When it comes to sharing your car

Allowing your car to a friend or family may seem like the nice thing to do, but it could end up landing both of you in court facing fines of up to £5,000 and up to 8 penalty points. That’s because many people assume that their friends and family are insured to drive their vehicle on the owner’s car insurance policy when, in fact, that is not always true.

The biggest misconception is that having your own car insurance will cover you for driving any other vehicle. However, this is not automatically the case, with many policies offering no cover whatsoever for vehicles other than the main vehicle insured. In some cases, your own car insurance will provide third party cover for another vehicle (if you have the owner’s permission), but even this is a huge risk. Although you are legally covered, if the car is involved in an accident that is your fault, then there will be no payout to compensate the owner of the vehicle you have borrowed.

Of course, many people don’t even worry whether the driver is insured or not when lending out their car, not realising that this is illegal for both the driver and the owner. If you knowingly allow your car to be driven without insurance, then you are as guilty as the actual driver in the eyes of the law. It is your car and therefore your responsibility to ensure that it is driven legally.
Even people who know the law and understand the dangers of driving without insurance, as well as the risks to their own licence and their vehicle itself, still lend to friends without cover. 

Students going to university have a lot of possessions and well-meaning parents, relatives or friends with a van have been lending their vehicle to students to move into halls or digs. The extra space is great, but driving without van insurance is bad news for the student driver, whose future car insurance premiums will be astronomically high, and for the van owner, who may find their livelihood at risk if they lose their licence and depend on their van for work