Posted on: 22-02-06 21:00:19
A friend of mine who's in India visiting his family left his car with another friend of his. This other friend is a new immigrant and although she has a driver's license, she does not have any insurance in her name.
She got into an accident the other day and it was not her fault. It was a minor one so she did not call the cops. The other party is ready to pay for damages and fixes however there is a dispute on the amount.
My questions
1) Is she allowed to drive an insured car even though she does not have insurance in her name? My impression is there's no issue with this.
2) If yes, can she can report an accident like this to the police without an issue? Or will the cop create an issue of her not having insurance personally?
Would appreciate a prompt response.
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Quote:
Orginally posted by BlueLobster
A friend of mine who's in India visiting his family left his car with another friend of his. This other friend is a new immigrant and although she has a driver's license, she does not have any insurance in her name.
She got into an accident the other day and it was not her fault. It was a minor one so she did not call the cops. The other party is ready to pay for damages and fixes however there is a dispute on the amount.
My questions
1) Is she allowed to drive an insured car even though she does not have insurance in her name? My impression is there's no issue with this.
2) If yes, can she can report an accident like this to the police without an issue? Or will the cop create an issue of her not having insurance personally?
Would appreciate a prompt response.
To the best of my knowledge:
Anybody can drive your car as long as they have their valid driver's license. It is not necessary that the insurance should be under their name. The insurance is always on the owner's name because only he/she would have the 'insurable interest' in the vehicle and if that insurance is valid, any friend can drive the car. The only point here is if she has her own car and her own insurance then the damages will be covered under her policy otherwise the original car owner's policy.
As far police is concerned, they have nothing to do with the driver's name to be included or excluded in the insurance policy. They should be concerned with the vehicle's insurance and valid license. Mind you, we are talking about AUTO INSURANCE and not any individual's life insurance.
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I think you can not drive somebody else's car if you don't have insurance.
I think in order to drive a car you have to have insurance for a driver for a particular car.so even if you have a insurance for your car then also you cannot drive your friend's car.
As per as Rental car is concerned you have to take insurance if its not covered by your policy.
Even a spouse can not drive if his/her name is not there in insurance policy and same is for childrens.
Above is my understanding.Please confirm with insurance agent.
Ram
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Desi Lion
Apart from insurance issues, if I were in her place I would settle the issue without being too finicky about the amount. The increase in auto insurance premium for friend, my own premium when I insure myself in future may end up to be more costly than what I save in negotiations. Also there is lot of paperwork. However if time is of not much value, and I cannot pay for repairs in any case, then the only option would be to inform police and try getting money from insurance company. If case goes to court, attorneys would be costlier than repairs.
Also when it comes to court, it may not very easy to prove whose fault it was.
If she holds a platinum credit card, she maybe covered by its auto accident insurance !
The issue that her name is not in insurance maybe valid, but I would not know whether it affects this particular case. Owner of the car would know.
Ultimately legality should be satisfied so long as there is
- a valid driver's license and
- a valid current mandatory insurance for auto.
But as this specific case could be different from standard, our opinions may have limited application.
Quote:
Originally posted by ramrao
I think you can not drive somebody else's car if you don't have insurance.
I think in order to drive a car you have to have insurance for a driver for a particular car.so even if you have a insurance for your car then also you cannot drive your friend's car.
As per as Rental car is concerned you have to take insurance if its not covered by your policy.
Even a spouse can not drive if his/her name is not there in insurance policy and same is for childrens.
Above is my understanding.Please confirm with insurance agent.
Ram
As per my knowledge if Car is insured and driver has valid driver's license then driver can drive and even report accident too.I was using my cousin's car and I had an accident so it was not issue.The only thing is Insurance goes up thats why people dosent allow anybody to use their car.
As far as rental car only one person can drive the car but you can have choice to add another name too.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 7wonders
Quote:
Originally posted by ramrao
I think you can not drive somebody else's car if you don't have insurance.
I think in order to drive a car you have to have insurance for a driver for a particular car.so even if you have a insurance for your car then also you cannot drive your friend's car.
As per as Rental car is concerned you have to take insurance if its not covered by your policy.
Even a spouse can not drive if his/her name is not there in insurance policy and same is for childrens.
Above is my understanding.Please confirm with insurance agent.
Ram
As per my knowledge if Car is insured and driver has valid driver's license then driver can drive and even report accident too.I was using my cousin's car and I had an accident so it was not issue.The only thing is Insurance goes up thats why people dosent allow anybody to use their car.
As far as rental car only one person can drive the car but you can have choice to add another name too.
As long as the Car insurance doesn't have any specific line item for the secondary user. For eg. the insurance I have, as my wife and I both have more than 10+ yrs exp. I got that line item put in, in order to reduce my insurance. Thus if anyone with less than 10 yrs exp. is driving and get's into an accident, insurance will not cover it.
