What are the principles Motor Insurance is built upon?

During the process of applying for motor insurance you will be asked for many details ranging from personal details to location and security based questions. As with all insurance you are well advised to answer any and all questions as honestly as possible in order to ensure any claims are fully met by your insurance company in the event of an accident.

Hot Topics

What are the laws regarding Motor insurance in the United Kingdom?
Motor insurance originated in 1930, when the government introduced a law that required every person who used a vehicle on the road to have some kind of motor insurance policy. This had to be third party personal injury cover at the very least.
What is a Comprehensive Motor Insurance policy cover?
Comprehensive cover is when you cover your vehicle against most forms of damage that may occur to your vehicle. This doesn't mean you are covered for absolutely everything. If you look in depth into your comprehensive car insurance contract you'll probably find some significant exclusions.
What to do if you have an accident
In many circumstances you will not be able to prevent an accident, especially if the accident is not your fault. If you are involved in an accident, there are several steps you need to undertake.
Why do some Motor insurance specialise in High Performance Motor Insurance?
When you are thinking of buying a high performance car, what you may not have thought about is how much your insurance premiums would be when you come to insure the vehicle.
Am I insured to drive someone else's car?
Many motor insurance providers will allow their comprehensive policy holders to drive any other vehicle, as long as it is already insured by another driver. This means that you can drive your friend's car BUT it is likely that you will only be insured to third party level.
Insurance is a way of smoothing out the financial risk of a life changing event, such as a car crash or a death in the family. The insurance companies are able to take a stance on the acceptable level of risk of insuring you. This means that they have access to massive amounts of data relating to the probability of you being in an accident. They then look at the value of the car, your age and experience and provide a quote for the insurance.

If the insurance company had only insured you they could have had to take a loss on your car insurance policy (in the event of a claim) - however over the thousands of people who all take insurance through them the statistics average out so that they are able to make money over all of the contracts as a whole.
An important principle is insurable interest, this refers to the ability to prove that in the event of an accident, or if your car was stolen you would suffer financially. This is to prevent con merchants from insuring someone else’s car then causing it to crash and claiming on the policy.

Should your car be damaged by another car, usually your insurer has to pay for it, and their outlay is reclaimed from the responsible driver. This process is commonly referred to as 'subrogation'.
In the event of a claim you also need to be able to prove ‘proximate cause’ this is when your vehicle has been damaged and it has been damaged by an event covered by your motor insurance policy.