VW Golf - Used car dealer - insurance question

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Thu 28 Sep 2017 13:32
VW Golf - Used car dealer - insurance question - Robert Corbishley

Short story - car dealer wont give me the keys to my car without a paper certificate of insurance.

Long story -

I saw a Golf for sale in a well known dealership many miles away and fortunately the dealer network have a branch nearby and agreed to ship it nearer. Cool.

The car arrived a week later, I got to inspect and they did the prep on it and fixed a recall issue.

They rang to say it was all good. I asked for an invoice which they kind of sent and I wired the money direct to them. I said this will be your easiest sale of the year.... (and then the trouble started).

Yesterday we rang our insurer and switched over the cover and then drove down to the dealer to collect the car. We had another look at it, cool. We then sat down presuambly to sign the log book and GTFO of there. We then had to sign a half a dozen forms to say we didn't want anything other than the car thanks (finance, gap insurance, breakdown insurance blah blah). We did the VED on the computer and I set it the direct debit and then the salesman says that he just needs to see our insurance certifcate.... er nope, did it on the phone 2 hours ago... anyway, it was too late for our insurance company to do anything so we had to leave our new car car on the forecourt.

Come this morning and the car is listed on ask MID as insured (we wouldn't have been able to VED it otherwise anyway) but the dealer is still asking for an insurance certificate.

Am I right in saying I own the car and the insurance is a matter between me and the police to worry about?

I'm almost ready to phone the police and report them for theft as I cant see any honest reason for them to be holding onto the car - but I'm not going to waste police time

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Thu 28 Sep 2017 14:43
VW Golf - Used car dealer - insurance question - daveyjp

Quite usual behaviour for the dealer.

MID only says the car is insured, it doesn't state who the policyholder is.

However which insurance company are you using? All the ones I've used for the last few years have e-mailed the documents as soon as they are paid for. They don't send a certificate by post.

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Thu 28 Sep 2017 14:53
VW Golf - Used car dealer - insurance question - Bromptonaut

Cannot find a reference for it but IIRC dealer is legally obliged (or obliged by his indemnity insurer) to ensure you're properly insured before you drive away. Some include short term cover in sales price others ask for certificate.

Last time I changed the LV emailed the new certificate as soon as they'd recorded change and taken their fee.

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Thu 28 Sep 2017 15:00
VW Golf - Used car dealer - insurance question - Robert Corbishley

The dealer has known all along that the car has some insurance (VED website) and now they have a piece of paper with my name (which will be void by the time I pick up the keys) and just to take the proverbial I could go along with my dad tonight and once the keys are in my hand I could hand them to my dad who isn't on the policy but would be covered 3rd party through his own insurance anyway. It's all pointless.

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Thu 28 Sep 2017 14:56
VW Golf - Used car dealer - insurance question - Robert Corbishley

Its a big well known insurer.

I eventually managed to log on to my on line insurance "portal" as repeated calls to the support line and repeated promises of "sending the certificate" as a pdf came to nothing.

The system was only showing one car (not the one I've bought) and when I called and said it wasn't there they said that even though my email address is registered to 3 policies I can only log on to the oldest one. I then had to register the other cars with a new gmail adresses so that I could see, download and print the pdf.

Now thats done and I have a paper certificate to show the dealer I'll cancel the policies and get a fleet policy instead so the piece of paper I show the dealer tonight wont be worth a jot anyway.

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Thu 28 Sep 2017 17:05
VW Golf - Used car dealer - insurance question - SLO76
They're supppsed to check the car is insured before you drive off but taxing it is enough plus the dealer can easily check the MID. A copy of your certificate should have been emailed to you anyway so the salesman is being ridiculous to demand a paper copy. Tell them to check the MID and you'll be over to take the car away without any further delay. If he refuses then ask to speak to the manager as they clearly don't know what they're doing. If the manager also doesn't understand then demand a full refund plus compensation for your wasted time. People often buy cars in quick transactions which rule out the possibility of a paper cover note being available plus some insurers don't issue them anyway.

Edited by SLO76 on 28/09/2017 at 17:24

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