Van Insurance Conundrum - Read This

JoeyLowtown

Hello,
Im a first poster, and desperately in need of advice. I took out a new policy on my van on Oct 27th. Gladiator are the broker and Royal Sun Alliance the actual insurer, I paid the policy in full.
I have 4 years NCB on my policy. Unfortunately two days after taking out the policy I was involved in a road accident (nobody was injured), my vehicle has been written off. The accident was my fault, I skidded and ran into the back of somebody at the lights. This has left me without a vehicle obviously (I have a hire vehicle on my policy for 3 weeks).
Im a self employed electrician, so desperately need a van. I spoke to my accountant about the most tax efficient way of purchasing a new van and he suggested leasing, which sounded great to me, as the pay out from my insurance would pay the debt on my old van and leave me enough for a lease deposit. Also my partner wants to lease a van so we will be able to negotiate a little with the lease company.
Everything sounded great until Royal and Sun Alliance informed me they will not insure lease vehicles, so Im stuck in a policy that wont work for me and they say I CANT CANCEL DUE TO THE ACCIDENT. They suggest that my only option is to buy a cheap runaround for the remainder of my policy (12mths) or loose all the money I paid.
Also due to this accident and my NCB not being protected, does this mean I now go back to 0 NCB?

Thanks a lot

Basically I need the lease vehicle, for reliability, tax purposes, company image (im not sign writing a wrecker, to scrap it in 12mths)

mattymoo

You had paid the premium up front and the insurance has paid out for the accident and will also pay out for the third party damage. No refund of premium will be due.

The NCD will have gone back to 2 yrs NCD. Typical scale is 0-30-40-50-60% so you would have been on 60% and will slip back to 40%. Not too bad.

As for lease vehicles - I'll do a little digging.

Right - found this in the claims section of a More Than (part of RSA) Vanshield policy wording

"E Hiring and Other Agreements
If We know that the Motor Vehicle is the subject of a:
A) hire purchase agreement or
vehicle leasing agreement or
C) other agreement
We will pay:
(i) the person or
(ii) the organisation

requiring payment under the terms of the agreement...."

So - no problems there then. I'm unable to explain why you have been told this and would suggest you ask for confirmation by a more senior person. The policy wording, should you wish to quote it at them is here - http://www.morethanbusiness.com/documents/59/VanPolicyWording_R02722_WEB.pdf
Search for leasing and you'll find the bit I quoted.

Edit - I've just looked at your post again and noticed you have a broker whereas I'm quoting the More Than policy which is the RSA Direct Sales division - e.g. no broker involved. The wordings should be broadly similar since vehicle leasing is such a major part of commercial vehicle ownership they would be daft to exclude it.

JoeyLowtown

thankyou very much for your research, I will quote this to RSA and report back how I get on. cheers

mattymoo

Please check my Edit first though.

JoeyLowtown

Thankyou, I have spoken to RSA directly and they will cover me. Thanks for your help!