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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Fronting insurance ..aibu to think it's wrong?

56 replies

beentheredonethatt · 27/01/2020 10:01

The car is in finance in her mums name.
Her mum has never drove the car but is named as main driver.
The girl is named on insurance but she is the only person who drives the car daily.

OP posts:

Oysterbabe · 27/01/2020 10:03

Who is 'the girl' to you? Yes it's not allowed and she's risking invalidating the policy but I can't get worked up about it.

VettiyaIruken · 27/01/2020 10:04

YANBU.

It's illegal and could invalidate the insurance. It simply isn't worth the risk.

LIZS · 27/01/2020 10:06

Do they live at same address?

EwanHuzarmi · 27/01/2020 10:08

YANBU to think insurance fraud is wrong.

okiedokieme · 27/01/2020 10:10

Yes it's not allowed but nearly everyone I know is doing this ... they are careful to drive the car occasionally. I'm not for the record but the ridiculous price of insurance has caused this

EwanHuzarmi · 27/01/2020 10:14

the ridiculous price of insurance has caused this

But it's not a ridiculous price. It's the right price. Insurance is expensive for young drivers because young drivers are expensive for insurers.

Todaythiscouldbe · 27/01/2020 10:20

It's illegal, it will invalidate the insurance and being 'careful to drive the car occasionally' won't make any difference if they are on insurance as the main driver. Policies can and will be cancelled for this, once a policy is cancelled you then have to declare it on future applications meaning you need to use a specialist broker. It's just not worth it.

HamsterHolder · 27/01/2020 10:21

If they ever put a large claim in the insurance company will be very effective at proving she's fronting and won't cover their claim. Especially if they just brought an extra car when the daughter passed it won't be difficult for them to prove at all.

Then they'll both have to deal with the cost of the claim and the criminal charges relating to driving without proper insurance/fraud. Effectively they're risking their house and livelihood (through criminal record) to save a couple of thousand pounds.

Like they realise though, they'll probably only get caught if there's a crash/claim, so as long as that doesn't happen they'll be fine...

22Giraffes · 27/01/2020 10:21

Yanbu, it's unfair and wrong. DH has had to pay ££££ for his first few years of insurance but that's the price of owning and driving a car unfortunately.

woodchuck99 · 27/01/2020 10:27

I think it's a pretty stupid risk to take. Insurance companies are wise to this and no doubt if she ever wanted to make an expensive claim they could look into it and find that the mother was not the main driver. I don't see how the mother driving the car occasionally will help unless it's the only car she is insured on the main driver. If she is insured as a main driver on two cars and the car is in an accident involving the younger person my guess is they could easily work out that fronting has been involved and not compensate.

BlouseAndSkirt · 27/01/2020 10:27

the ridiculous price of insurance has caused this

LOL. The ridiculous rate of accidents amongst young and new drivers has caused the price!

Hence it being fraud not to pay it.

woodchuck99 · 27/01/2020 10:29

Like they realise though, they'll probably only get caught if there's a crash/claim, so as long as that doesn't happen they'll be fine...

You could say that about insurance full stop. What's the point in paying for insurance that will not cover you if you have an accident?

HamsterHolder · 27/01/2020 10:29

When a claim is made it's so very difficult to get away with fronting, even if you already owned the car that the child is using (for a while before they had a licence) so that it doesn't look like you brought it because of them. When investigating they'll look at the average miles that car did, then look at how many miles it does with the young driver to compare who actually uses it the most. Have the parents brought an additional car for themselves?? Private investigators are often involved to track down further details. An injury claim can be hundreds of thousands of pounds and likely fronters stand out like a sore thumb with the data they have at their finger tips!!!

HamsterHolder · 27/01/2020 10:31

@woodchuck99 not quite, if you don't have any insurance at all on the vehicle you'll be flagged up on ANPR either by static cameras or active in police cars so there's a good chance of getting caught whilst out and about.

Comefromaway · 27/01/2020 10:33

We had to do this for a month because when we bought Dds car we got a months free insurance but they wouldn’t cover a young driver so my dad took it out (logbook was in his name) and we added her via marmalade.

But we've just got some proper quotes and it’s actually far cheaper for Dd to be insured as named driver with me and her grandad as named drivers than it would be for her to be a named driver

cologne4711 · 27/01/2020 10:38

I've had a car since September which ds will drive once he passes his test. I drive it most of the time, dh doesn't drive it very often but it's insured for me as dh as second driver and we're the other way round on our other car.

I imagine I will still be driving it at least 70% of the time once ds gets his hands on. But how do you prove who drives it - do the black boxes know who is driving?

I'm not having a 3rd car just to avoid unwarranted accusations of fronting.

theunknownknown · 27/01/2020 10:38

When I bought my son his first car I had to put the insurance in my name as he hadn't passed his test. When he passed it, my insurance company said it was fine for it to remain in my name with him as a named driver until the point of renewal. At that point, if he was the main driver he should be the policy holder. I was so worried about fronting, I rang them three times to check that this was correct and was told the same thing each time. This was with Direct Line or Admiral - can't remember which.
You need to be very careful OP. Rightly or wrongly, it is illegal to do this and you do not want to put yourself in the position where your insurance could be invalidated. Regardless of your car, it would be pretty shitty for the third party in any accident as well.
And before you think 'it will be fine, she drives carefully', so does my son, and he was in an at fault minor accident within two months of passing his test, bumped someone in slow moving traffic. The costs were in excess of £5000.

cologne4711 · 27/01/2020 10:39

he was in an at fault minor accident within two months of passing his test, bumped someone in slow moving traffic. The costs were in excess of £5000

That doesn't sound very minor - or someone was making a lot of ££££ out of it.

woodchuck99 · 27/01/2020 10:41

I imagine I will still be driving it at least 70% of the time once ds gets his hands on. But how do you prove who drives it - do the black boxes know who is driving?

I think that if you only have two cars between you and your DH and you are the main driver on only one car then you should be alright. They probably only get suspicious when parents buy an extra car and state that they are the main driver on two.

woodchuck99 · 27/01/2020 10:41

I imagine I will still be driving it at least 70% of the time once ds gets his hands on. But how do you prove who drives it - do the black boxes know who is driving?

theunknownknown · 27/01/2020 10:42

As Comefromaway says, it can be cheaper to add an experienced driver as a named driver for your dtr's first policy. This is what I did. Also, I only looked at quotes for fully com. I was told, not sure how true it is, that quotes for tpft can be almost as expensive as fully com because if you are planning to not insure your losses, it is likely that the car isn't worth much which is fine, but it could still do the same damage to someone else car as a fully com car could iyswim.

HamsterHolder · 27/01/2020 10:44

Black box won't know who's driving, but it'll know where it goes. I imagine there's a number of ways they would investigate i.e. if monday to friday it goes from home to the local college and back again they're going to say the young driver is the main driver (unless you're a teacher!!). If on the other hand monday-friday it's used on the commute to the parents work place then it's different.

theunknownknown · 27/01/2020 10:46

That doesn't sound very minor - or someone was making a lot of ££££ out of it
I think you are bang on the money with the latter!!!
I was shocked when I saw the claim amount on his renewal. It was a small dent on the door but it warranted a whole new one, cost of a hire car etc. I spent hours on the phone arguing about it but it was what it was.
But no-one was hurt, although my son was in a state of shock afterwards. And my insurance company didn't question it at all because they knew he was the main driver even though in my name.
My point is it can happen to even the most careful of drivers. I personally wouldn't risk fronting insurance.

Comefromaway · 27/01/2020 10:46

We could have "got away" with insuring dd's car in my name I guess as I only have a company car which I;m not supposed to use for personal mileage. We sold our family car and bought dd's car when dh lost his licence due to a medical condition so it would look legit but that's not what we are doing.

At the moment dd is living away at college and she only drives her car at weekends when she visits. But she's going to be taking it back with her in the summer term.

Comefromaway · 27/01/2020 10:47

None of our cars have a black box. Admiral multi car insurance doesn't ask for it which is good for dd as she will be driving unsociable hours.

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