Am I covered to drive someone else's car in an emergency?

The best place to check if you have this level of cover is to look at your Certificate of Motor insurance. When you buy a policy with us, we'll email this to you and it can also be accessed within Your Account.

If your policy includes cover for driving other cars, it will be shown under section 5 of your Certificate of Motor Insurance.  This means 1st Central will provide third party only cover for any accident involving the car, while you're driving it. This covers any amounts you're legally liable to pay if someone else is injured or killed, or their property is damaged, but not any damage to the car you're driving.

The following conditions must be met for this cover to apply:

• You must obtain prior permission from the owner of the car
• You are still in possession of your own car, it is still insured and it has neither been damaged beyond economical repair nor stolen
• The other car is not owned by you and is insured by another insurance policy to drive on the public highway (and is not a rental car, or hired to you under a hire purchase or leasing agreement)
• You are not named as a driver of the other car on any Certificate of Motor Insurance
• You are not using this cover to remove the car in the event it has been seized by, or on behalf of, any government or public authority