At Moneyworks, we all own our own vehicles and when we use them for work, we get reimbursed by the company at the IRD rate of mileage. It is a system that has worked well for us. We didn’t think twice about it until we read a case note from the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman, where we learned that our vehicles may not be insured if we use them for business use and they are insured for personal use.
In this situation the insured had claimed for compensation for the delay in the insurer assessing the claim, as he didn’t have the vehicle available – but the important information is that he had an obligation to tell the insurer that he had been using the vehicle for business use. [The insurer made a good faith payment for their delaying payment - which covered the damage – but the Ombudsman made it clear that there was no reason for the insurer to pay compensation for lost business.]. You can read the case note here https://www.ifso.nz/case-studies/business-or-displeasure
The important thing is - again- understanding your policy wording. We asked our insurance broker to check our wording, and fortunately they confirmed that our policy wording covered our vehicles for the type of business use that we use them for.
We strongly recommend that if you are using your private vehicle for business, regardless of whether it is in your business or getting your employer to reimburse you, that you check with your vehicle insurer to make sure that you are covered!
