Hello, we are planning to do the united kingdom for 2 pet sits, we require owners vehicle because of the number and type of pets, they are happy to lend us their vebicles, but insurance fo1 us has become problematice being Australian, has anyone solved t
We’ve done sits in the UK and had use of owners cars. They paid to put one of us on their insurance for £10/20 I think. But that was a few years ago, not sure if things might be different now. We’re on NZ licences.
I was told this company insure non British drivers
Since the pandemic @andrewandgeorgina, it has become very difficult for UK owners to add non-UK residents to their car insurance. As you know, in Australia it is our car that is insured but in the UK it is the person, hence the issue.
Hey temba, thanks for reply, did you find a solution to this problem, we don’t want to give up 2 really good long term sits because of uk stupidity
Cheers
Andrew
I’m British, so I’m allowed to agree with your stupidity comment.
@andrewandgeorgina My solution is I rent a car for 3-4 months because I enjoy rural sits, visiting family and friends and being independent. Although it is against the car rental agreement, I have taken a pet to the vet in it for an emergency because of the rural location.
2 Likes
Actually in the UK it’s the car that is insured for x,y and z named drivers. I’ve never tried to add an overseas resident as a named, temporary driver, however.
1 Like
As everyone has said it is very difficult however there are specialist insurance companies. I expect it’s not cheap.
I did a one month sit recently in the UK and I was added to the homeowners insurance policy in order to drive their car. It was with Admiral Insurance and it was extremely cheap, like under $AUD100 for the additional cover on their insurance. Third time this year I have been added to UK car insurance as an Australian with no problem whatsoever and very cheap.
5 Likes
That’s interesting because it’s certainly different to in Australia where it is very easy to add another person, international or not, to our car insurance @Alicatorze. UK owners have found it virtually impossible to add an international driver going by the comments that have arisen on the Forum over the past few years and my own experience when sitting in the UK. Perhaps you could do some homework with your insurance company and get back to us how you got on if you were to add an Aussie, for example. That would be helpful for us.
1 Like
That’s good to know @ziggy. Our Isle of Wight owner had tried previously with another sitter but to no avail with her car insurance company.
1 Like
As @temba notes, it used to be easy to add me as a US driver. Drove HO’s cars for a month in 2019 being added to insurance w/o even asking. Then 2022, no longer possible. I solved the problem by sharing car rental costs with HO. I felt it was worth it since I could use the car to travel around the UK from sit to sit and avoid train/bus tickets. If renting in London, Enterprise had some good rates if you got out of central London.
But if you will be using the car to transport pets, probably won’t work as most car rental companies don’t allow pets.
We’ve completed three UK housesits that included use of pet parent vehicle (thanks pet parents, both your dogs and housesitters appreciated it!). And one UK Pet Parent noted insurance not available (so we did not use vehicle). So it must be possible. At least with some insurance companies. With some insurance policies. At some cost. Not aware of easy solution as may depend on Pet Parent insurance company. Although we do have expired UK drivers licenses then we currently have Canadian and international licenses.
It will certainly depend on the HO circumstances, their age, location, value of the vehicle, who their insurance company is, plus your individual circumstances age, length of driving etc as to whether it’s viable or not. The only thing the HO can do is ask and see what additional premium is required but it will never be a standard thing as every situation will be different.
1 Like
It depends on the insurance company. Some will cover overseas visitors but some won’t. We offer use of our spare car to sitters provided we can get them insured and it depends on their particular circumstances. As we are in a fairly remote location with a poor bus service, we try to ensure that sitters are not stranded.
1 Like
It’s also worth noting that Uk car insurance premiums have been going through the roof over the last few years. Some HOs may be reluctant to add additional drivers that they don’t really know to their insurance in case something does happen and a claim needs to be made which would invariably affect future premiums.