Insurance cancellation. Where do I stand?

[Doc_Love]

In early July, Prior to buying our XC60 T6 I spoke with our insurance company regarding buying the car/yearly costs etc. At the time I identified it was a Japanese Import. They were happy with this and provided a quote. We accepted the quote after buying the car and everything has been OK for the past 8 or so weeks.

Today I tried to swap my wife's private plate onto the car online. A statement condition said the car had to be a UK car. So I phoned the insurer.

Eventually, once I got through to the customer service advisor and explained what happened they put me on hold. 5 mins later they came back stating the car should never have been insured and they were cancelling my policy immediately.

After a bit of back and forth I now have a managerial call back tomorrow (car remains insured but prob can't drive it because I've assigned the new number plate already.....). I've also raised a complaint/request that they listen back to my call when I got the quote.


Anyone experienced this? I'm not happy but even more so as I will need immediate new insurance (Insurers always say 20-30 days prior gets best prices) and the fact i will have to declare Ive had insurance declined or cancelled which will impact on prices again.

Where do I stand? Is there anything I can ask for or 'demand'?

Thanks for any advice.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

Having insurance cancelled may be awkward when getting insurance in future as it is a question you are asked when getting quotes. My daughter had insurance cancelled because she ignored a request for more information (typical teenager) and quotes doubled when we tried to get insurance again because of this.

[andy43]

A halfway house that might be worth suggesting (after mentioning the Insurance Ombudsman several times, very loudly and firmly) is to be given the opportunity to cancel your policy yourself.

[Winston Wolf]

It is indeed a problem and one that seems to have no end date.

Run over a bus queue and its five years and then you can keep quiet, ever been cancelled insurance and the question never gets qualified by within a 'x' period.

On this point my best advice is answer no. I do not beleive the data is shared. On any other insurance matter you need to be scrupulously honest ....... or they will either not pay out or cancel your insurance.

[C5_Steve]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

Having insurance cancelled may be awkward when getting insurance in future as it is a question you are asked when getting quotes. My daughter had insurance cancelled because she ignored a request for more information (typical teenager) and quotes doubled when we tried to get insurance again because of this.

I seem to remember the issue of the insurer cancelling for their error cropped up in another thread, can't remember the answer but I seem to think it was that you won't need to declare it as they wont "cancel" the policy their end, somehow (someone who knows what their talking about will be along shortly to explain I'm sure )

Either way it's certainly a question to ask and have answered in writing if they do withdraw the policy especially as it's their mistake. Does it state the cars and import on the policy document?

[alscar]

If your policy has been in force for 2 months and you had received all the necessary documentation and only now are they saying they are cancelling due to the plate change I think you have a good chance of arguing the toss.
At the very least you need to quote Treating customers fairly.
If the managerial call doesn’t come then speak to their complaints dept - better still email them now.
If they persist in trying to cancel then try and get it cancelled abinitio ie from inception and all the premium returned.
Either way this is not a cancellation because of some fraud or lie you have given.
At best ( for the Insurer ) they have made a poor admin error in accepting your proposal - I’m assuming everything is as you have stated.
Either way going forward it is not a cancellation that needs to be answered yes to.

[MustangGT]

Doc_Love said:

In early July, Prior to buying our XC60 T6 I spoke with our insurance company regarding buying the car/yearly costs etc. At the time I identified it was a Japanese Import. They were happy with this and provided a quote. We accepted the quote after buying the car and everything has been OK for the past 8 or so weeks.

Today I tried to swap my wife's private plate onto the car online. A statement condition said the car had to be a UK car.

So I phoned the insurer.

Eventually, once I got through to the customer service advisor and explained what happened they put me on hold. 5 mins later they came back stating the car should never have been insured and they were cancelling my policy immediately.

After a bit of back and forth I now have a managerial call back tomorrow (car remains insured but prob can't drive it because I've assigned the new number plate already.....). I've also raised a complaint/request that they listen back to my call when I got the quote.


Anyone experienced this? I'm not happy but even more so as I will need immediate new insurance (Insurers always say 20-30 days prior gets best prices) and the fact i will have to declare Ive had insurance declined or cancelled which will impact on prices again.

Where do I stand? Is there anything I can ask for or 'demand'?

Thanks for any advice.

The sentence I have bolded indicates you have NOT transferred/assigned the plate online, DVLA have refused it?

Since it has been refused there is nothing to tell the insurance company, surely?

[alscar]

MustangGT said:

The sentence I have bolded indicates you have NOT transferred/assigned the plate online, DVLA have refused it?

Since it has been refused there is nothing to tell the insurance company, surely?

I missed this rather important point

[Dadoc2001]

MustangGT said:

The sentence I have bolded indicates you have NOT transferred/assigned the plate online, DVLA have refused it?

Since it has been refused there is nothing to tell the insurance company, surely?

Thanks for all of the advice so far.

To clarify I changed the plate/assigned the private plate at lunchtime through the DVLA.

I then went online to my insurer to change the plate and one of the statements I had to agree to was the car was a UK market vehicle. It isn't - its an import from Japan so rather than clicking agree I phoned them (the insurers) to then be told they could no longer insure my car.

Ive already instigated a formal complaint. Worst case I will cancel the insurance myself/to stop them cancelling it. Ideally id like them to maintain insurance until I can find a suitable alternative.

[andy43]

I know Lancaster and Adrian Flux do JDM cover - there are so many grey imports in the Uk now insuring them isn’t really as specialised as it used to be.

[alscar]

Dadoc2001 said:

Thanks for all of the advice so far.

To clarify I changed the plate/assigned the private plate at lunchtime through the DVLA.

I then went online to my insurer to change the plate and one of the statements I had to agree to was the car was a UK market vehicle. It isn't - its an import from Japan so rather than clicking agree I phoned them (the insurers) to then be told they could no longer insure my car.

Ive already instigated a formal complaint. Worst case I will cancel the insurance myself/to stop them cancelling it. Ideally id like them to maintain insurance until I can find a suitable alternative.

Hopefully you won’t need to cancel as they should see the error.
The time for not accepting risk was at the proposal and quote stage.
Doesn’t mean they will refuse to renew at its then natural expiry date which tbh would be ok for you.

[miniman]

Dadoc2001 said:

Thanks for all of the advice so far.

To clarify I changed the plate/assigned the private plate at lunchtime through the DVLA.

I then went online to my insurer to change the plate and one of the statements I had to agree to was the car was a UK market vehicle. It isn't - its an import from Japan so rather than clicking agree I phoned them (the insurers) to then be told they could no longer insure my car.

Ive already instigated a formal complaint. Worst case I will cancel the insurance myself/to stop them cancelling it. Ideally id like them to maintain insurance until I can find a suitable alternative.

How long can it take to find an alternative? A few minutes with the meerkats surely?

[Dadoc2001]

miniman said:

Dadoc2001 said:

Thanks for all of the advice so far.

To clarify I changed the plate/assigned the private plate at lunchtime through the DVLA.

I then went online to my insurer to change the plate and one of the statements I had to agree to was the car was a UK market vehicle. It isn't - its an import from Japan so rather than clicking agree I phoned them (the insurers) to then be told they could no longer insure my car.

Ive already instigated a formal complaint. Worst case I will cancel the insurance myself/to stop them cancelling it. Ideally id like them to maintain insurance until I can find a suitable alternative.

How long can it take to find an alternative? A few minutes with the meerkats surely?

Thanks for your useful response....
Again, most advise you should secure your next insurance policy between 20-30days before renewal for the best price. Of course I can compare today/tomorrow or 30 days from now and find the best price. I'd wannt the insurer to give me that grace to do so seeing it was their fault.

[miniman]

Dadoc2001 said:

miniman said:

Dadoc2001 said:

Thanks for all of the advice so far.

To clarify I changed the plate/assigned the private plate at lunchtime through the DVLA.

I then went online to my insurer to change the plate and one of the statements I had to agree to was the car was a UK market vehicle. It isn't - its an import from Japan so rather than clicking agree I phoned them (the insurers) to then be told they could no longer insure my car.

Ive already instigated a formal complaint. Worst case I will cancel the insurance myself/to stop them cancelling it. Ideally id like them to maintain insurance until I can find a suitable alternative.

How long can it take to find an alternative? A few minutes with the meerkats surely?

Thanks for your useful response....
Again, most advise you should secure your next insurance policy between 20-30days before renewal for the best price. Of course I can compare today/tomorrow or 30 days from now and find the best price. I'd wannt the insurer to give me that grace to do so seeing it was their fault.

So you’ve tried comparing them? How big is the difference between cover now and cover in 30 days?

[Animal]

Dadoc2001 said:

MustangGT said:

The sentence I have bolded indicates you have NOT transferred/assigned the plate online, DVLA have refused it?

Since it has been refused there is nothing to tell the insurance company, surely?

Thanks for all of the advice so far.

To clarify I changed the plate/assigned the private plate at lunchtime through the DVLA.

I then went online to my insurer to change the plate and one of the statements I had to agree to was the car was a UK market vehicle. It isn't - its an import from Japan so rather than clicking agree I phoned them (the insurers) to then be told they could no longer insure my car.

Ive already instigated a formal complaint. Worst case I will cancel the insurance myself/to stop them cancelling it. Ideally id like them to maintain insurance until I can find a suitable alternative.

As an insurance underwriter (not motor, so I can't comment specifically), it's obvious that the error lies with the insurer and not with you. Even if they now want to rectify their mistake they should not be cancelling the policy immediately without giving you time to rectify their error, that's not TCF (treating customers fairly). You should have been given a grace period to arrange an alternative policy.

You've started a formal complaint, so once you've arranged your alternative cover I'd be pushing for a pro-rata return premium (with no short rate or cancellation/admin charge deducted) plus some form of goodwill gesture.

[Wish]

What insurer ? I didn’t think Jap stuff was an issue anymore.

[addey]

miniman said:

So you’ve tried comparing them? How big is the difference between cover now and cover in 30 days?

I've been through this recently - buying a policy to start immediately on a newly bought used Lexus was over £300 more expensive than buying a policy to start in 3 weeks time! Something like £1100 vs £750. So it can make a significant difference!

[Dolf Stoppard]

When you say the car remains insured, has the insurer cancelled the policy but that’s not yet come into effect, or have they deferred their threat to cancel pending the callback? If it’s the latter you surely have the option to cancel yourself and just find a different insurer?

[KungFuPanda]

Dolf Stoppard said:

When you say the car remains insured, has the insurer cancelled the policy but that’s not yet come into effect, or have they deferred their threat to cancel pending the callback? If it’s the latter you surely have the option to cancel yourself and just find a different insurer?

I’d second this. If they haven’t cancelled it, cancel it yourself.