Insurance for surfing van

nhur

I've a van for windsurfing/surfing and no one will quote me for insurance... it's taxed commercially but that is because it is classified as a commercial vehicle by the govt... I've been driving a van for over a decade but all of a sudden can't get insured...

Does anyone know who I should talk to about this? some government department perhaps?

biko

Moved out from someone else's thread.

colm_mcm

There's usually nothing stopping some taxing a van on private tax
I.e. By engine cc. Most people would prefer to tax commercially with it being cheaper.
I wouldn't bother getting on to the government telling them that you're taxing a vehicle as commercial and not using it for business (assuming you're doing windsurfing as a hobby as opposed to being an instructor etc)

CJhaughey

The solution is to pay private tax on the van, its possible, my Mother has done this with a Seat Inca.
Once you have privately taxed the van you can buy private insurance for the van.

I am afraid that trying to go to a Govt department to complain about this will just waste a lot of your time to no avail.
Do you really think you are the only person in Ireland that has encountered this problem?
I know lots of guys that have had the same issue, its down to a general tightening of insurance and tax issues and unfortunately as you have found the old commercial tax private insurance no longer works any longer.

oinkely

The tax is not the issue though, it's the fact that no insurance company will cover a commercial vehicle for purely social, domestic and pleasure use.

CJhaughey

oinkely wrote: »

The tax is not the issue though, it's the fact that no insurance company will cover a commercial vehicle for purely social, domestic and pleasure use.

Thats the point, tax it privately and it becomes a private vehicle and can be insured as such.

oinkely

It doesn't though CJ.

Mine is similar, a commercial vehicle taxed privately. you still do the DOE and you still have to get commercial insurance as insurance companies will not give a private insurance policy on a commercial vehicle.

And it seems they are now getting difficult about social, domestic & pleasure use policies on commercial vehicles too!

savagethegoat

fit a cooker and sink, bed and table, tax it as a camper

ubs69

How old is the van ?

CJhaughey

savagethegoat wrote: »

fit a cooker and sink, bed and table, tax it as a camper

You could do that but then you have to pay VRT as a camper not a Commercial van, that could be quite a bit.

CJhaughey

oinkely wrote: »

It doesn't though CJ.

Mine is similar, a commercial vehicle taxed privately. you still do the DOE and you still have to get commercial insurance as insurance companies will not give a private insurance policy on a commercial vehicle.

And it seems they are now getting difficult about social, domestic & pleasure use policies on commercial vehicles too!

I don't know which companies do it, all I know is that my Mother had the same on her Commercial Seat Inca and it seemed to be no problem to insure it.

CiniO

CJhaughey wrote: »

Thats the point, tax it privately and it becomes a private vehicle and can be insured as such.

Tax class has nothing to do with vehicle type.
Vehicle type is "goods vehicle" and no matter how you tax it, it's still going to be goods vehicle.

CJhaughey

CiniO wrote: »

Tax class has nothing to do with vehicle type.
Vehicle type is "goods vehicle" and no matter how you tax it, it's still going to be goods vehicle.

All I can go on is my mother experience, once the van was taxed privately the Insurance company she used would quote for private use.
It may be that you have to buy a minibus version of the van and use that instead.
Caravelle instead of Transporter etc.

9935452

CJhaughey wrote: »

All I can go on is my mother experience, once the van was taxed privately the Insurance company she used would quote for private use.
It may be that you have to buy a minibus version of the van and use that instead.
Caravelle instead of Transporter etc.

Agree with you . There are a few lads at work with berlingos and kangoos with private insurance and private tax.

CiniO wrote: »

Tax class has nothing to do with vehicle type.
Vehicle type is "goods vehicle" and no matter how you tax it, it's still going to be goods vehicle.

The van will always be a goods vehicle but you tax it for its use. If you use it for work/employment you tax it commercial, use it for personal use , you tax it privately. People used to tax them commercially because it was cheaper.

savagethegoat

Yes but it's still classed as a Commercial and that's why you have to CVRT it. Mind you, a lot of people still think the likes of Kangoos and Berlingos are exempt from testing

9935452

savagethegoat wrote: »

Yes but it's still classed as a Commercial and that's why you have to CVRT it. Mind you, a lot of people still think the likes of Kangoos and Berlingos are exempt from testing

Yeah. And they need to be tested every year too unlike the nct , 1st nct after 4 years and every 2 after that til its 10 years old .
Comparing the 2 it does seem unfair doesnt it?

TrailerBob

The entire system is massively flawed. If you do buy a post '08 van and tax it privately, it goes on the engine cc instead of CO2 like the equivalent car. Still has to be CVRT tested. I can understand this for big vans and the like, but for car derived vans and 4x4's with a passenger equivalent, there's no reason why it couldn't be passed on to the NCT

colm_mcm

It kinda has to go both ways, if you want the cheap VRT for being in that vehicle class, then it's a van. Being a van it should be doing more mileage, if it's being used as a van, so an annual test makes sense to me.
There are cars for people who want cars, and vans with Windows for people who want cars that occasionally do van stuff.

nhur

Hi all - good info there etc. I've been ringing around and talking to brokers and insurance companies and a little wiser but not any less infuriated. Let me start by saying that I have a renewal quote so I have at least one more year before I have to make some decisions...

According to the insurance ppl I talked to on the phone:

Whether the vehicle is taxed privately or commercially is immaterial.
Insurance companies have their own classifications. I found a VW Caravelle (passenger/minibus version of a VW Transporter) on donedeal, taxed privately etc and asked for a quote on it. They said that the number of seats in it means that (as far as they're concerned) it's a commercial vehicle. I said I'd take out the back row of seats and they whistled inwards and said that modifications created even more difficulty. Insurance companies have decided that private individuals cannot insure commercial vehicles. The Revenue Commissioners have no objections to private use.

Commercial use is determined by my primary occupation
i.e. bit of this and that on the side means no van insurance... even though the stipulations on most of the online quotations is that is must not ONLY be used for Social, Domestic and Pleasure.

Summary
If I'm a gardener by trade with a wheelbarrow and rakes or whatever in the back, I can get a competitive price on a policy which will also allow me to pick up the kids from school
If I'm a gardener by hobby with a wheelbarrow and rakes or whatever in the back, I can't even get a quote.

9935452

nhur wrote: »

Hi all - good info there etc. I've been ringing around and talking to brokers and insurance companies and a little wiser but not any less infuriated. Let me start by saying that I have a renewal quote so I have at least one more year before I have to make some decisions...

According to the insurance ppl I talked to on the phone:

Whether the vehicle is taxed privately or commercially is immaterial.
Insurance companies have their own classifications. I found a VW Caravelle (passenger/minibus version of a VW Transporter) on donedeal, taxed privately etc and asked for a quote on it. They said that the number of seats in it means that (as far as they're concerned) it's a commercial vehicle. I said I'd take out the back row of seats and they whistled inwards and said that modifications created even more difficulty. Insurance companies have decided that private individuals cannot insure commercial vehicles. The Revenue Commissioners have no objections to private use.

Commercial use is determined by my primary occupation
i.e. bit of this and that on the side means no van insurance... even though the stipulations on most of the online quotations is that is must not ONLY be used for Social, Domestic and Pleasure.

Summary
If I'm a gardener by trade with a wheelbarrow and rakes or whatever in the back, I can get a competitive price on a policy which will also allow me to pick up the kids from school
If I'm a gardener by hobby with a wheelbarrow and rakes or whatever in the back, I can't even get a quote.

Have you tried brokers? . let them do the hard work for you

nhur

yup - tried the works...

I'm going to pay the renewal and worry about it next year - hopefully something will be sorted by then.

l.o.x.y

Any update on your insurance? Did you find something that works?

biko

Start a new thread with your specifics or simply PM the OP

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