On Jul 20, 3:32*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Jul 20, 2:55*pm, "
wrote:





On Jul 20, 2:00*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:

I'm going to be renting a car for a family vacation. I am trying to
find the cheapest way to add my wife and 2 sons as operators and
ensure that our private insurance will cover any accidents regardless
of who is driving.

In order to add 3 Additional Authorized Operators (AAO), the rental
company wants an extra $24/day for the 10 day trip, and that's with a
considerable discount.

I asked my insurance company what would would happen if I didn't add
them to the contract and one of them was involved in an accident. *The
answer was:

"Well that is a hypothetical situation that I can not answer directly..
All I can say is that from a policy perspective they would be covered,
but from a legal perspective they might not be."

That was the best that I could get out of her since it was a
"hypothetical situation".

So I called the rental agency and ran it by them. The rental agent was
a bit more forthcoming.

"Your auto insurance policy coverage extends to any operator that you
authorize to operate a covered vehicle and your coverage also extends
to rental vehicles. Therefore, if you authorize someone to operate the
rental vehicle, they would be covered by your insurance.

However, in a worst case scenario, if an operator who is not listed as
an AAO with the rental agency has an accident, the rental agency has
the option to consider the contract null and void, which essentially
turns the vehicle into a stolen car. Since it would no longer be a
rental vehicle, but technically a vehicle involved in a crime, it
might not be covered by your policy."

He did mention that something like that has not happened, to his
knowledge, in a long, long time, but in a worst case scenario, it
could. He added that, hypothetically, it was up to me if I wanted to
take that chance.

What a crock, but I guess the rental companies have
to dream up something to try to force you to add additional drivers.
If it's a "crime" they would have to
report it to the police. * If they are truthful and report
the actual facts, there is no way any police dept is going
to consider that a "stolen" car and pursue charges.

I'll have to spend a little more time reading the rental contract, but
I did find this in their FAQ:

"Additional driver not signed on contract.

What if I just allow them to drive without adding them on the
contract?

Failure to add someone on the contract could result in the car being
impounded if stopped by the police."

If it *could* result in being impounded, then the police would need a
reason (and a law?) allowing them to impound it, wouldn't they?

They could impound it on the SUSPICION of it being
stolen because the driver can't produce documents
showing they are authorized to be driving it. That's
a lot different than the rental car company declaring it
to be "stolen" after an accident and you telling them
that it was not stolen, just your son driving it.





As I said in my response to Oren, the Ins Co did hint at a "legal
issue" with coverage of un-authorized drivers but didn't go into the
details. However, the rental agent mentioned the "stolen car" status
without knowing what my Ins Co had told me.

I look at it like this, at least at this point:

1 - There has to be some reason behind the Ins Co saying "the policy
would cover any driver but a "legal issue" might prevent coverage"

I'd say the reason are they can't forsee all the possible
circumstances, you're asking a legal question of some
phone person that could be in India, these companies
prefer to give vague answers, and the more you believe
it's dangerous to not name additional drivers the more
$$ they make.



2 - The rental agent did toss out a situation that supposedly changes
the legal status of the vehicle.

Therefore, maybe the two statements are indeed connected.

However, I will point out once again that the rental agent did in fact
say he has not heard of it actually happening in a long time, but that
it *could* happen, in a worst case scenario.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -