Sister in law driving uninsured my husbands car

[Hann111]

We had one of his family members weddings - 3 hours away. We left late and on the way back my sister in law took over driving on his vehicle - motorway driving and gone midnight. She's not insured on his car and I'm pregnant. I'm annoyed that my husband left the wedding so late that he then got his uninsured sister in law to drive his car half of the way. AIBU? Thanks

She doesn’t know you’re pregnant, you were exhausted so your husband thought it safer his sober sister drive you all (absolutely correct, tiredness kills), you don’t know if she’s fully comp on her own car and she didn’t have any sort of accident…

I think you need to let it go. I’d have done the same as them in the situation.

Even if she was insured under her own policy it was probably 3rd party. In other words in the event of an accident the other car would be covered but any damage to yours wouldn't be. So a potential financial hit there. Ok if your car is an old banger but not so good if it's the good family car and you can't afford to just go out and replace it. If she really has no insurance then that is totally irresponsible. Doesn't matter how good a driver she is and even if an accident is not her fault her non insurance will come to light and she may be prosecuted plus your insurance company will not be impressed that your DH let an uninsured driver drive his car and may cancel the policy. You don't muck around with car insurance.

You said you offered in one sentence and then said you were asleep in another ?

OP doesn't know if SIL was insured or not. And neither do you.

Not having insurance doesn’t make you more likely to crash… 🌸

But very useful if you do

If she's fully comp on her own car the chances are she's covered 3rd party on other cars.

Wouldn't get worked up about this tbh.
Plus driving when the roads are quiet at night is probably a little safer than your partner driving home after drinking at a wedding.

Hope it all goes ok for tomorrow at the midwife 💐miscarriages are devastating so I can fully get your worry. I had it will all three of mine after previous miscarriages and they are now all strong healthy kids .

She shouldn't be driving uninsured but I don't get why you being pregnant makes any difference.

If you felt that strongly about it you could've resolved the situation there and then.

It's a out dated myth that being fully insured on your own car gives you third party cover on another. Very very few insurance companies offer this any more. It's called DOC insurance (driving other cars) and the only companies I have found that still do it are direct line, Aviva and Churchill.

I have it with Hastings, as long as the car I'm driving has a valid policy against it at the time.

I don't know why people are being so blasé about insurance, this is quite a serious traffic offence and you would have been buggered if any sort of accident had happened and she wasn't covered! Not much you can do now though. Hope everything is OK with the baby.

The main issue here is that you didn't feel able to say "I'm uncomfortable, stop the car so I can make an alternative arrangement for me and the unborn baby".

The big point for me is it sounds like you spend your time worrying about whether he is acting like an adult (knowingly risking his job- as far as he knew) or taking your feelings into account rather than steaming over them.

But you need to start using your voice to put your baby first. Its fine for you to have always put him first and let him in turn put himself first but you have a baby on the way and you both now need to put baby first.

It's not a myth. It's absolutely still a thing.

@M340 @Herejustforthisone i don’t know where the assumption my partner was drunk has come from. my partner had one drink I believe early in the day - he wasn’t drunk to drive and he drove for 1.5 hours before the switch happened. The SIL had the same amount to drink I believe, maybe one drink in the day - drinking didn’t come into it and they both had the same amount anyway.

@Nowisthemonthofmaying @Autumnalblooms thank you - much appreciated

@skippy67 - when the car owner (my Partner) and the driver (SIL) tells you they are uninsured I am going to take their word for it . Assuming she is insured when they’ve told me she’s not and they haven’t looked at the policy is silly in my view.

@Bunty55 - I was asleep when they drove away from the service. I then woke up and realised she was driving - my partner was driving his car prior to that or about 1.5 hours. I immediately asked if she was insured - to which they both said no. I expressed concern at that point in time - and I offered to drive and to which my partner said no. 30 mins later I clarified my concern and stated I was uncomfortable with it.

@MrsClatterbuck thank you and I agree.

@Nc830 - that’s not the point. I’m not judging her driving (even though I had to point out a speed limit as she was unfamiliar with the road) It was the fact it in my view wasn’t legal to drive uninsured and therefore whilst a small risk it is still present and the consequences would have been great.

thank you all for your views. I will certainly let this go, but it’s been interesting to hear the array of views on this and I have learnt something about insurance - that you may be insured on other cars. I checked mine and I am not covered on other cars and I will ask my SIL to check this also.

It is a myth. Some insurers still provide DOC on a fully comp policy, but those insurers are in the minority.

You can buy top up
Insurance by the hour. I've done it for my dads card

A lot of people are missing the point that both the husband and sister did this despite knowing/ thinking that she wasn't insured.
Whether or not she was covered, they thought she wasn't yet were happy to do this, thinking that they were breaking the law and risking all that entailed (and would entail for anyone involved in an accident involving her).

So yes, I'd be really pissed off with them both.

Of course even if she had been covered by her own policy, it wouldn't have covered any damage to OP's car.

According to your other posts, they said she was not insured for that car - she was not on that car's insurance. It doesn't necessarily mean she wasn't insured to drive it.

You are as much to blame here. If you weren't happy with her driving your car you should have refused to let her. if she is fully comp on her own she's likely to be insured on yours too

@Quia - yes you are correct - she MAY have been insured to drive it - we still don’t know. The point is that they absolutely thought she wasn’t insured to drive it .

This is the first I have known about the rule of being able to drive other cars and they certainly didn’t mention that possibility ….

I can check with her now to clarify but why would you assume that you were insured?

I just checked and husband and I both have a policy where he cannot drive other cars - it is policy holder only. We are with admiral.

This is exactly my point thank you @saraclara

@maddy68 - yes you are right - in Hindsight I should have just been bold and put my foot down from the beginning , but I wasn’t 100% convicted from the beginning for a number of reasons…

The reason i didn’t was because to be honest they were both so relaxed about it, I probably didn’t want to appear to be unreasonable and I thought is this normal to drive uninsured! I have never had experiences with that in my family or me before …

and the reason I brought up the pregnancy in this thread is because I have hormones all over at the mo, with the bleeding I was also anxious and my husband knew about that, I was also very tired having just woken up and I suppose I didn’t have perfect mental clarity - hence me asking the question on here.

the responses have helped clarify that I think I should have been more bold up front - thank you.

I don't think she is clear. Her account has changed, since in the first one she specifically says they said the SIL was uninsured for that car. It seems at least possible that they simply meant she was not on that car's insurance, and they were relaxed about it because they were well aware that she was covered by her own insurance. OP seems to know nothing about fully comp car insurance and the fact that it normally automatically covers driving other cars without anyone having to pay extra.

@Quia my husband and I are both fully comp with admiral and we both have a ‘policyholder only’ policy - ie we are NOT insured on other cars which is what I thought.

you are right , I didn’t even know you could be insured on other cars in your policy as I don’t recall I have ever had that. This is news to me so thank you all for sharing that with me.

my husband and SIL both said she is uninsured on his car. I can only assume She is insured on her own car, we didn’t even talk about whether that was fully comp or not, and whether she could be insured on his car - maybe they don’t know that rule either… I assume if there was a slight possibility they thought that they would have brought it up there and then when I asked.

I've just checked my esure policy, I can drive any other car with the owner's permission, I didn't specifically request it, it just seems to be standard.

Quote - Driving other cars: The Policyholder, Xxxxx, may also drive a car that is not owned by them, or hired or leased to them under a hire purchase or leasing arrangement, providing they have the owner's permission to drive the car