My cousin was involved in an accident when his car slipped into a ditch and was charged of impaired driving. The insurance company had paid for the ambulance charges at the time of offence. After the trial, he was convicted of careless driving, he got 6 demerit points. Now he has stopped the insurance for the accidental car and does not drive but still has his name on the insurance policy on the second car with his wife's name.

My question is: Does he need to inform the insurance company of his conviction as they already know abt. the offence. He doesn't drive so should he take out his name from the insurance policy for the second car. What is the best way and what are the effects? Thanks in advance!

The insurance company may not know about the conviction unless they pull the MVR at the time of renewal of his wife’s car insurance. Usually 2% to 10% renewals are reviewed with latest MVR depending upon the insurance company. Getting latest MVR costs to the insurance company so they don’t pull it for 100% renewals. If your cousin’s care and his wife’s car were/are insured from the same company, the chances are higher that they get the latest MVR. Sometime after getting accident information, they flag the renewal of all vehicles of same address so there are good chances that they will get the latest MVR and come to know the conviction. The real issue will start thereafter. Some companies even don’t insured the vehicle if the secondary driver has 6 demerit points. Now you have 2 options. His wife can call the insurance company and ask them to remove him as secondary driver. In this case, he will be completely off from her insurance but he cannot drive the car in any circumstance. The second option is take a chance and if the company comes to know about the demerits points, they care refuse the renewal or jack up the rate. His wife can try to exclude him but it depends upon the insurance company to accept it or not. Please also note that once an insurance company refused to renew the insurance, it will be treated as a negative point and insured may have to pay higher rates.

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A Delhite in Toronto

To be safe, let the wife call the insurance company and ask to remove your name, before it comes up for renewal.

Murali

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

FYI, you need to declare all the licensed drivers in the household irrespective of they drive the car or not. All driving license holders within the same family living at the same address are automatically included in your insurance as occasional drivers. There is no harm in calling the insurance company and asking them to remove 1 name from the coverage - but chances are they cannot.

Regarding declaring the conviction - rule of thumb is NOT to proactively call and inform them. However, if specifically asked - DO NOT hide/lie. Making a false statement is crime, not making a statement is your right.

Good luck.
Hiren

Have never heard of this rule.
Is it a new one.?
In all our insurance (driving) buying, I never saw any rule, which asked you to declare all the licensed drivers in the household.

Murali

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

Quote:

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Originally posted by hchheda

There is no harm in calling the insurance company and asking them to remove 1 name from the coverage - but chances are they cannot.


Hiren

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A Delhite in Toronto

I think one needs to declare licensed drivers in the house .... and perhaps by default they go as secondary driver .

Whether you can get the secondary driver removed or not is something I am not aware of.

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Fido.