Insurance problem - Any experts - help needed

brandy23

Can anyone help - need advise re insurance

Have had insurance for a year (around £400 pa)- filled out a dd and thought no more about it until time to renew - got the renewal notice and I asked that it continue.

They then send a letter telling me that I am £350 in arrears with them due to THEIR error - they had not claimed from the dd.

They are asking that I pay the balance now.

I have not claimed against the policy so am wondering if I was infact covered at all since they were not taking the payments.

Am I compelled to pay the outstanding balance ?

Any advice would be appreciated

dunstonh

Am I compelled to pay the outstanding balance ?

yes.

You bought a product, they have provided the the cover and certificate of insurance. They made a mistake on the direct debit but you have had nearly a year of interest on the payments and you no doubt noticed they were not taking it and could have gone to them to let them know but decided not to.

Your liability to pay is not removed just because the direct debit wasnt taken.

ben500

Well it doesn't really matter now that the insured term is up, but in essence yes you would have been covered if the fault was theirs. I'd switch insurers and telll them to whistle to be honest. I would however write them a letter and decline the renewal, the last thing you want is for them to decline the renewal as you would have to declare this to your new insurers and it would mean an increase in premiulm or loading of the policy.
Decline the renewal first then re-insure with another company.

brandy23

Thanks

So - If I had tried to claim on it during the year - would I still have been covered.

(I didn't notice that they weren't takiing it BTW - not that orgainised - wish I was)

brandy23

ben500 wrote: »

Well it doesn't really matter now that the insured term is up, but in essence yes you would have been covered if the fault was theirs. I'd switch insurers and telll them to whistle to be honest.

I was thinking of doing so - but not sure what they would do about it. Any ideas?

ben500

brandy23 wrote: »

I was thinking of doing so - but not sure what they would do about it. Any ideas?

Unless your living in a 34bed residence it's hardly going to be worthwhile their money chasing the premium, in the event they do there is probably a clause in the policy wording that any policy in arrears may result in claim being declined, your policy would effectively be in arrears albeit their mistake so you could argue that the policy was invalid for its duration and therefore the premium is not recoverable. Dump them and go to another insurer making sure you don't leave them with the option of declining renewal and creating immense cost or difficulty in you obtaining insurance elsewhere.

ben500

dunstonh wrote: »

yes.

You bought a product, they have provided the the cover and certificate of insurance. They made a mistake on the direct debit but you have had nearly a year of interest on the payments and you no doubt noticed they were not taking it and could have gone to them to let them know but decided not to.

Your liability to pay is not removed just because the direct debit wasnt taken.

Not as clear cut as this due to most policy wordings giving them an out on claims in event policy is in arrears, the p/h could argue that any claim made would have been declined and effectively no cover was in force for the duration of the policy, the insurers having inserted such a clause to protect them in this scenario will have provided the op with an out. As no claim has been made on the policy to test it's validity the insurers would have an extremely hard time demonstrating that they would have honoured the cover in the event of a claim being made.

dacouch

ben500 wrote: »

Not as clear cut as this due to most policy wordings giving them an out on claims in event policy is in arrears, the p/h could argue that any claim made would have been declined and effectively no cover was in force for the duration of the policy, the insurers having inserted such a clause to protect them in this scenario will have provided the op with an out. As no claim has been made on the policy to test it's validity the insurers would have an extremely hard time demonstrating that they would have honoured the cover in the event of a claim being made.

Under the Road Traffic Act the Insurers or their agents can only cancel the policy by sending a recorded deliver letter to the policy holders last know address. Therefore is they have not sent a recorded delivery letter out the customer is cover by the RTA certificate.

brandy23

dacouch wrote: »

Under the Road Traffic Act the Insurers or their agents can only cancel the policy by sending a recorded deliver letter to the policy holders last know address. Therefore is they have not sent a recorded delivery letter out the customer is cover by the RTA certificate.

It was not car insurance

Quote

Thanks for letting everyone know.

(y)

DaisyFlower

brandy23 wrote: »

Can anyone help - need advise re insurance

Have had insurance for a year (around £400 pa)- filled out a dd and thought no more about it until time to renew - got the renewal notice and I asked that it continue.

They then send a letter telling me that I am £350 in arrears with them due to THEIR error - they had not claimed from the dd.

They are asking that I pay the balance now.

I have not claimed against the policy so am wondering if I was infact covered at all since they were not taking the payments.

Am I compelled to pay the outstanding balance ?

Any advice would be appreciated

Of course you should pay it, you shouldnt have even needed to ask the question!