lloyds bank car insurance - modifications where do we stand

anna42hmr

can any one advise, dad took out insurance with lloyds for his car just before christmas, he advised over the telephone the details and that we had bought optional extras when bought veh from dealers (cruise control, heated seats, upgraded brakes, rear parking sensors etc) dad advised them over the phone what had been added and was quoted a premium.

dad bought the insurance there and then as was £60 lower than the closeset quote to it.

Dad got the insurance confirmation from them the other day and they are not listed on the schedual.

However when dad sent the proof of no claims from old insurer in the post last week as requested by lloyds, he sent a cover letter to them just reconfirming the mods.

dad is away at the moment and not back till later tonight,so i am looking after his post. he has received a letter from lloyds insurance asking him to call them to confirm some information.

if it is ref these mods, and it turns out that the person he spoke to did not include them and therefore quoted the wrong premium, where do we stand?? would we have to pay the additional premium, as we took on an agreement based on the information we advised and the quote they advised over the phone??

i think dad has the date of the call, and possibly the time, so if they advised we would have to pay what would our chances be on them waiving it.

We are out of the cooling off period now, so problem is if they charge a ridiculous amount for the modifications, would have been cheaper to go else where.

DrScotsman

Theoretically Lloyds should eat their loss. Your dad told them the modifications so it formed part of the contract, it's their fault if their employee wasn't listening.

That said, I posted something similar on the forums a few months ago - I told them I was now parking my car on a street instead of on a driveway, and this was ignored. The first response to my post was "They made a mistake. You have no rights over this, all you can do is just hope they help you as a goodwill gesture."

(Although unlike you my car insurance had not yet started, which may play a part)

I think they knew they were at least partially liable as they offered to halve the extra I had to pay once I mentioned the ombudsman, so I think your chances are good.

Oscar_The_Grouch

I disagree with Dr Scotsman here (in that he thinks you should rely on goodwill). Under contract law, offer and acceptance has taken place. Your father has disclosed all the modifications and they have chosen the price following full disclosure. They do not have a leg to stand on and if they ask your dad to pay an additional premium, he should refuse.

That having been said, if your dad needs to make any changes to the policy during the year, they have the right to completely re-rate the policy.

DrScotsman

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

I disagree with Dr Scotsman here (in that he thinks you should rely on goodwill). Under contract law, offer and acceptance has taken place. Your father has disclosed all the modifications and they have chosen the price following full disclosure. They do not have a leg to stand on and if they ask your dad to pay an additional premium, he should refuse.

I don't think you understood my post. I completely agree with you, but when I came on these forums thinking that, half of the replies I got (that is one out of two ) said I had to rely on goodwill. Hence I didn't want to rashly post what I think anna's rights are in case I was wrong, but thanks for confirming my intuition.

anna42hmr

hi everyone, thanks for the replies, dad and mum have just got back home 20 mins ago (they decided to come back early coz of the weather so managed to call them before they close today) and called them straight away (as he was worried it would invalidate the policy if there was any problems)

the mods we have are optional extras from the factory when we boughht the car a couple years ago (always declared them with previous insurer)

they want an additional premium of £45 for the optional extras plus an admin fee of £15.00

when dad advised he declared these when we took out the policy, they advised that it appears that the person who set the policy up for us did not include these details in the price. Dad confirmed when he spoke to them, and they have said they will listen to the origional call and would be in the next 5 days and come back to us.

It looks like we will have to see what they come back with. they have confirmed will not affect the policy at the moment.

If they insist on the additional premium, even though we declared it, as its only £45 dad will pay it, but am i wrong in thinking if they made the error then we can refuse to pay the admin fee on top??

We are hoping that when they listen to the call and realise it was their error they will waive both payments, but if not seriously begrudge paying the admin fee!

dunstonh

If they insist on the additional premium, even though we declared it, as its only £45 dad will pay it, but am i wrong in thinking if they made the error then we can refuse to pay the admin fee on top??

The FSA accept errors can happen and insurers do not have to honour prices when a genuine error has occurred (its a bit like the mispriced item in a shop).

However, they have to treat you fairly. In this case, you would expect the admin fee to be waived as it is their error, according to you, that is causing the admin fee to apply.

If they dont (the person on the phone initially may not have the authority to waive fees) then raise a complaint.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Dunston, for once I disagree with you. Offer and acceptance has taken place; the premium has been paid and OP's dad had no reason to believe it was based on anything other than the full disclosure of modifications. If the insurer, after setting up the policy, is allowed to alter the premium, what do we do with the principle of utmost good faith?

dunstonh

offer and acceptance has been given but not on the right details. Thats where the problem is.

dacouch

It sounds like the delightful Lloyd's employee wanted to hit their target so did not enter the modifications on the system which in effect made their price cheaper and they got the sale.

In a lot of cases they would get away with it as this would only come to light when you have a claim and declare them or they are noticed. They did not count on your dad being so thorough. I hope when Lloyd's listen to the recording they take suitable action as this really is not on and could have caused a serious delay if he had a claim.

dunstonh

I'm surprised they even wanted to increase the premiums on factory fitted items. Its right to declare the ones that are not standard for the model (and that includes model trim - i.e. if you go for the GX model, then all the factory options for the GX model dont need to be declared if the insurer lists the GX model). However, you dont tend to see premium increases that often unless its performance related or a visual impact (alloys for example instead of wheel trims).

I would make sure the factory options being listed by your father are not standard for his trim level. I would emphasis the point on them being manufacturer options as well. I have over £10,000 of options on my car on top of the trim level. The trim level is about £20k more than the basic model. All declared and not a penny extra in premium.

The things listed dont seem to be the things you would normally expect to see a premium rise.

anna42hmr

hello all

just an update on this, they had not called dad back, so he rang them last week and left a message for the person dealing to call back.

he got an answer machine message yesterday morning confirming that they have listened to the call and updated the file with the mods and will not be charging us for it. Apparently they are issueing a letter in the post according to the voicemail