Motor Wife hit husband's house with car

McStuffins

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So my mother has a house in her name. My dad has a house in his name as they were separated for a decade before reconciling.

Dad's house is a holiday home built on his home place in his name. His name is the only one on the deeds and mortgage. He spends a lot of his time here as he is semi retired and mum travels a lot so goes between her house,the holiday home and staying with her adult children.

So we were here yesterday and she crashed her car into the front of the house. Accelerated instead of braking.
There is a fair bit of structural damage.

My question is will her car insurance cover the house also? Will she be deemed to have an insurable interest in Dads house because they're married?
She used the holiday home address as the place the car is mainly used and kept because she only uses it down here really.
She would prefer to use her insurance instead of dad having to use the house insurance as he's pretty peeved about the damage and she would struggle to pay two excesses.

Anyone have any advice?
 
As the person who caused the damage, the insurance companies would agree that she, or her insurance, pays for it. So even if her husband preferred to claim on his house insurance, he couldn't.

Summarising your post
"Wife drives into a house owned by her husband where she also lived."

I don't know that that would invalidate the claim in any way. In the unlikely event that it did, then her husband's insurance would kick in.

Brendan
 
As the person who caused the damage, the insurance companies would agree that she, or her insurance, pays for it. So even if her husband preferred to claim on his house insurance, he couldn't.

Summarising your post
"Wife drives into a house owned by her husband where she also lived."

I don't know that that would invalidate the claim in any way. In the unlikely event that it did, then her husband's insurance would kick in.

Brendan

The "husband" could make a claim under his household insurance policy on the basis that an insured peril has operated i.e. impact by a road vehicle.

The household insurers could then exercise subrogation rights against the "wife" and seek recovery from the motor insurers.

The question about insurable interest confuses me slightly. By any chance did you mean legal interest ?

What legal interest, if any, the "wife" possesses depend on the terms of the separation. If the "wife" does have a legal interest in the property that might present a problem on the basis that you cannot sue yourself.

Put another way, if the "wife" has a partial legal interest in the damaged house her motor insurers will probably not pay for the proportion of her legal interest in the damaged house as otherwise she would be suing herself for her negligent damage to her proportion of legal interest in the property.

BTW the fact that the "wife's" name is not on the title documents does not mean that she lacks a legal, equitable or other interest in the property.

The point about a policy excess is a good one as some of the impact and or building damage excesses can be big.
 
I thought that if you had insurance for a specific thing then you had to use that insurance. So if dad had crashed into the house he would have had to claim for the car on his car policy and the house on his house policy.
I wasnt sure if that applied here as mum does not have a policy in her name for the house. However as she is married to him, the house might be considered hers and therefore her car insurance might not cover it as it is damage to "her" house not to a third party.
 
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