Legal help needed with motor insurance error

taliz

My mother in law went to the staysure website and agreed car insurance. Staysures policy was that you pay for 2 or 3 months payments (she can't remember) at point of sale, then the monthly direct debit kicks in later down the line. Staysure took the first lumpsum payment from her account and my mother in law assumed she was covered.

She was pulled over yesterday for diving without insurance & her car was confiscated. She was taken into the back of the police car and read her rights. (This is a 62yr old woman who has only made one insurance claim in 42years).

Staysure state she has no policy with them.
On investigation it appears she did not recieve a certificate of insurance through the post.

She moved house just after paying for cover and still doesn't have email access, so if Staysure tried to contact her by email she has no record of it. No letters came though the post and they made no attempt to call her.

She has to either hand her licence in to get 6 points on it or go to the magistrates court.

I have advised her to log an official compaint with Staysure and have her day in court. Is this the right thing to do?

She is also going to get hammered with car storage and recovery fees from the police wich she cannot afford.

Does anyone have any advice???????????????????????

Quentin

She ought to get professional advice - there isn't really a defence for having no insurance, and following your advice could cost her a lot more than the FPN she has been offered.

taliz

We are not going to run blind into this, and are looking to see if she can claim any kind of free legal assistance through her life or home policies.

It just seems a bit harsh that they can take your money, imply that the policy will start from an agreed date and then make no form of traditional communication when it doesn't.
They may have sent an email but we have no way of knowing, surely they are bound to try to get hold of you if they cannot complete their side of the transaction.

Staysure are investigating the incident, I guess we'll just have to see what they say.

PNPSUKNET

did she not inform them of her moving house?

taliz

My mistake, she'd already moved house...
She has internet access at work,

TheRedAdmiral

Regrettably as it is the police, and probably the courts, will take the view that the onus is on the individual to ensure that they have a valid policy of Motor Insurance in place.

I dont wish to be the bearer of bad news but, by the same token, I would not wish to put you under a false sense of hope - as that would not be fair either.

Get a good lawyer (Nick Freeman?) and explain the situation. If it were me I would probably be looking to accept the offer on the table and hope that they dont crush the vehicle.

If anyone is in any doubt as to whether they are insured or not you can check here: http://www.askmid.com/

Its updated daily from what I am let to believe

lisyloo

My mistake, she'd already moved house...

It's not their job to track her down.

It's any drivers responsibility to make SURE they are insured.
That generally means paperwork that says so.
This is a very important reponsibility as she could have been involved in an accident that caused life changing injuries for someone.
If she doesn't want to take that responsibility then she shouldn't be driving and take the bus.
I'm sorry, but the truth is that I don't think she will get the sympathetic hearing that you expect.

Of course she should get professional advice, but she may be better off taking what has been offered as I think the view will be that's in the drivers responsibility to make sure the are insured and therefore she will get sympathy at all for post/emails going missing.

No it's not the insurers responsibility to hunt people down who move house.

Sorry if you don't like the message, but that I believe is the view that will be taken.
Another factor to bear in mind is that some courts and judges do not like people wasting the time of courts when a reasonable offer has already been made, so this can actually result in a much worse fine/penalty if (and note I say if) it turns out that she should definitely have taken it on the chin in the first place as they don't like timewasters.

BLT_2

taliz wrote: »

My mother in law went to the staysure website and agreed car insurance. Staysures policy was that you pay for 2 or 3 months payments (she can't remember) at point of sale, then the monthly direct debit kicks in later down the line. Staysure took the first lumpsum payment from her account and my mother in law assumed she was covered.

She was pulled over yesterday for diving without insurance & her car was confiscated. She was taken into the back of the police car and read her rights. (This is a 62yr old woman who has only made one insurance claim in 42years).

Staysure state she has no policy with them.
On investigation it appears she did not recieve a certificate of insurance through the post.

She moved house just after paying for cover and still doesn't have email access, so if Staysure tried to contact her by email she has no record of it. No letters came though the post and they made no attempt to call her.

She has to either hand her licence in to get 6 points on it or go to the magistrates court.

I have advised her to log an official compaint with Staysure and have her day in court. Is this the right thing to do?

She is also going to get hammered with car storage and recovery fees from the police wich she cannot afford.

Does anyone have any advice???????????????????????

With her day in court if found guilty she is also likely to be hammered for legal fees. At the end of the day the onus is upon her to ensure that she has the necessary documentation to back up her claim to possess car insurance.

This reminds me of the scenario regarding road tax. You scrap your car and 6 months later get a fine for not renewing your car tax, the response from the DVLA is that it is your responsibility to ensure that your paperwork is in order and that you have all necessary acknowledgements.

In the event that they do crush the car, could you save me the wheels if they are 14" alloys?

taliz

Lisyloo don't get sidetracked by the house move thing. The insurer only ever had her correct address.
The fact of the matter is she went online, got a quote , hit the buy it now button, paid her money and assumed she was covered.

As far as I can see she made two errors,
1 - She gave them a contact email address she couldn't currently access (she 62 not computer savy and was waiting for her son to set up her email address from her new ISP)
2 - She did not notice that a certificate of insurance did not come in the post (She had just bought holiday insurance with staysure and all her policy docs came via the internet, she assumed the cert of motor insurance would come the same way)

She has got some emergency cover and is picking car up tommorrow. 42 years driving without a single point on her licence until now.

dacouch

Taliz when you say emergency cover, do you mean a temporary policy such as Dayinsure rather than an annual policy, if so then the car pound will often not release the car

Pitlanepiglet

If she can demonstrate that the Insurers took a payment from her, what do the Insuerers say about why there isn't a policy? I'm guessing that she failed to comply with something (provision of NCB?) and they cancelled the policy.

Do they say that they wrote to her? My understanding is that an Insurer who is planning to cancel cover must write to the Policyholder's last known address and give notice - I have a feeling that letter must be by recorded delivery but I may be wrong about that.

What do the Insurers say?

Edited to add: On reviewing your first post you say that she paid a deposit upfront and then there would be a direct debit, you don't give a timescale though, should the DD have kicked in by now or was she still in the first month or so of the policy?