Voided Car insurance unfairly?

micradriverwales

Hope someone can gives me some clarification and help here.

My partner bought her first car, a s reg Nissan Micra in April 07, shortly after passing her driving test. She has insured the car through various insurers over the last 3 years, her current insure being Axa.

This July she was involved in an accident where the other side admitted liability (bus tried to get through a gap, which on this occasion you couldnt get a bus through). We notifed the insurance company or the accident, the car was taken away to be assesed and was declared a catergory D 'total loss'. The car market value was barley £500.

We then purchased a new vehicle (Corsa) and re-insured with the same insurance on 21/08/10.

Upon making the claim, the insurance company asked us if we were aware that the Nissan was previously a catergory C w/off, which we were not (apparentley the log book refers to previously being substanially damaged or repaired at the bottom, which it took at least three attempts to locate), they continued to process the claim however. We expected that that this would reduce the value and hence the payout.

To our surprise, the insurance company recently wrote to us advising that they do not insure vehicles that were previously cat A,b,c or d w/offs. As we did not disclose this detail to them, the insurance is null and void and were cancelling it (as well as the insurance under the new vehicle) with effect from 7 days notice.

Whilst i admit that the terms & conditions does state this (everything is on-line and no paper copy recevied), we were not aware of this and the car was deemed roadworthy. They also state that they were not aware at time of insuring, i assume that insurance companies perform an HPI check at application?

Are the insurance company within their right to do this, as the voiding of the policy will stick with us forever. Surely this is accidential non-disclosure and not a deliberate attempt to deceive the insurance company?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

PNPSUKNET

Its upto you to check Im afraid, its always recommended todo your own hpi checks. If your car was hit by the third party why not claim directly

dacouch

Switcover by any chance

mikey72

Get advice from the FOS, and if you get nowhere with the insurance company make a complaint.

adamc260

Lol an insurance company wont cover a previous write off? First I've ever heard!

Only axa could come up with that...

I don't see what the diff is, they just offer you a lower amount for the car anyway

dunstonh

This is affectively non-disclosure of a material fact. The following link gives you information on how they FOS would treat a non disclosure complaint:
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-ins-nondisclosure.htm

partenope_2

Advice please, I am completely ignorant about these things.
Have a claim in progress. My partner reversed into a tree/bollard, and the damage renders the car uneconomical to repair. It is a V reg Fiat brava, low mileage.
The insurance co. are getting back to me re: payout, but have stated they work it out on the basis of like for like, after their research team have come up with a figure. This figure should enable me to replace the car with something similar.
Apart from looking at used car prices on autotrader website for example, what other sort of research are they likely to do? What sort of things might they take into account?

Someone told me not to simply accept the first offer I am made, and they have to make up to 3 offers, if you find the first 2 unacceptable. Is this true?

I thought negotiations would have been based on the cost of repair minus the excess, which is £1800 minus £250 and also what the car was insured for, which is £2000 or thereabouts. Or do different insurance companies do things in different ways?

lisyloo

They will give you what they think your car is worth minus the excess.
The condition and mileage would be taken into account.

There is no set pattern.
Some people seem to be unhappy with the value offered but there are plenty of other cases i've heard about recently where people have been more than happy with the value offered.

I would wait until you get a figure before you jump the gun.

You can dispute it and there is an independent ombudsman you can go to for free if you are dissatisfied (after exhausting the insurers complaints process) but don't jump the gun just yet.

Another option open to you is to get the car back and fix it via cheaper means (chepaer garages, ebay, scrap yards).
This may or may not be appropriate but jsut because it isn't economical for the insurer to repair via a high st/main dealer network, doesn't mean you can't do it more cheaply especially if you are prepared to accept reconditioned/used parts.
It's won't work for everyone, but it's certainly an option to consider.

Duncombe

lisyloo wrote: »

They will give you what they think your car is worth minus the excess.
The condition and mileage would be taken into account.

There is no set pattern.
Some people seem to be unhappy with the value offered but there are plenty of other cases i've heard about recently where people have been more than happy with the value offered.

I would wait until you get a figure before you jump the gun.

You can dispute it and there is an independent ombudsman you can go to for free if you are dissatisfied (after exhausting the insurers complaints process) but don't jump the gun just yet.

Another option open to you is to get the car back and fix it via cheaper means (chepaer garages, ebay, scrap yards).
This may or may not be appropriate but jsut because it isn't economical for the insurer to repair via a high st/main dealer network, doesn't mean you can't do it more cheaply especially if you are prepared to accept reconditioned/used parts.
It's won't work for everyone, but it's certainly an option to consider.

Sound advice. Look into getting the car back and finding another garage who can do the repairs for a cheaper price. You mention that its an old car anyway, so new parts arn't a necessity.

Re: 'What the car is insured for'. As the above poster said, they will give you what they think its worth in the current market...not what you tell them its worth.