Can you get insurance for the short term?
Has your vehicle been impounded by the police? It must be insured before you can drive it out of the police pound. Short-term impounded vehicle insurance may be the cheapest way of getting insurance that the pound staff will accept.
The reason why so many vehicles are not insured is that the registered owners can’t afford the high cost of insurance premiums specifically young drivers who can face a premium of thousands of pounds every year. If the vehicle is impounded, it should be reclaimed within 7 working days of the date it was impounded, otherwise, it will be thrown away or auctioned.
A temporary insurance policy could help you release your vehicle so that you could SORN (statutory Off Road Notification) it, sell it, or save up for an annual policy. The minimum length of such a policy will be 30 days which will be accepted by the police.
1-day vehicle insurance
1-28 days short-term insurance policies will not be accepted to release an impounded vehicle. The police will only accept a standard policy that has been issued for at least 30 days. 30-day insurance policies can only be purchased by the registered owners. However, the impounded vehicle insurance policy provides you with a solution to releasing an impounded vehicle from the police pound providing a quick 30-day insurance cover.
What will you get:
- Insurance cover arranged in a few minutes
- Quick insurance cover to release an impounded car from the pound
- 30-day policy for impounded vehicles
The cheapest way to insure a vehicle to release it from impound
The choice is generally between purchasing a standard annual policy if you want to keep the vehicle or getting a short-term policy, then either selling the vehicle or making a SORN (statutory Off Road Notification) statement so you can lay it up until finances enhance.
There is also another possibility. You could sell the vehicle to someone else with a clean driving record who could then maybe get a cheaper policy than you could. You would lose the vehicle but at least you would get something back for it instead of watching it be scrapped or auctioned by the police. All these ways have benefits and disadvantages.
Purchasing a standard policy
Most people whose vehicles have been impounded as a result of the driver being not insured did not insure them because the insurance premiums were simply more than they could afford. Most of these drivers will now have to pay even more for their insurance policies because they will be facing a charge for driving without insurance, or they will already have accepted a penalty from the police.
You could still use your price comparison website to look for the cheapest impounded vehicle quote. However, you would have to tell the insurance company if you have been given a fixed penalty for driving without insurance or even facing a court appearance. If you present a standard policy at the police pound, the pound staff will check up with the insurance company to ensure that you have declared the condition accurately.
Purchasing short-term vehicle insurance
1-28 days car insurance policies almost inevitably exclude using them to get a vehicle out of impound but it makes no difference; the police will not accept them for that purpose anyway. The minimum they will accept is standard insurance policies which run for at least 30 days. There are insurance providers who provide these insurance policies and who are prepared to accept applicants with driving convictions.
As an insurance broker, we have been helping people arrange insurance for impounded vehicles in the UK for many years. Being able to purchase insurance coverage in recent years has become normal for so many people. We have designed our business model to meet this new shopping experience and develop other options for temporary car insurance.
