Car insurance hell !!!!

[ImJustMadAboutSaffron]

Hello, I do pet sitting as well as my main job. I do this on the way to and from work sometimes, and locally. I have standard car insurance that covers me for journeys to and from work but not business insurance. I got my car stolen and the insurers are querying whether this is a business or if I get paid. I do sometimes, also I get given wine etc, presents and they sometimes look after my animals in return. I didn't even think about taking out business insurance because it's intermittent and not my main job. I just pop in to feed animals for people now and again, and a lot of it is walking distance at home.

When the car was stolen it was on a weekend when I was out with friends, nothing to do with work. Would this invalidate the policy? I'm terrified.

I just bought a new car and need to speak to them about getting that insured too. Should I be prepared they will not pay up for the stolen vehicle? It has been recovered.

Kindly, you’re massively overthinking this. You weren’t doing anything work wise when it was stolen therefore you have nothing to declare. The pet sitting does not sound like it would even count as work - a bottle of wine etc in return seems more like a favour to me

Why are they being so arsey about it then?

I'm sorry, but sounds like you need business insurance. Do you advertise your pet sitting services and have insurance doing that. If not you may be able to argue its not business. Do you earm less than the £1000 HMRC allowance for eg selling on vinted? If so that might help.

How does the insurance company know about the pet sitting? There wouldn’t have been any requirement to mention it if your car was stolen on a weekend and not when using it for the pet sitting.
By not declaring the pet sitting, I could see how the insurance company could say it voids your insurance. There are clauses that specify all usage of the vehicle needs to be declared.
I hope it goes ok for you

I don't earn anything near like that! Ten quid here and there!

Commuting only covers you for driving to and from one place of work. If you ever go to another location you'd need class 1 business use.
You would have confirmed when taking out the insurance that it was all accurate, but you've let the company know now that that wasn't the case.

Because I have keys in the car for friends and family and I needed one of them to feed their cat on Friday.

So you do need business insurance for
the way you’re using the car. But loads of people use it for work and don’t have that insurance; they just don’t tell the insurance company about the work stuff and say it was a personal journey if there was an accident or theft.

How do the insurance company know anything about your pet sitting?

On another note, you also need liability insurance for the pet setting. Do you have that?

How do they know you do pet sitting?

Just say you do not use the car for that. It's local and you walk

I have a friend's key in my car. I don't pet sit etc.

You leave your clients keys in your car? Seriously? You leave keys in the car for other people’s homes?

You need to just stop the pet sitting. You’ve no idea what you’re doing business wise.

Policies quite often used to have a clause saying that the vehicle wouldn’t be used for ‘hire or reward’. I don’t know if they still do, you would have to check your policy.
The pet sitting would likely fall into that category

In that case I would just say to them you occasionally look after pets for friends and family. Saying you 'pet sit' makes it sound like a business so I can see why they asked questions.

I have liability insurance yes. I pop into people's houses on the way to and from other things. Often I walk there. I don't make purpose journeys at peak times.

Cross posted
They are being arsey because you told them!
Just say you had a friends keys - no reason to say why
Are you claiming for their locks to be changed?

I had my own house key in there too.

No.

You still need to have business car insurance.

You’d be fine if you hadn’t mentioned any of this to your insurance company but you have so… they may not pay out.

Please don't leave other people's house keys in your car. Even if you leave your own in there.

Are the people whose pets you look after, friends and family? If so, surely you do what hundreds of people do, pop in to feed pets or take dogs for a walk.
If you do it for strangers, I think it's a bit different.

You’d be fine if you hadn’t mentioned any of this to your insurance company but you have so… they may not pay out

I'm not so sure.... did you have several sets of keys in your car? And you are claiming for the keys?
If so, they can ask the question and can refuse to pay out. From their point of view it looks like a business... it is up to you to prove otherwise.

I'm not claiming for any keys. The keys are in the locked glove box in the car. The car was found almost immediately by the police with all contents intact. I mentioned it to the brokers, not the insurance company, btw.

I'm just claiming for the actual car. Which I don't want back, as I have now bought another one. I don't want it after joyriders have been messing around in it. I want to either sell the other one if the insurance repair it, or take the insurance payout.

It was a personal journey. I was in a car park going to the theatre with friends on a Saturday.

I think if you weren't using the car for a dog sitting at the time of the theft, how have the insurance come to know/ask about it?

It doesn't seem to have a baring this claim, however it does sound like you haven't had the correct insurance.

However the "commuting" part of social, democratic, pleasure and commuting insurance only covers travels to and from one place of work. As you travel around multiple locations you should have business insurance.

Because I contacted them, to ask if I could retrieve some keys from it, as I have been asked to feed an animal over the weekend. They've picked it up and run with it. I do plan to ask about business insurance for the new car, as I sometimes have to go to conferences. Normally I take the train but I won't always do that.