Home Insurance..

citrine_2

Hi,

I have had home insurance with my insurance peeps for many many years, each year they send me and automatic renewal, and each year i do nothing and let them do the rest..

This year i had no letter from them and knew that renewal was getting close, so asked hubby to get me out last years policy so that i could ring them up (this year i was planning on looking round).

Anyways when he spoke with them about the lack of this years policy, they informed him that the policy had been cancelled in january :eek: then swiftly wanted to know if he had called to make a claim!! then offered to put him through to the sales dept.. (which he declined)

we had not cancelled it so couldnt understand why.. i have checked back on my bank account and the last time the direct debit was taken was then, but the mandate is still open.

To be fair i didnt realise the money hadnt been taken, i have my mortage, insurance, loan you name it with this one company so didnt notice one missing mandate..

Am a bit faffed of to say the least, and apparently they are investigating,But am not holding out, and am not sure if there is anything that can be done now anyway.
Will it have any implications for my mortage,further policys etc?

Many thanks..

Quentin

You do need to follow this up and find out what has happened.

In particular, you do not want a cancelled by insurer policy on your history, as this will cause problems over you taking out any insurance policies at all in the future.

Get everything regarding the cancellation confirmed in writing.

huckster

I would not worry too much, if you have not needed to claim. I am taking this to be a mistake made by the Insurance company and no othe reason. If the Insurance company wanted to cancel the Insurance for underwriting reasons e.g. too many claims, then they would have to give you notice in writing.

You have saved 10 months worth of premiums.

Just take your Insurance elsewhere. Use one of the comparision sites or a good local broker ( not swintons) to find the cover you are looking for. You can arrange immediate cover to make sure you are protected.

As for the cancellation, let your previous company investigate and come back with a written response. Advise them as a result of their incompetance, you have arranged cover elsewhere.

Although there is a mortgage condition that you should always maintain Buildings Insurance, most mortgage lenders have contingency Insurance to protect their interest (not yours).

dogbot

Just take your Insurance elsewhere.

Her previous insurer have canceled the policy, she has to declare that she has had a policy cancelled. This will make it extreamly difficult to find cover.

As indicated by Quentin, if they cancel they must give notification in writing, so it is vital you keep the pressure on them to find out what happened and why the policy was cancelled. As indicated, get it all from them in writing. THEN take your business elsewhere - if you have been auto-renewing for years, you will have been paying a lot in rate increases, and won't have been taking advantage of new business discounts availible.

Also, check your sums insured remain adequate, that all items you own of value are listed if appropriate etc etc.

Astaroth

You will have breached your mortgage conditions and so in theory the mortgage lender could become a pain but in reality they are highly unlikely to know.

You need to find out why it was cancelled as if it is insurer cancelled you are basically going to be in trouble getting any form of insurance again.

Simulacraton

Sounds to me like there has been an issue with the Direct Debit and they have cancelled it after not receiving any correspondence from you. They should have sent a letter advising you of this along with whoever handles the DD as well. There should be hard copies or evidence they sent the letters. If they didn't then you have an argument that they cancelled your insurance without advising you.

It may not be their incompetence but simply a lack of correspondence from the OP if the Insurer/Broker sent out letters requesting advice.

huckster

dogbot wrote: »

Her previous insurer have canceled the policy, she has to declare that she has had a policy cancelled. This will make it extreamly difficult to find cover.

You only have to declare the cancellation if the Insurance company have given notice in writing that they have cancelled or voided the policy.

If they have not confirmed this in writing, then the OP would be entitled to arrange alternative cover.

The incompentence of the Insurance company should not be a barrier to the OP making sure that they are protected.

Had there been a problem with direct debts the OP would have received letters regarding this.

dogbot

I agree that if they have not given notice then fair enough BUT not receiving a letter and not being sent a letter are two different things under contract law. The OP needs to find out what happened first to be sure.

Actualy, you are correct of course that the OP needs to get protection sorted ASAP, so on consideration, quite correct that they need to get something sorted ASAP

cogito

I'm surprised at some of the advice offered here. All that has happened seemingly is that insurers internal systems failed and they omitted to collect the monthly instalments. That is no more a cancellation than it would be if a policy was not renewed.

You only have to declare the cancellation if the Insurance company have given notice in writing that they have cancelled or voided the policy.

That is correct. If an insurer is cancelling a policy, it has to do so in writing giving at least seven days notice. This is written into the policy. As they haven't done so, there has been no cancellation.

Astaroth

Ultimately speaking need to see what the insurer says.... the OP says the last payment was taken in January and that the policy was cancelled in January.

Lets assume there was a computer glitch that stopped payments being taken, fair enough stuff happens. But then we have to have a second computer glitch (or lazy operator depending on if it is system or manual) that failed to send the first or any of the payment chaser letters.

Likewise, insurance is typically paid in advanced so if the last payment was in January the first missed payment would be february and so even if the effective date of the cancellation was backdated to Feb the cancellation date would be Mar/Apr at the least.

As has already been said, just because someone cannot remember receiving a letter doesn't mean either that it was never sent nor that it was never received - certainly some insurers have been known to try and get letter thrown away by recipients (normally auto renewal letters) by making the envelopes look like junk mail so people bin unopened. That said, you would have thought that if the policy was cancelled for any intentional reason their CRM would have recorded a letter going out to warn/ advise of it.

citrine_2

Many thanks for the replies,

I spoke to my bank last night and they clarified what i already knew, my dd was set up and open, and the payments had been running fine before they had stopped. So there was no reason from the banks side of it for the payments to stop..

I started ringing round for quotes last night and was absolutly mortified to find that i would be charged more because i have been without insurance for more than 28 days.. and would now be paying way over the odds for somthing i have never claimed for..

Will just have to chalk it down to an expensive mistake and move on..