Ever since I learnt about non-owner insurance I have been thinking about what I would do if I were in a similar position to yourself.
Before deciding anything I'd ask myself the following: In 12 months time (minimum) will my car still be worth keeping? By this I mean, will it's age be such that it wouldn't be worth keeping on the road. I'd consider how much money I'd already spent on the upkeep of the car and how many more years I would keep the car before deciding to get a new one. The answer to this question would make things easier for me to then decide what I would do with my car.
If I decided that I didn't want to get rid of the car, because it would still be roadworthy in many years time, I'd do one of the following;
- Pay to store it on private land (SORN) - as long as the cost of this didn't outweigh the cost of buying a new vehicle (realistically it shouldn't, however if my car needed a lot of work because it had been sat for 12 months, it could be very costly).
- Get someone I trusted to take out a policy for non-owner insurance - I would ask for them to contribute to the cost of this, as they'd be getting a vehicle for 12 months without the stress of having to buy their own. I'd probably offer to pay the difference for what it would cost for a policy on a car they owned and how much non-owner car insurance would cost. For example, if the insurance were £400 a year for a policy on a vehicle they owned, and a non-owner insurance policy were £600, I'd offer to pay £200 towards the cost of the insurance (possibly an extra £100 to sweeten the deal).
I wouldn't risk signing the V5 over to a friend. I'd have to be 100% sure that I trusted that person, and to be honest it's difficult to be 100% sure of that. All that being said, if I were to go down the route of non-owner insurance, I'd draw up a contract (signed by both parties, with a witness), stating that if
the car is damaged, it must be repaired, or replaced for a car worth the same value, at no cost to myself.
That's probably what I would do, using those sets of circumstances.