Any advice from those who understand auto insurance and liability issues better than I do would be welcome...

I am interviewing potential candidates for a new sitter and have found an otherwise promising candidate who does not have her own car.

Before dropping this candidate from consideration: If I were to allow a sitter, a commercial service provider, to drive my car in case of an emergency while working here, what insurance issues do I need to be aware of? Are there other liability concerns with such an arrangement, or any other pitfalls that I should be aware of?

The sitter is self employed, she would not be my employee.

Many thanks.

When I had visitors from overseas and asked my insurance (AXA) how it would be if they used my car, the reply was, " it's the car that is insured, not the driver".

The insurance company couldn't care less if she is working for you or not, all that matters ( for her sake) is that she has her own insurance to cover the unlikely event of an accident where she may be in the wrong, so your insurance Co. can go after hers. If she doesn't have it, then they will have to go after her privately.

It is in her own interests to be properly insured in her situation, but that is her concern, not yours.

The only difference to this would be if the sitter is a young/ new driver, then you would need to look at it more closely, but it isn't a huge deal.

If she would be using your car on a regular basis, then all you need to do is inform your insurance company and they will put her name on the list as a user of your car, it may cost something but not much, so all in all, don't drop her on that account.

Not quite true. If it were deemed part of the nanny's business, e.g. part of her role was to ferry kids to and from school, then it may very well be classed as business use, and that would need to be explicitly added to the policy. I'd check with the insurance company of that is the case.

In this case, I'd suggest that occasional use in an emergency would not be deemed business use anyway.

that's why I put the last bit in, to be sure I didn't say it explicitly, but,
Edit, Urggh, that didn't work the way I wanted, but the guff is there.

Driving your dogs to a vet in an emergency would fall under social / domestic / pleasure which is standard.

Should the sitter advertise that she had transport & used your car to drive other people's pets around for a fee that would be commercial use. The distinction is obvious & clear.

Why not phone your insurer and ask them directly?

After about half an hour of 80s soft rock torture while languishing on hold, I gave up and decided to give the EF oracle a go.

You've all brought up good points, which will help me ask better questions when (if!) I can ever get hold of a human being at the insurance company.

Many thanks!

Ouch- we are so lucky here to have La Mobilière office just down the road, and there is always a friendly soul to discuss any issues or ask a question- can't stand those bl**dy phone lines. Lucky for OH too that the Manager lived in the USA and speaks perfect English too.

Cause then doing things, in the logical way, would cut most of EF's traffic.