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A friend has just bought a car for his 18 year old daughter. It's registered and insured as being his car, but with his daughter as a named driver on his policy. In point of fact his daughter is the only (and daily) driver. I'm sure that this is completely irregular. What risks do they run? He says there is no reason why the insurance company should ever find out.
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From experience they will ask even if it's not her fault.
I was asked when my daughter was rear ended in her Mum's car, no problem for us, she was not the main driver.
I guess if the girl was in an accident on the way to school or in the evening with friends in car or similar they might investigate further.
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A big percentage of her driving will be going from university to home and back at the weekend.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Tue 5 Apr 11 at 14:56
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If she has the car at university it's a no brainer any accident in her university town will ring alarm bells with the insurer and she will find her claim bounced & possibly she or her dad will find insurance getting refused later.
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The technical term for this is "fronting", tis very come these days thanks to silly insurance premiums. Chances are they'll get away with it, but in the (unlikely) event of getting caught out after a nasty smash, the legal and financial mess could be enormous.
I wonder if anyone has actually been caught doing this and how the insurance company could know?
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Technically your friend has committed a fraud as clearly the daughter is the main driver.
But is he going to face any consequences? Very unlikely even in case of a claim.
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No idea how many people are caught doing this but if the car is inspected after an accident or the location where the accident happened was a distance from home it would be relatively easy to find out. For example what disc is on the CD player, is there a university/college parking permit on the windscreen, do the receipts/car par tickets or whatever in the door pockets etc refer to ones near her home or somewhere else etc etc
we paid out a fortune for our sons to be main driver in their cars because we didn't want the consequences and anyway it allowed them to build up some no claims of their own. It's pretty obvious in most cases if the youngster has an accident & the insurance company gets involved.
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Even if the child is insured as the main driver, you'll probably find driving to and from a place of education is specifically excluded.
My kids gave up owning cars while at university because of this.
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I saw an article the other day that said 40% of teenagers are being fronted by their parents.
I'm amazed it's that low.
There are all sorts of dire warning of prosecution for fraud, being made to repay 3rd party damages etc.
The only case I can recall was actually pursued on failure to declare modifications, rather than fronting, when a Mum insured a Corsa that was obviously hers son's and he had modded it. www.echo-news.co.uk/news/8164221.Car_owner_being_sued_by_her_insurance_firm/
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>> I saw an article the other day that said 40% of teenagers are being fronted
>> by their parents.
>>
>> I'm amazed it's that low.
Key thing is whether it is their own car, teenagers can quite legitimately be on Mum or Dad's insurance and not fronting, especially if they are added to the insurance for an existing car. Even if they do a significant mileage they are not fronting if Mum or Dad does more in that car.
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>> ........... you'll probably find driving to
>> and from a place of education is specifically excluded.
Thanks bathtub tom, I'll tell them that.
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>> sure that this is completely irregular. What risks do they run? He says there is
>> no reason why the insurance company should ever find out.
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If/when the daughter has to make a claim, the loss adjuster will go through it with a fine tooth comb. The ombudsman won't come to the parents' rescue when they are in deep doo-doo because the insurer refuses to pay out the claim by "avoiding" the Policy.
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If personal injury is involved in the hypothetical accident and the claim is refused the parents house is on the line. Not a risk I was prepared to take when my kids started driving. Expensive, but they had their own insurance, initially subsidised by the bank of mum and dad.
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At the risk of being a grumpy, do any young people pay their way any more.
There's helping them out and there's making it too easy.
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We helped our kids without making it easy. It has payed off in the long run, both are in good jobs, and debt free other than small mortgages.
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Insurance question - commerdriver
