Motor Motor Insurance when the Insured has died

Hi,
I would be very grateful if anybody could help me on this.

My dad has recently died and was the legal owner and the insured on the family car.

As it will take a while for the legalities of transferring ownership to be completed I was wondering if the insurance policy is still valid now that the insured has died - ie if the car was stolen now for example would the insurance company pay out or declare the policy invalid?

My mam would rather have the car insured until we can sell it but can also see that there is no point if the insurance company would declare the policy invalid in the event of a claim.

Any advice greatly appreciated, thanks.

Hi Solasgeal and welcome to the board.

First of all let me offer my condolences on the recent death of your father.

As regards whether the policy is still active or not, I have to say that the only definitive answer you will get is from the insurers themselves. So why not give them a call and find out from "the horses mouth" so to speak.

IMHO it is not worth paying for insurance just in case the car is stolen, unless it is extremely valuable, why not just immobilize it instead?

My condolences on your loss.

The policy your late father had on his car is now null and void. The executor / solicitor needs to inform the insurance company and arrange cancellation and refund. If you don't inform the insurance company, they will not pay out in the event of a claim and will only refund the premium from the date they receive the insurance documentation back. If the car is parked up in a public place it must be insured. If it's on private property, it won't be insured if damaged or stolen, but it won't be a road traffic offence.

It should be possible for the executor to transfer ownership of the car to one of the beneficiaries in lieu of cash or other property to the same value and they can arrange their own insurance.

I did this as executor to my late father's estate by getting a written valuation from the main dealer where it was bought new and transferring the ownership to my sister on foot of her signing a letter with the solicitor and the other beneficiaries.

In theory the car could be temporarily transferred into the name of the executor and the insurance premium paid out of the estate, but it gets messy and will have the net effect of devaluing the car due to an extra registered owner.

An option (which I have just exercised) is to have the policy continued in the name of the executor. Anybody who was covered to drive the policy in the lifetime of the deceased will continue to be covered, or the executor can nominate a driver or drivers to be covered. It is not necessary to transfer ownership formally, as the executor has legal possession of the assets of the estate.

Padraigb said:

An option (which I have just exercised) is to have the policy continued in the name of the executor. ...

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Interestingly I wasn't given the option by my father's broker although I asked. They told me that if I'd been a named driver on the policy they could have transferred but as he was the only one on the policy, it wasn't an option. I didn't challenge the decision. As my sister was about to buy a new car at the time, it seems I took the line of least resistance.

Brokers vary. I presumed that it would not be difficult and phoned the broker who had placed the business. The young man with whom I spoke had not been asked for this before, but did the sensible thing and phoned the underwriter, who said it was fine so long as I had a full and clean licence.

I've seen policies transferred to the 'reps of the late XX' and continue to renewal date.

SparkRite said:

As regards whether the policy is still active or not, I have to say that the only definitive answer you will get is from the insurers themselves. So why not give them a call and find out from "the horses mouth" so to speak.

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See now why I suggested the above Solasgeal?