Private lease - What happens to the accumulated claim-free years?
Driving a new car has the disadvantage that you pay a lot of money. More and more people choose private lease, but what happens in this case with your accrued years without claims? Do you also build up claim-free years during the lease period? We would like to explain it to you.
Online, you will find many advertisements aimed at private leasing. Usually, the prices are attractive, starting at around € 199.00. Unfortunately, the monthly costs rise sharply when you fill in your wishes and preferences. Standard, often six to eight years without claims are assumed. Have you accumulated fewer years? Then private lease is more expensive for you.
Use claim-free years?
With a lot of accumulated years without claims, you pay less premium for car insurance. With private leasing, you don't have to take out a car insurance, but you can still benefit from contributing your claim-free years. If you have no or only a few claim-free years, many lease companies charge a surcharge on the standard rate.
How do you prove claim-free years?
If you have sold your car, the insurer will send you a terminated policy that shows the number of claim-free years. The claim-free years may also still be linked to a car. In that case you will have to send a recent policy in order to prove the accumulated years. Check carefully in advance what leasing companies require to prove the number of claim-free years. This can vary greatly from company to company.
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Do you also build up claim-free years?
At the end of your lease period, you can ask the lease company for a statement showing that you drove without damage during the lease period. You can use this statement for your next private lease agreement or if you want to insure a car yourself again.
Private lease and claim-free years how about exactly?
If you have a car insurance in your name, you build up claim-free years. If you lease a car, it is almost always in the name of the leasing company. Because of this you do not officially build up claim-free years. That is a shame, especially if you have been driving the lease car for many years without claims. If you are going to buy a car yourself after the lease period, you also have to take out your own car insurance. Without damage free years, the insurance premium will be a lot higher. Fortunately, you can prove your claim-free years to your insurer with a lease declaration. A lease declaration states how long you have driven the lease car and whether there have been any damages during this period. Keep in mind that with a lease car it is customary to claim all damages, so even the smaller ones. Because of this, a lease statement can sometimes turn out unfavourable.
What exactly about private leasing and accrued claim-free years?
At present, insurance companies still take varying approaches to lease certificates. Most insurers already grant claim-free years on the basis of a leasing statement, but this is not always the case. Some insurance companies only give a premium discount. This is unfavourable for you, because you lose these when you make a switch. From 1-1-2022, however, there will be a uniform policy, whereby lease drivers, with the help of a lease statement, can have the insurer enter pure claim-free years in Roy-data. In this way, you can use your claim-free years accrued through private leasing for your own car insurance.
Claim-free years transferable since 1-1-2022
Since 1 January 2022, claim-free years are transferable in certain situations. In case of death for example, they can be transferred to the surviving partner. Also for lease drivers and drivers who have lived abroad for years, it is now possible to transfer the claim-free years. This way, they do not lose their accumulated claim-free years. In our blogpost you can read more about this new regulation.
Can I lose claim-free years?
When terminating a car insurance policy, the insurer will inform you of the number of claim-free years accumulated. These data are also registered in a system called Roy-data. Suppose you switch to private lease. You enter into a four-year agreement with the lease company. In connection with the lease, you sell your own car. You have built up 10 claim-free years in the insurance of this car. These years are not used by the lease company. They only have to be proven.
After four years, you buy another car and want to insure it. You have had no claims for the past four years and you have also accumulated ten claim-free years with the car you sold four years ago. Now it appears that these ten claim-free years can no longer be used. They have a limited validity period if they are not linked to a car insurance. There are insurers who do not accept the claim-free years when they are one year old.
Think about this when you go for private leasing. When the lease comes into use, the claim-free years cannot expire.
Related pages about claim-free years
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