Can a car be insured twice?

[NinkyNonk1]

I'm a bit of a predicament.

I've currently got an insurance policy on my ex partners car which started when we were together. I was the main driver and he was named as he didn't drive it as much.

Due to a claim on the policy we can't cancel it without paying the remaining monthly payments so will continue to do so until it runs out.

Now he's back with his mum he will be a main driver so the question is will he be able to take out his own policy now on the vehicle?

Do you not just contact the existing provider and change who the main driver is?

Just amend the existing policy.

If you need to claim you will suffer if there is two policies.

I was told not.

Basically my son took my car and would be main driver so needed his own insurance. Fine

I wanted to keep my insurance going on it to drive it up to him and also to keep my ni claims going until it ended in September. It wasnt going to cost me much as my insurance was cheap and the cancellation admin cost £40.

But I was told I couldnt. I had to get £17 refund on mine and add me as a named driver on his.

So thats my only experience.

I sold my car so phoned the insurance company to tell them, I was told since I only had 6 weeks remaining on my policy that I didn't need to cancel and it just wouldn't renew automatically. He didn't seemed concerned that there would be 2 separate people insuring 1 car.

You can't have 2 policies for the same car with each having a different main driver. You would use 1 policy with a main driver and a named driver. Contact them and ask if they will swap from you to him

Neither company would pay out in the event of a claim if there were two companies supposedly insuring it!

Just call them and change him to the main driver. It is easy to do.

If I tell them that I want it cancelled but pay the remaining balance on it would that work? So I can inform them that he will be taking out his own policy ?

You might find that since the car is no longer being kept at your address it makes the policy invalid you will need to tell them the car is being kept elsewhere and you no longer have any insureable interest in the vehicle. If he keeps the car with the same company you they might be ok with it.

It does happen but is a complete ballache to resolve. Essentially if there's more than 1 insurer they end up sharing the cost of the claims (or one of them will argue their policy is invalid and it's wholly the other company who counter argue that they aren't 100% responsible). I've not seen it a lot but I'd say around maybe 25/30 in every 1,000 insurance litigation cases that came across my desk 15 or so years ago had multiple insurers. Some were mundane where there was free 7 days on buying and the owner had took insurance anyway, others were where people had the dates wrong so there was an unfortunate overlap when the claim occurred. One I recall was a dad who thought his daughter useless so insured it for her (without telling her!), she was a reasonably successful businesswoman and had it covered literally. Smh. So yes it does happen but it is always messy.

Or maybe you can but then if there is claim then the 2 insurance companies may not see eye to eye about who pays out

Absolutely not (i used to work in car insurance).

A car can only have one valid insurance policy.

You need to change who the main driver is.

Most companies will be suspicious if you try to claim the main driver lives in a separate address from where the car is registered.

Who is the policy holder? (doesn't always have to be the main driver). Only they can cancel the policy.

Actually, you can have a car insured twice... if you have a learner. There are plenty of firms that specialise in short-term learner only policies. My DC1 has one to drive my car. It's separate from my own car insurance. If DC1 has a bump, the claim goes on their insurance not mine. Perfectly valid.

But no use at all to the OP.

Sorry, i'm confused now. A few questions.

Who is the principal policy holder?

Does the v5 document show your address or his mum's address as to where the car is kept?

Will you be using the car at all?

Yes cancel it and pay the remaining installments and then it is off your back.

I'm the policy holder

I was the main driver so I'm listed as so with him as the named.

The v5 is registered in my address still at the moment.

There is an open claim I believe on the account as we claimed for an accident but the other party involved wouldn't give their insurance details, although we gave ours and our insurance company hasn't had any contact from the alleged 3rd party so don't know where we stand there.

Can you even cancel a policy while there is an open claim? As this was a few weeks ago and we split this week.

Call the insurance company, say you've split up and he's going to be the owner/driver from a different address now. They'll have a process in place to handle this stuff.