Re: Is it legal?
 

A friend of mine almost got done for this mind so watch yourself. He had one car and was insured to drive any other car not in his name. So he bought a new car and used it before he transferred it over. Got pulled by the polis as the car was uninsured and ended up in court. He was looking at six points but the judge was lenient as it was a very confusing case and just fined him instead.

Re: Is it legal?
 

plus these days you'll be lucky to be able to continue on your way, the police will usually seize the vehicle if you cant produce evidence that it has an insurance policy that is specific to it.

A friend of mine had his vehicle seized even though he was insured, but because he couldnt produce evidence there and then and it didnt show up as insured on the police national computer. He had to pay to have it released. Turns out it was the fault of the insurance company but thats still a load of hassle to go through to try and find a loop hole.

Re: Is it legal?
 

Yc is right about the insurance thingy, i know from past experience, some companys stress that the vehicle you dont own but may be driving does not need to be insured for basic 3rd party cover, some do require it to be insured by the owner, but again some dont
This wouldnt include theft or anything, just basic 3rd party cover.
If its on an expensive bike, i personally wouldnt take the risk, but back in the 80's in the height of car theft craze, when premiums were sky high on anything interesting, people wanted fast cars but couldnt afford insurance, so this was a way round it.
But very risky imo.
phil

Re: Is it legal?
 

i once got stopped in a car we had in at work, it was uninsured by the owner, but i was insured through the company insurance. all the copper did was phone my boss to find out who the insurance was with, and then phone the company to confirm.

i guess it depends on the copper but i would have thought if your friend said im insured with so&so he should have called them to clarify the situation! but there are some ar****le coppers out there!

Re: Is it legal?
 

I think my policies say "not owned by you and not hired to you..." in this respect.

Re: Is it legal?
 

I always thought that the other bike had to be insured by another party.

However, looking at the details of my policy it says I'm covered 3rd party as long as it's not owned/rented/leased/hired to me, it says nothing about it being insured by someone else, only that i must have the owners permission

Re: Is it legal?
 

Considering I saw 3 coppers on the way home today I think I will just insure it in a non dubious way. Too much hassle getting pulled. It's for the GPZ anyway, so it getting nicked would be an inconvenience rather than a sobbing matter.

Re: Is it legal?
 

:D

Re: Is it legal?
 

I dunno, it's a long walk home, though to an extent I agree!

Re: Is it legal?
 

I think there is a fair bit of bar law being quoted here with due respect to some of the contributers.
Firstly it is not essential that the vehicle you are driving/riding has to be subject to it's own policy for your 3rd party extension to allow you to drive/ride it, but you do need to check the small print on your own policy. Some do require it, but they are still in the minority. What is far more common now is the automatic extension that came with comprehensive policies is no longer automatic. Lots of policies, especially those on the cheaper end of the market or issued to persons under 25, do not include it and we've had dealings with a fair few persons who hadn't realized that......
Secondly re the re-register it dodge. Lots of people take advantage of this one, usually registering it to another family member (spouse, son, grandmother, and they also do it to try and dodge speeding tickets) and then drive/ride it on their own policy. It's not automatically dodgy but there are a couple of things to be aware of. Firstly if the worse happens and you are involved in a crash the insurance company and/or police will investigate and there's a good chance you won't be covered. Despite what people say the name on the V5 is the keeper, and not necessarily the owner. Secondly if the police stop you and ask all the right questions they will ring your insurance company and put the facts to them. Around about half the time we do this the insurance company say they won't cover under those circumstances.....
Thirdly you can register it to a mate, or even a completely made up name, at your address. We also get this quite a bit, "it's my lodgers, he's away backpacking in South America at the moment so I'm just using it now and then to keep the battery charged". This one is I have to admit quite good and a harder nut to crack, especially if the "lodger" comes from South Africa or some other remote area which makes the job of trying to find out if he really exists really hard for the police. There are ways we can beat you, but I'm sure you're understand if I don't let all the secrets out!

Finally remember this. Your 3rd party extension will only allow you to ride/drive, it won't allow you to "keep", so when you park the car up outside your house, or the shops, or your girlfriends and cease to "drive" the car is uninsured. Keeping an uninsured vehicle on a public road is an offence......there's more than one way to skin a cat!