Car insurance and dementia

minibear

Hi I wonder could anyone give me some advice on the following please. An elderly relative is awaiting a diagnosis and it's fairly obvious that this person suffers with dementia and that will be the diagnosis. They are not fit to drive.

They hold an insurance policy with one driver named. What happens once the person has the diagnosis confirmed? Does the policy have to be cancelled? The named driver has their own motor policy already on their own vehicle.

thanks in advance.

cplwhisper

There are lots of similar scenarios and most cases result in policy still held by policy holder, but main driver allocated to a friend or family member to take them to clinics/mass etc

Hope all works out

NUTLEY BOY

A terrible scenario all round for the "patient".

It also presents some serious technical problems.

If the patient is over 70 their driving licence runs for either one year or three years at a time. Which period applies depends on the patient's G.P. Although dementia has symptomatic variations in it's manifestation I doubt if any G.P. would certify them fit to hold a licence after a definite diagnosis.

This raises a question about the policyholder's licence. Just because you hold a licence that has a certain period yet to run it does not mean that you are fit to hold it until it expires. A G.P. who becomes aware of the dementia diagnosis should prevail on the patient - or his family - to give up driving.

I do not know if a doctor can formally contact the licensing authority and advise them that the patient is no longer fit to drive. Patient confidentiality might arise. That said there are ways of doing this with a view to getting the licence withdrawn and any such step would be ethically justified.

If the concerns are serious enough it should be possible for the Gardaí to make an application to the District Court to have the licence suspended on the grounds that the holder is no longer fit to drive. [S.28. RTA 1961 LINK http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1961/act/24/enacted/en/print.html ]

If the licence is lifted as per S.28 then that probably counts as a disqualification with the obvious implications for the motor insurance policy.

The medical condition is itself a material fact which must be disclosed to insurers at renewal.

As far as named drivers go I see a tricky wrinkle. A named driver only has lawful authority to drive someone else's car with their consent or authority. If the owner's mental capacity is reduced by dementia there has to be a serious question about whether or not the owner has the capacity to grant such consent or authority to someone else to drive their car.

There is a lot to be said about this issue. In short summary the patient with a dementia diagnosis should never drive again and the car should be disposed of while they still have the capacity to make a sale / transfer of ownership. Holding on to the car for somebody else to drive has the consent problems mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

These are sad situations but the safety of all must take priority.