Registered Owner vs Legal Owner

gheaver

Hi all

Hunting round for information about the registered owner of a car vs the actual legal owner - for example - can one party own a car and another be the registered owner for insurance?

Thanks
Garrett

seamus

gheaver wrote: »

Hi all

Hunting round for information about the registered owner of a car vs the actual legal owner - for example - can one party own a car and another be the registered owner for insurance?

Thanks
Garrett

Depends on what kind of insurance you're looking for. Being the registered owner of a car does not strictly (in a legal sense) make you the owner of the vehicle. If someone can come along and show that you never paid for the vehicle or the vehicle was otherwise not completely authorised to you, then legal ownership of the vehicle will pass to them. So if, for example, you handed over a draft which later turned out to be fraudulent in payment for a car, you are not the legal owner of that vehicle because you have not fulfilled your requirements of the sales contract. Whether your name is on the reg. cert or not is irrelevant.

If you wish to insure and item for its replacement cost, one of the basic concepts of the insurance is that you must own the risk. Insurance is not there to allow you to make a profit, it's there to compensate you for all losses. So if you do not own something, you cannot make a loss on it and therefore you cannot insure it.
So if you don't own the car, you can't insure it comprehensively or for fire or theft. You can insure it 3rd party only because in that case the risk is not the vehicle and you do stand to make a loss in case of an accident.

One part of law which specifically governs insurance is the concept of Utmost Good Faith. This requires that at the time that you make the insurance contract, you are required to supply as much relevant data to the insurer as you can and you are required to be truthful. Failure to stick by this concept will later allow the insurer to declare the contract void and invalid.

So if you register yourself as the owner of a vehicle but you have an informal agreement with the owner that it remains his/her property, then any attempt to insure that vehicle (except for TPO) in your name is a breach of Utmost Good Faith and your insurance policy is worthless.

gheaver

Good reply, thanks Seamus

I was coming at the question from the point of view of a company car, i.e the company legally owns the car but I'd get insurance for the car in my own name

seamus

It might be worth explaining it to an insurer and seeing if there's any particular package they can offer, i.e. see if they'll cover you for Third-Party Risks and Personal Injuries, which is as good as fully comp for you. Let your company worry about their own property

gheaver

cheers Seamus

the problem is, the company is my property and the first broker I rang wouldn't even quote me for company car cover :-p

caesar

gheaver wrote: »

cheers Seamus

the problem is, the company is my property and the first broker I rang wouldn't even quote me for company car cover :-p

This is a bit complicated in one sense. I wasn't going to reply until I saw this as Seamus was bang on with his initial reply.

For one is the company limited or what? (company law comes into all this)

Are you the sole owner or are there other shareholders?

If you were to take out a company policy, be aware that any questions ask about the proposer (the insured i.e you) applies to all of the shareholders (Utmost Good Faith here again). Im assuming that you don't own something like Kingspan :P

Basically speak to your insurers. It's a bit complicated to get into the in's and out's of it all. The "my friend has a company and he....blah blah blah" thing won't help you here.

gheaver

nah its my company - it is a limited company but i'm the 100% shareholder

I really want to use the company to provide me with the car but the first broker I spoke to couldn't get a quote for me through the company but could give me a quote in my own personal name - something to do with the company not having any NCB

R.O.R

gheaver wrote: »

nah its my company - it is a limited company but i'm the 100% shareholder

I really want to use the company to provide me with the car but the first broker I spoke to couldn't get a quote for me through the company but could give me a quote in my own personal name - something to do with the company not having any NCB

Try talking to Arachas (www.arachas.ie) they should be able to sort you out with a policy in the companies name.

gheaver

thanks, appreciate it!