Hello! Our home is located in the suburbs. We are considering offering our car as part of our HomeExchange. Has anyone had experience with this? Have you researched insurance implications? I want to ensure that the value of the home exchange wouldn’t make loaning the car be considered renting the car for money. Also, would that increase the points assigned to our home? Thank you!
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We have not done it but it is outside of HE and does not benefit from the deposit or guarantees they offer. You have to think about mileage, deductible, what happens in an accident. Lay out terms clearly. From an insurance standpoint It is like loaning a car to a friend. We were just discussing who pays if it gets towed. It is my breakdown but you may have taken is somewhere far away. There is no guest point value as I understand it for a car, I would find that weird since HE wants to stay out of it. Now we are in the US so we worry about liability, other countries may be different.
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We have mostly done only exchanges with a car. The predecessor to home exchange had a separate agreement for this part of the exchange, this doesn’t exist anymore. How it works with your insurance company is the same as if you lent your car to anyone else (Canada). We have always had great experiences with this but there are risks. We usually do simultaneous exchanges so there are no points exchanged for the home or the car. Offering a car does not alter the points value of our home. Happy to answer more questions on this topic if you have them. Thanks.
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Welcome to the Forum and thank you so much for your super helpful and clear reply 
Thanks so much for your advice and sharing your experience about this
Welcome to the Forum! Yes lots of members do indeed exchange cars as well as homes.
Unfortunately we live a good 2 hours from an airport and need our car to get there, so we have never been able to do this. However I should imagine it could save you a lot of money. Exchanging cars is not formally included in HomeExchange but it can be arranged between members. There would be no HE cover or guarantees for this so you would need to make sure you are covered by your insurance company - and this varies from country to country. I’m afraid it would not alter your guest points amount. Happy exchanging.
I have heard from members who exchanged cars in this situation, too. Just explain to your guests where the car is parked and where they can find the key. Soms people hide it somehere near the car, others use a locker with a code.
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@trenke, this is exactly what I was going to say. In fact, we have swapped cars at the airports several times. With some families, we previously sent a spare copy of the car key to their homes. sometimes, there was a friend or relative handing it to us. And once we recovered it from a locker at the airport.
We are used to swapping cars, but we only do it when it’s a reciprocal home swap. We use a contract template we got from another website in the past, fill it in with all the car info, the insurance details, our garage info, and note any minor defaults or scratches the car might have. We also record a video showing how the car is when we leave it and send it to the other family. We also invite them to do the same. And we agree to leave the gas tank full.
In Spain, you just need to have good car insurance and make sure that the driver is over 25 years old and has had his driving license for at least 2 years.
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We have done an exchange with car. Checked out with insurance company and got specific requirements wrt excess and drivers licence. Excess was the same as what I would pay. Drivers licence requirement was unusual. Needed to be International Driving Permit or licence translated into English. Foreign licences not accepted. This is obviously country specific, so check.
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Thank you for these tips! We almost always fly from the same airport (Bristol) so next time we are there I will do a reccie and see if there are any lockers! This would certainly save us a lot of money on both hiring cars and also the airport parking
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Very interesting to know that Sally, thanks for sharing. Can I check which country you are based in?
We live in Cape Town, South Africa.
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In UK I don’t know how to make car exchange safe for us. Family friend ( not from HE) was using our car and got a video camera ticket for doing turn in a bus lane.
We was abroad for half year, missed all the mail about this ticket, so my husband ( car on his name) almost got arrested on arrival. Cost of accumulated penalties was higher than cost of the car. We paid it…
As well in UK any mistake registered by video cameras can lead to loose a driving licence.
In USA it’s not a problem for me to give my car . Car registered where my relatives can open my mail.
In USA Ukrainian refugee was using my car for 3 years, only car insurance was on the name of the refugee.
P.S. I am new on HE. Looking for answers how to deal with calendar, I am drowning in requests. I don’t know how to prepare or represent my 2 houses , so it will be no misunderstandings.
I just don’t offer the car in the east cost US and limited older car in the southwest, I think my house becomes less attractive without the car or if you restrict miles but you have to feel safe on what you do. It goes under your insurance if they have an accident in the US. For us the owner has to hold the insurance so I don’t know how you could own a car and have someone else insure it in the US. I know some people put the car under turo. If you are drowning in requests remove the car. Restrict the calendar to when you really want to free up the house. You sound like you are in a popular area, you can set a minimum length of stay if you get alot of short stay requests. And be really clear about how you want the home returned to you.