Insurance gripe – does this sound fair??
Discussion
Hi all
I’m about to write a snotty letter to my (ex) car insurers and would welcome your opinions (sorry if this is a bit of a long post).
The situation is as follows – a couple of months ago someone managed to sideswipe my car while it was parked outside the house in the snow. Fair enough, accidents happen and at least he had the decency to knock on the door & give me his details.
It also justified my decision to buy a £900, 12 year old Laguna to leave outside the house while the Elise is tucked up in the garage. Anyway, there was no fundamental damage to the car apart from dents in both the front & rear driver’s side doors. Car still perfectly driveable, but obviously at risk of being written off due to the costs of repairing both doors.
The wheels of insurance have been grinding exceedingly slowly, but I eventually received a letter & cheque from his insurers on Easter Saturday, for the full value of the car, declaring it beyond economical repair. Fortunately, the letter also warned me that I should phone my insurers to ensure that they were still happy to cover it.
This is where the gripe begins. I called my insurers, only to discover that they had cancelled all cover the day before (Good Friday). Their method of informing me of this was to post me a letter (which I still haven’t got), and to send an email to my work address. I’m fortunate enough not to be working on Good Friday – so no practicable way that I would have known this on Saturday morning, and in fact, I’d already been out in the car that morning before the letter from the other insurers arrived.
My insurers informed me that they would be happy to reinstate the cover if I could fax them a new MOT certificate to prove that the car is roadworthy. When I responded that there was no way that I would be able to get an MOT over the Easter weekend, their response was, basically, “Tough luck, sunshine”. They then went on to inform me that I had better get the car off the road as it was illegal to leave it there without insurance (nice touch). A longish argument ensued, but they refused to budge and I was left with no option but to get online pdq & get it insured with someone else.
My question is – can they reasonably do this? Can they cancel a policy on a bank holiday, with no realistic way for the insured party to find out for at least three more days, or to rectify the issue? Has there been a breach of any rules here, or is it just a case of unfortunate timing over the Easter weekend? Can I realistically threaten them with reporting them to the FSA or somesuch regulatory body?
Once again, sorry for the long post - any opinions welcome.
Cheers
Jim
I’m about to write a snotty letter to my (ex) car insurers and would welcome your opinions (sorry if this is a bit of a long post).
The situation is as follows – a couple of months ago someone managed to sideswipe my car while it was parked outside the house in the snow. Fair enough, accidents happen and at least he had the decency to knock on the door & give me his details.
It also justified my decision to buy a £900, 12 year old Laguna to leave outside the house while the Elise is tucked up in the garage. Anyway, there was no fundamental damage to the car apart from dents in both the front & rear driver’s side doors. Car still perfectly driveable, but obviously at risk of being written off due to the costs of repairing both doors.
The wheels of insurance have been grinding exceedingly slowly, but I eventually received a letter & cheque from his insurers on Easter Saturday, for the full value of the car, declaring it beyond economical repair. Fortunately, the letter also warned me that I should phone my insurers to ensure that they were still happy to cover it.
This is where the gripe begins. I called my insurers, only to discover that they had cancelled all cover the day before (Good Friday). Their method of informing me of this was to post me a letter (which I still haven’t got), and to send an email to my work address. I’m fortunate enough not to be working on Good Friday – so no practicable way that I would have known this on Saturday morning, and in fact, I’d already been out in the car that morning before the letter from the other insurers arrived.
My insurers informed me that they would be happy to reinstate the cover if I could fax them a new MOT certificate to prove that the car is roadworthy. When I responded that there was no way that I would be able to get an MOT over the Easter weekend, their response was, basically, “Tough luck, sunshine”. They then went on to inform me that I had better get the car off the road as it was illegal to leave it there without insurance (nice touch). A longish argument ensued, but they refused to budge and I was left with no option but to get online pdq & get it insured with someone else.
My question is – can they reasonably do this? Can they cancel a policy on a bank holiday, with no realistic way for the insured party to find out for at least three more days, or to rectify the issue? Has there been a breach of any rules here, or is it just a case of unfortunate timing over the Easter weekend? Can I realistically threaten them with reporting them to the FSA or somesuch regulatory body?
Once again, sorry for the long post - any opinions welcome.
Cheers
Jim
It was the insurance company themselves. The exact wording of the email that I finally got at work today is as follows (this was sent at 2pm on Friday 14th April):
"Our Claims Department has advised us that your car has been Deemed beyond economical repair. As a result, all insurance cover is now cancelled for you and any drivers on your policy with effect from 00:01 hours on13/04/06. This includes the Driving of Other Cars extension, if applicable."
When I first reported the accident to them, a couple of months ago, they specifically asked if the car was still driveable and I informed them that it was. They didn't raise any objection to me continuing to drive it. At that point, I guess, neither of us knew whether the costs of the reparis would write the car off...
Cheers
Jim
"Our Claims Department has advised us that your car has been Deemed beyond economical repair. As a result, all insurance cover is now cancelled for you and any drivers on your policy with effect from 00:01 hours on13/04/06. This includes the Driving of Other Cars extension, if applicable."
When I first reported the accident to them, a couple of months ago, they specifically asked if the car was still driveable and I informed them that it was. They didn't raise any objection to me continuing to drive it. At that point, I guess, neither of us knew whether the costs of the reparis would write the car off...
Cheers
Jim
That's very interesting and also unfair, as I'm assuming that your car was in fact inspected by the third parties engineer some time ago and it was in fact considered to be a write off (presumably cat C or D) at that time. Meaning effectively that you have been driving without insurance for quite some time? What I fail to understand is why they deem it reasonable to cancel a policy at such short notice, when they have known about the accident for as long as they have? In fact, why they deem it reasonable to cancel the policy at all! Are you not able in fact to drive the vehicle under the policy despite it's nominal salvage only value and are you not in fact able to simply swap your policy over to another car should you decide to replace your written off car?
I think this may require a phonecall to the FSA.
Edited: being cynical, this may be a ruse by the insurers to extract more monies out of you. Presumably they are cancelling the policy without any refund of premium and are forfeiting the unexpired period of insurance due to the fact that you have had an accident?
>> Edited by anniesdad on Tuesday 18th April 17:14
I think this may require a phonecall to the FSA.
Edited: being cynical, this may be a ruse by the insurers to extract more monies out of you. Presumably they are cancelling the policy without any refund of premium and are forfeiting the unexpired period of insurance due to the fact that you have had an accident?
>> Edited by anniesdad on Tuesday 18th April 17:14
7db said:
Hmmm. You were happy to receive a cheque on the Easter Saturday. Why not receive a cancellation on the same day?
The cheque was from the insurer of the other party.
Is it not unreasonable for an insurer to allow a policyholder to drive for "a couple of months" under the strength of an insurance policy, but then cancel at such short notice and by such means? e-mail?????
Surely recorded/special delivery is required and for a cancellation date in the future?
7DB - I was indeed happy to receive the cheque from the other insurers, but I think that I'm entitled to be a bit miffed that I had been driving illegally without even knowing it! Plus their attitude to customer-service sucked, frankly.
Anniesdad - many thanks for your comments. I think that you are right to be cynical. They have indeed cancelled the policy with no right to a refund of the unused period - they claimed that this is in the Ts & Cs. As it happens, there's less than a month to run so that upsets me less than my other gripes...
Anniesdad - many thanks for your comments. I think that you are right to be cynical. They have indeed cancelled the policy with no right to a refund of the unused period - they claimed that this is in the Ts & Cs. As it happens, there's less than a month to run so that upsets me less than my other gripes...
jimbobs said:
7DB - I was indeed happy to receive the cheque from the other insurers, but I think that I'm entitled to be a bit miffed that I had been driving illegally without even knowing it! Plus their attitude to customer-service sucked, frankly.
Anniesdad - many thanks for your comments. I think that you are right to be cynical. They have indeed cancelled the policy with no right to a refund of the unused period - they claimed that this is in the Ts & Cs. As it happens, there's less than a month to run so that upsets me less than my other gripes...
What does it says in the T & C's about the cancellation procedure?
Having less than a month to run is all well and good but had you (and thankfully you haven't) mown down that theoretical bus queue, what would have happened?
Once you have accepted the payment for the written-off car, it's not your car any longer. It belongs to the other side's insurers, and rightly your insurance company have cancelled cover. Have the other side asked for a V5?
I can't imagine a magistrate wanting to convict for driving on the Friday if you could not have reasonable known that you were uninsured.
I can't imagine a magistrate wanting to convict for driving on the Friday if you could not have reasonable known that you were uninsured.
7db said:
Once you have accepted the payment for the written-off car, it's not your car any longer. It belongs to the other side's insurers, and rightly your insurance company have cancelled cover. Have the other side asked for a V5?
I can't imagine a magistrate wanting to convict for driving on the Friday if you could not have reasonable known that you were uninsured.
what makes you think the vehicle belongs to the insurance co ? just because they paid out does not mean they want the vehicle,as in this case salvage remained with the
owner .
James here:
As far as I know once the ins co pays out they own the salvage and the remains which you can then negotiate with them to buy it back.
The interesting point is that although a cheque is issued it is not cashed, ie it is promise to pay the bearer... once cashed though the car is theirs.
As far as I know once the ins co pays out they own the salvage and the remains which you can then negotiate with them to buy it back.
The interesting point is that although a cheque is issued it is not cashed, ie it is promise to pay the bearer... once cashed though the car is theirs.
You have a responsibility to insure your car, however your insurance company are insuring you until they inform you otherwise, ie you receive the letter.
If your car is written off and you have received payment as it is written off, then your contract of insurance has ended with immediate effect. What is of more concern is if they want your car or not. If they dont, if you want to scrap it I think it costs you £150 I think. I am also not sure about the legality and ease of insuring a car which has been written off.
If your car is written off and you have received payment as it is written off, then your contract of insurance has ended with immediate effect. What is of more concern is if they want your car or not. If they dont, if you want to scrap it I think it costs you £150 I think. I am also not sure about the legality and ease of insuring a car which has been written off.
often when a third party damages your car the payout is in the form of "payment in lieu of repairs" which means you take the money,keep the car and do as you like with it,and the claim is settled.personally i can`t understand why your insurance has been cancelled when the claim is not with your insurer.that the car is now maybe seen as a damage repairable,and in their eyes needs an mot, surely does not entitle them to cancel it.
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