Just tried to renew our second cars insurance and although at the moment its off the road and SORN they wont even give us 3rd party fire and theft. I dont want the car sitting there uninsured so want some sort of cover. Has anyone any experience of this? or companies that are worth contacting about getting cover?

Cheers in advance

Speak to them again and see if you get someone more useful on the phone. They should be able to offer Fire & Theft only

https://www.lancasterinsurance.co.uk/my-quote/laid-upsorn-cover/

I’ve never had an issue getting it.

One of my cars was off the road for 4 years till I got it back roadworthy.

Insurance company knew what was happening- they were quite happy as there was minimal risk for them. Basically was only actually covered against wholesale theft or fire.

Cheaper than chips too -no risk of it being driven.

Look for “project” car insurance. Or repair and maintainance insurance.

Thousands of cars and bikes across the UK get sorned and stay insured. You just may not find it on compare the meerkats

Mashr has it. Plain old fire and theft only. Never had a problem getting that whilst restoring cars. Usually cheap as chips too

I’ve just SORN’d my roadster, told my insurance company and they said “ok”

Quite simple, you must be with an insurer who makes things complicated.

Eh? Your insurer sounds crap. You need insurance to tax a car, so if you had a car that you were working on with the intention of putting back on the road during the lifetime of the policy, you’d be stuck.

I’ve had plenty of insurers say they won’t offer laid up policies (many wouldn’t offer unless I was already a customer) but I’ve never had one refuse to insure a car that was SORN. That’s a bit bonkers.

Hmm. I’m about to SORN a bike that’s currently insured until May. It never occurred to me this would be a problem.

Thanks for the replies. I’m with churchill and the guy on the phone checked a few times to make sure, said they would be happy to insure it when it was ready to go back on the road but not when it wasnt which sounded daft to me hence the post. He also said that if it was SORNd half way through a policy it would have been canceled which is not what i was told when I asked about it at the time so I’ll be getting a refund for the last 6 or so months.

I’ll go spend a bit of time on the phone and see how I get on.

He sounds like he may have got it a bit arse about face.
You can have a car insured, but SORNed, but you can’t have a car taxed, but uninsured, even if kept off the public highway.

I’d try another broker. If you still have triuble try one of the specialists (come to think about it I’ve only ever done this with an extensively modified import meaning I had to use a specialist, so I guess the mainstream people may have different guidelines)
So try:
Sky
APlan
Adrian Flux
Greenlight
REIS

Etc

Adrian Flux definitely do Laid Up insurance – I have it on my Beemer E30 that’s off the road & SORN whilst being worked on (very slowly!)

Went with Adrian flux in the end, best price and excess. Quite a few wanted it in a locked and secured building so garage or the likes and not sat on the drive. Not as cheap as I expected for a car thats not going to be driven, maybe 60% of the fully comp price with just the boss on the policy as it’s her car.

Cheers for the pointers all