help! accident after insurance company cancelled insurance by mistake

foddleboop · 18 May 2011 at 3:29PM

Phoned up insurance company today to cancel from Friday. Call got cut off half way through so called back and they said would complete from details already given, but they mistakenly cancelled it effective immediately, not friday.
My husband went out and reversed into another car leaving a big scape down their paint. He paniced and came home. I told him off for leaving the scene and pulled up the emailed insurance details so we could report accident, only to see on cancellation docs that it was not from friday but today.
Phoned up the insurance company who admitted fault after listening to the calls but could not reinstate insurance, only give us new cover for the next 2 days for free. Which would be fine, except my husband hit this car during the gap.
I'm terrified that he's going to be fined and arrested and don't know what will happen.
There was supposedly CCTV at car park. Would never usualy drive off like this. I just don't know what to do

Quentin · 18 May 2011 at 3:42PM

Get back to the insurer, tell them of the incident and remind them it was their error and ask that the policy is reinstated. Escalate to a manager if necessary.

Apart from the claim issue, your husband needs the insurance reinstating so that he can cover himself (should anyone have witnessed and reported him leaving the scene) by reporting the collision himself to the police.

foddleboop · 18 May 2011 at 3:50PM

Already escalated to most senior manager- apparently there is no way its possible to cover the 2hr gap! I don't want to tell them of the accident if this is the case as we will then have no leg to stand on and, of course, my husband can't go to the police and admit driving uninsured. I am so angry at him

Quentin · 18 May 2011 at 3:55PM

As they have admited their error then they do need to reinstate the policy.

You have not helped your cause by keeping this collision from them!

If the third party gets to find out your car's reg, or other details then the consequences could be severe - police involvement (not stopping/not reporting a collision/driving without insurance) plus you having to pay all repair costs etc yourselves.

foddleboop · 18 May 2011 at 4:03PM

urgh I know that's why I'm so so angry. They say that once insurance cancelled cannot be instated only restarted and they is no way to restart retrospectively. So can only be covered from when I phoned them noticing their error. This means that whatever happens if my husband is identified as causing the accident then he will be prosecuted for driving uninsured and we'll have to pay out. I di say well what if they can had had an accident in that time and they said that it wouldn't have been covered

Quentin · 18 May 2011 at 4:09PM

As they admitted they cancelled due to their fault you need to get some legal advice on how to deal with this.

But not reporting the accident to them is not going to help should your husband get caught for this!

foddleboop · 18 May 2011 at 4:17PM

The trouble is nothing is going to help I think at this stage if my husband gets caught for this.

Thank you btw for your advice. I guess I'll have to speak to someone legal!

Quentin · 18 May 2011 at 4:38PM

No, nothing can help over the legal implications of him not stopping after the collision.

But separately you said in your OP that your insurer admitted their fault in cancelling the policy in error (which they have "confirmed" by starting you a new one at no charge to you).

So should there be lack of insurance implications over this, then you do need to get legal advice on getting your insurer to reinstate the policy completely so that at no time you had no cover.

foddleboop · 18 May 2011 at 4:50PM

ok so if he goes back to the car park in question tomorrow and leaves his details, claiming he didn't notice the damage til he got home- which is feasible it's one1m scape down side of the car from reversing into too small a space (and to be fair he didn't realise how bad it was til he got home)- then that should get him out of that aspect? And I guess if we offer to settle out of pocket to the car owner if they do come back about it then we should be ok, as the insurance situation is arguable?

Quentin · 18 May 2011 at 4:57PM

There is the possibility to consider that someone witnessed this, and has taken down your reg. and passed it on/reported it to the police/the third party has already passed this over to his insurer/solicitor to deal with etc.

In which case your hubby might get a call from the police (when the non-insurance side of this may turn into a big problem).

Or the third party may contact your insurer direct/via his insurer, when your insurer will find out about the collision anyway, consider you were not insured and react accordingly.

So it's your call on how to deal with this!

foddleboop · 18 May 2011 at 5:09PM

He's 100% sure there's no witnesses- no one in or around car park at the time. If you're right and it's already in process then there is literally nothing we can do, and it will likely look better if he's come forward about the accident to the car park, however if there isn't anything in the pipeline yet then reporting an uninsured accident to the police/ insurer is the worst possible course of action

help! accident after insurance company cancelled insurance by mistake

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