Hi

My son bought a car at the end of March, I insured it in my name with him as a named driver as he was still a learner. A couple of days ago he passed his test so I phoned the insurance company to cancel the policy and get him one in his own name as he will now be the main driver.

The quoted me for continuing the policy as is (me as policy holder and him as named driver) I pointed out that he will now be the main driver and the car is owned and registered by him. They said that was fine, I pointed out that I understood this to be "fronting" and that it was fraudulant and illegal, they went off and checked etc. and said no it's fine. I even phoned back and spoke to a second person who confirmed the same. I went ahead with the policy.

Later I emailed them asking them to confirm this and haven't heard anything.

Anyone know where I stand on this?

Many thanks

Dizzydipsy

I'm sure the insurance experts will be along soon to confirm but I understand the main point with insurance to be 'utmost good faith'. You must tell them everything that may be relevant to their decision to insure you. Providing you have done this they have all the information needed to quote.

Did the premium change at all? If it did then they have probably taken your son's use of the car into account.

What you describe is fronting, and staff should know that.

I say should, and they may well do so, but I doubt it.

Send an email or better still, visit a branch or write in. Should there later be some moan by the insurer that you have acted dishonestly, you need evidence that you made true and honest declarations - ie, acted in utmost good faith.

Nice to see some honesty though. Many people know damned well what fronting is yet try it on anyway.

Good on you.

Thanks for the replies.

I have emailed them asking them to confirm that the verbal assurances I had on the phone were accurate. In the email I explained that it was my sons car and that he is the main driver.

Just concerned that should he have an accident we will find that the insurance won't pay out and that we are both unable to get insurance in the future or worse.

Thanks again.

Dizzy - you are right to be concerned as this is a grey area. Even if the staff tell you that it is ok does not necessarily mean that a claim will be processed - after all you know it is fronting and you still have gone ahead with it.

For the record I'm totally on your side here, but I know how claims departments work and most will try to wriggle out of it any way that they can. You are right to get written confirmation. With this you could at least then claim against the insurer for the poor advice given!

The only thing I can think of in your favour is that good pricing models will have already taken into account your son. The concept of main and named drivers is fuzzy at best - if you drove the car 51% of the time how much of a 'main' driver are you, for example. To cover this many pricing models don't care who is put as the main or named drivers, as they will pick the riskiest and rate that as the main driver (as it is the driver most likely to cause a claim). This is by no means a solid defence, but it might be what the insurer is getting at by it 'making no difference'. However you need written confirmation from an underwriter to confirm this.

Thanks for the reply, I couldn't live with the uncertainty and cancelled the policy, he now has a policy with a different insurer in his own name.

This should really be tackled, people are being warned off fronting and yet insurance companies (well the one I used anyway) are positively encouraging it. If it hadn't have been for Top Gear I wouldn't have known it was a problem but once I googled it there are articles etc. all over the place saying it's fraudulent etc.

Thanks again.

Dizzy,

Provided that you have disclosed the full facts to the underwriter and they have accepted this ( in writing ) then you cannot be accused of fronting. Fronting is when a person knowingly obtains a policy where they have given incorrect details to gain a price advantage.

There are a number of insurers who will allow a policy to be written on this basis provided the full facts are disclosed. In your particular instance, this may be one of those insurers.

Mind you though it is better for him to have his own policy in order to gain his own NCB.

As a footnote though, a prosional licence holder can still take out a policy in their own name. All they need to do is name a full licence holder on it who I believe has held a licence for over 2 years and are over 21. Bit grey on this bit but I'm sure someone can confirm the ages / licence.

Trojan

Hi Trojan

That was exactly the problem, they refused to put anything in writing, if it was all okay as they kept assuring me then putting something in writing shouldn't have been a problem.

Yes, you're right it may cost a bit more now but longer term having his own no claims will save him money.

Dizzy

As a footnote though, a prosional licence holder can still take out a policy in their own name. All they need to do is name a full licence holder on it who I believe has held a licence for over 2 years and are over 21. Bit grey on this bit but I'm sure someone can confirm the ages / licence.

My daughter, with a provisional licence, has insurance quotes for her alone (ie no named drivers).

Provisional Licence holders often get a discount.