the application of an additional excess which will be combined with the contractual excess linked to the guarantee involved or the forfeiture of guarantee.

Your insurer can penalize you

After settlement of the damage, your insurer will be entitled to take action against you for reimbursement of the cumulative amount of the applicable deductibles according to the conditions and clauses of your contract.

2023-12-13 05:56:07
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