Questions for Car Insurance Agents and Adjusters

[robinb]

This question was inspired by the "would you lend a car to a friend" thread.

I know someone who lends her car to her adult DD probably 2-3 times per week to take her kids somewhere or to get groceries during the day. The DD lost her job about 6 weeks ago and the company car with it which left them with one family car. The DD's husband works as an inspector for the city (without a city car) so he cannot use public transportation to get to his job because he never knows where he is going on a given day.

(1) The DD does not live with the mother but regularly borrows the car. My first question: Should she be added as an additional driver or is she still considered an occasional driver?

(2) The DD may have had her license suspended because of unpaid parking tickets. My friend heard some kind of off-hand comment from one of the DD's friends this last weekend but does not know for sure if it is true. The friend of the DD who made the comment is slightly mentally disabled and you cannot ever be sure if what she is saying is correct. The mom is now worried that if the DD is in an accident with a suspended license that the insurance will not cover the damages and injuries even if the friend was not fully aware of the status the of license. She is also afraid that, as the owner of the car, she would be liable for the damages if the insurance doesn't cover things. My second question is: will the insurance cover an unlicensed driver if the owner of the policy was not aware of the suspension?

Just so you know that I am on the same page as everyone else, I have advised her not to lend the car out anymore. However, the friend is torn. She feels the DD really needs the car when she borrows it and she is really hoping that the DD would not be so selfish as to withhold important information like that from her and put her mom at possible risk. Of course, the friend should simply ask the DD if her license is suspended but my friend would rather risk keeping her head in the sand than giving her DD the opportunity to directly lie to her face rather than lie though omission. And yes, my friend has had many problems with this kid *sigh*.

 

[golfgal]

Anyone that drives your car with your permission is covered under your policy the issue comes in if something happens when that permissive user causes an accident and YOUR insurance is responsible for covering the losses. YOU get dinged, not them and if it is serious enough YOU could be dropped and not able to get coverage again, not them.

 

[barkley]

i know that with my car insurance, for someone other than dh or i to be driving it-they have to be licensed and it's OUR responsibility to ensure that the person is (so if there was an accident and we tried to claim after the fact that we did'nt know the person had a suspended lic. our insurance company would not cover us and would tell us to go after the unlic. driver).


just as another bit of info. you may want to pass on to your friend-depending on the state she lives in, some states have laws wherein if a person is driving on a suspended lic. and gets stopped or has an interaction (while driving a vehical) with law enforcement-and law enforcement discovers the suspension, the vehical is automaticaly impounded. the fees to the owner to get the car out of impound can be very costly (not to mention time consuming and a huge hassle). this can occur with a simple traffic stop where an officer observes a faulty tail light, or when the driver is in an accident that is'nt their fault.

we had to research this at one point b/c mil insisted on continuing to drive her car when her license was suspended prior to it's formal permanant revocation. what compounded it worse was when we learned that in her state, while it took about 90 days, the dmv suspension triggered notice to her insurance company that a driver listed on the car had a suspended license which would trigger potential cancelation of the policy. since dh and one of his sibs routinely used that car when they would go visit her, we had to start refusing to use the car on visits, b/c if her insurance had been cancelled (and she was not honest with us on the status of her license or insurance), and dh was pulled over for some reason while driving it-in that state not only would the car have been impounded, but dh would have been charged with driving an uninsured vehical (which carried a HUGE fine in that state).