Have you ever had insurance cancelled question

[jontie]

Looking for help from pistonheads collective wisdom.

My father had a crash in December, he was fine, no one else involved, car written off, contacted the insurance and they paid out.

We are now about to finally getting around to getting a replacement and i’ve just noticed, the insurance company emailed him the next month saying as you have failed to get a replacement car we have cancelled your policy and send him a small refund.

Having never been in the situation of dealing with a claim before, I assumed the policy was ended once the claim was paid out and was surprised to see the email and the refund. They didn't mention the policy would continue when making the claim.

So now when I sort out his insurance for him to I have to declare yes to having insurance cancelled forever?

I Always assumed this question was to highlight people who had been caught fronting or has committed insurance fraud and not for his situation but I would now feel every uncomfortable clicking no as it is a technically a lie but I assume clicking yes makes the price of quotes go up massively.

Or get insurance quotes saying, no but phone they new insurer to clarify that isn’t what they mean? And then have to do this every year going forward for forever?

Any advice?

[OutInTheShed]

Normally the policy self-cancels if you write the car off.
You're going to be answering 'yes' to the 'accidents' question, so you might as well mention the insurance cancellation to cover yourself.

[Solocle]

jontie said:

Looking for help from pistonheads collective wisdom.

My father had a crash in December, he was fine, no one else involved, car written off, contacted the insurance and they paid out.

We are now about to finally getting around to getting a replacement and i’ve just noticed, the insurance company emailed him the next month saying as you have failed to get a replacement car we have cancelled your policy and send him a small refund.

Having never been in the situation of dealing with a claim before, I assumed the policy was ended once the claim was paid out and was surprised to see the email and the refund. They didn't mention the policy would continue when making the claim.

So now when I sort out his insurance for him to I have to declare yes to having insurance cancelled forever?

I Always assumed this question was to highlight people who had been caught fronting or has committed insurance fraud and not for his situation but I would now feel every uncomfortable clicking no as it is a technically a lie but I assume clicking yes makes the price of quotes go up massively.

Or get insurance quotes saying, no but phone they new insurer to clarify that isn’t what they mean? And then have to do this every year going forward for forever?

Any advice?

What's the exact wording of the email? Because if it says "terminated" or "closed" rather than "cancelled" it'll have a huge bearing.

[jontie]

Solocle said:

What's the exact wording of the email? Because if it says "terminated" or "closed" rather than "cancelled" it'll have a huge bearing.

"We're writing to let you know that your car insurance policy has been cancelled"

copied and pasted from the email.

[Solocle]

jontie said:

"We're writing to let you know that your car insurance policy has been cancelled"

copied and pasted from the email.

Right, so the next stage is to phone them up and clarify, will involve holding purgatory, but they'll likely tell you that it's not a cancellation for the purpose of that question.

[BertBert]

Solocle said:

Right, so the next stage is to phone them up and clarify, will involve holding purgatory, but they'll likely tell you that it's not a cancellation for the purpose of that question.

Or you could just make a judgement that it's not a cancellation for the purposes of that question which is what I would do.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

BertBert said:

Or you could just make a judgement that it's not a cancellation for the purposes of that question which is what I would do.

Me too. The policy has been cancelled as per the policy wording, ie. if they pay a total loss claim, they will do a substitution to a replacement car within a month, or cancel the policy if you don't replace within that time. That's no different from them cancelling because you swapped to a car they don't cover, or moved to an area they don't cover, or changed your job to an occupation they don't cover.

These things are not what insurers want to know about when they ask about having a policy cancelled. They want to know if you defaulted on your finance payments, or we caught lying to your insurer etc.

[snuffy]

This subject keeps coming up again and again of recent.

The issue seems to be that "cancelled" has a specific meaning related to insurance (fraud etc), but when a policy is terminated for a legitimate reason, the word "cancelled" is used, and that then causes all these questions.

For example, if you sold your car, then ring up your insurers and ask them to cancel your policy, since you no longer have the car, and the insurance company says "thanks for informing us, we have cancelled the policy as per your request", the person then starts fretting that they have had a policy "cancelled" and so subsequently have to inform any further insurance company of this information.

Edited by snuffy on Tuesday 2nd April 07:57

[E-bmw]

As others have said, that is not what they are asking about.

They are asking if an insurance company cancelled your policy because you had attempted to defraud them or similar.

Yours was just ended because there was nothing to insure.

[Zio Di Roma]

Solocle said:

jontie said:

"We're writing to let you know that your car insurance policy has been cancelled"

copied and pasted from the email.

Right, so the next stage is to phone them up and clarify, will involve holding purgatory, but they'll likely tell you that it's not a cancellation for the purpose of that question.

This does seem to be a thing. There are cancellations and there are CANCELLATIONS.

We had a policy cancelled due to an issue with setup. "But we will now have to disclose a cancellation!" we wailed. The insurer emailed to say it was not a disclosable reason, because it was an issue with policy setup.

Despite PH wisdom to the contrary, I formed the opinion that cancellation is a complex subject. The problem with disclosing a cancellation that doesn't require it, is that it will likely bugger up a renewal algorithm come renewal time.

[VSKeith]

snuffy said:

This subject keeps coming up again and again of recent.

The issue seems to be that "cancelled" has a specific meaning related to insurance (fraud etc), but when a policy is terminated for a legitimate reason, the word "cancelled" is used, and that then causes all these questions.

For example, if you sold your car, then ring up your insurers and ask them to cancel your policy, since you no longer have the car, and the insurance company says "thanks for informing us, we have cancelled the policy as per your request", the person then starts fretting that they have had a policy "cancelled" and so subsequently have to inform any further insurance company of this information.

This.

Why don't they rephrase the question, or at least add caveats to explain? How are people supposed to realise that they mean CANCELLED not cancelled?

[FiF]

Zio Di Roma said:

Solocle said:

jontie said:

"We're writing to let you know that your car insurance policy has been cancelled"

copied and pasted from the email.

Right, so the next stage is to phone them up and clarify, will involve holding purgatory, but they'll likely tell you that it's not a cancellation for the purpose of that question.

This does seem to be a thing. There are cancellations and there are CANCELLATIONS.

We had a policy cancelled due to an issue with setup. "But we will now have to disclose a cancellation!" we wailed. The insurer emailed to say it was not a disclosable reason, because it was an issue with policy setup.

Despite PH wisdom to the contrary, I formed the opinion that cancellation is a complex subject. The problem with disclosing a cancellation that doesn't require it, is that it will likely bugger up a renewal algorithm come renewal time.

Essentially this, likewise an insurance cancelled after renewal due to an administrative mistake by their telephone centre agent. Next time took out insurance explained the circumstances over the phone, they responded that clearly this didn't qualify but thanks for telling us. Got same response from another next renewal who advised that it wasn't necessary and nobody would count this as a cancellation.

[Solocle]

BertBert said:

Or you could just make a judgement that it's not a cancellation for the purposes of that question which is what I would do.

You could make a judgement, but then you don't have back up if it turns up during a claim.

For peace of mind and "insurance" against a future insurer raising it as a fraud issue, I'd call them.

[alscar]

The problem is as already replied with, that whilst technically it is a cancellation it is only a cancellation because that's their normal practice so perhaps an extra line or two to this effect may put your mind at rest and make it easier for you to tick the no box going forward ?
If you cannot get your head round ticking no without this then unfortunately you will have price issues and perhaps more declinatures form just using comparison sites.
If it were me I would be seeking something in writing to this effect from the Insurer if only to set your mind at ease.

[Uncle Meat]

I'm just amazed OP's insurance gave a pro rata refund after a total loss.

When my lovely E30 325 was stolen many years ago not long into a policy I didn't get any refund.

[alscar]

Uncle Meat said:

I'm just amazed OP's insurance gave a pro rata refund after a total loss.

When my lovely E30 325 was stolen many years ago not long into a policy I didn't get any refund.

Presumably he had paid it all upfront for a year and hence when they stopped the policy they owed him whatever was left “ unearned “ less any admin fees.

[jondude]

You will tend to find insurers say tell them of material facts that could influence the quote. Then that 'if in doubt, let us know'.

I had cover cancelled decades ago as the company thought I'd go down for no insurance on another car. I was a bad boy and increased risk, so here is your money back. They were wrong, nothing happened as I proved insurance but by now it was cancelled and filed.

I mentioned this in a covering letter for many years, it never made a penny's difference, so now I don't. Particularly after a large insurer told me not to worry anymore.


If you do just explain this (I recommend in writing) then I will bet my bottom dollar nothing happens. You have though, fulfilled their contractual expectations.

[Nibbles_bits]

BertBert said:

Solocle said:

Right, so the next stage is to phone them up and clarify, will involve holding purgatory, but they'll likely tell you that it's not a cancellation for the purpose of that question.

Or you could just make a judgement that it's not a cancellation for the purposes of that question which is what I would do.

That's what I did.

Car got written off. As I didn't have the car anymore I assumed my insurance would be "cancelled" because I no longer needed anymore.

I'm under the impression that having "insurance cancelled" for the purposes of that particular question is in relation to people who have fraudulently taken out insurance, and later been found out. For example - undeclared mods, fronting