Private lease - What happens to accrued claim-free years?

Are you also accruing claim-free years?

At the end of your lease period, you can request a statement from the leasing company showing that you drove damage-free during the lease period. You can use this statement again for your next private lease agreement or if you are going to insure a car yourself again.

Private lease and claim-free years how about exactly?

If you have car insurance in your name, you accrue claim-free years. If you lease a car, it is almost always in the name of the leasing company. As a result, you do not officially build up any claim-free years. A shame, especially if you have been driving the lease car for many years without claims. If you are going to buy your own car after the lease period, you will also need to purchase your own car insurance. Without claim-free years, the insurance premium will be a lot higher. Fortunately, you can prove to your insurer with a lease statement. A lease statement states how long you have been driving 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, including minor ones. This can sometimes make a lease statement unfavorable.

What exactly about private leasing and accrued claim-free years?

At present, insurance companies still handle a lease statement in different ways. Most insurers already award claim-free years based on a lease statement, but this is not always the case. Some insurance companies only give a premium discount. This is unfavorable for you because you lose it when you switch. From 1-1-2022, however, there will be an unambiguous policy whereby lease drivers can have pure claim-free years entered into Roy-data by the insurer using a lease statement. This will allow you to use your claim-free years accrued with private lease for your own car insurance.

Claim-free years transferable since 1-1-2022

Since Jan. 1, 2022, claim-free years are transferable in some situations. Upon 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 claim-free years. This way they do not lose their accumulated claim-free years. You can read more about this new regulation in our blog post.

Can I lose claim-free years?

When terminating a car insurance policy, the insurer informs you of the number of accrued claim-free years. This data is also recorded in a system called Roy-data. Suppose you switch to private lease. You enter into a four-year agreement with the leasing company. In connection with the lease, you sell your own car. You have accumulated 10 claim-free years in the insurance of this car. These years are not put to use by the leasing company. They only need to be shown.

After four years, you buy another car that you want to insure. You have been driving claim-free for the past four years and have also accumulated ten claim-free years with the car you sold four years ago. Now it turns out that these ten claim-free years can no longer be used. This is because they only have a limited validity period if they are not linked to a car insurance policy. There are insurers who no longer accept the claim-free years as early as one year old.

Consider this when you go for private lease. When the lease comes into use, the claim-free years cannot expire.