van insurance cancelled

petern5150

hi there

i was just wondering if anyboby could give me some help/advice

i have insured my van with budget for several years but yesterday received a letter saying they give seven days notice of cancellation, i straight away phoned them to ask why and was told the underwriter would no longer insure me but they could look for another on their panel,which they did but none of them would insure me either,so i was told i would get a refund of policy less £75.I said I thought this was un ethical as had only renewed in september and there was no problem then and could i speak to a supervisor,I then spoke to the line manager who told me that my file had a non disclosure claim on it and i would struggle to get insured, this claim happened on the 25/06/10 and NIG the underwriters paid out 421.40 I was gobsmacked, My father(a named driver on the policy) did have a incident around that in my van he was at a t junction waiting to turn right when either our van or the car behind rolled and we touched( i was a passenger at the time) so we got out and had a look at both vehicles there was no damage to our van and a tiny scuff mark on thier bumper no bigger than one pence piece where our towbar had touched it(it was no bented or cracked or even broken the paint you could possibly have polished it out )My father not knowing whose fault it was gave his name and telephone number and told them to get in touch if they wanted it repaired and he would pay as the damage could be no more than £30 to $40.However he heard no more and we forgot about until about six weeks later NIG phoned asking about the incident saying a third party insurer was making a cliam against us i explained what had happened but told them they needed to talk to my father who also told them what had happened and told them to get back in touch if the claim was for more than £50 as something was amiss.Again we hear no more about and presume it was taken no further. Until yesterday! The line manager also said it was NIG who had put the non disclosure claim on my file and gave me the thier number, So i called them and was told the claim was settled on the 18th of october forb £300 repairs and £121.40 car hire, She could not tell me why was not informed ,But did say they had not put any non disclosure claim on my file as they spoke to both my father and myself and it must be budget who have.I then phoned budget back,spoke to same lady who said that was ridecoulas and they have not put it on either.So now my insurance is due to be cancelled on 10th of nov with not much chance of renewal else where and i need my van for work and do not know what i have done( i have 9 yrs procted no claims and i automatically renew through budget they just send me a renewal price and if it looks ok i do nothing they take the money of my credit card and jobs done)
sorry for length and any spelling mistakes I am just so frustrated
thanks

McKneff

It will be in your terms and conditions that you report any accident or incident to your insurers when they happen whether it is your fault or not.

You didnt, they found out, simple as that really.

Good luck.

mikey72

Not that simple.
It seems it was declared, kept with the same insurer, so they quoted based on that, and provided no claims based on that.
If they messed up, they need to fix it.

McKneff

The post was very hard to read, where does it say it was declared.

I read that someone had the accident and then forgot about it, Im happy to be corrected though

R3negadeuk

Your policy has been canceled for non-disclosure of an accident.

In any policy booklet from any insurer, it clearly states that you must advise of any accident. This means even minor altercations which would amount to nothing.

NIG would have done a lot to try and speak to the policy holder(you?) and to obtain a claim form for their investigations. If they attempted to get hold of you and their requests for you to contact them were ignored or forgotten about, they would have settled the other drivers claim.

NIG should have done everything they can get hold of you. The only way this could have gotten to this stage is if correspondence was ignored or if there was an administration error on the insurers end.

If you speak to NIG, you can request dates and times of all calls made and letters sent, and to whom and where. I recommend you do that. If anything seems amiss, I would file a formal complaint with the insurer. If that fails, and you genuinely feel that you have a legitimate grievance, I would recommend you contact the Insurance Ombudsman. Contact info for the Ombudsman will be found on any insurance policy documentation or just google it.

If you make a formal complain with the insurer, they will look into the case, and if they feel they are in the right they will justify their stance in writing to you.

I hope this helps.

petern5150

hi there thanks for posts
NIG did get in touch to tell me a third party insurance was making a claim against me and both myself and my father who was driving at time spoke to them on different ocassions.But only to get our side of the story and that is all we have heard from them so i presumed they had rejected the claim and no further action would be required

R3negadeuk

Sounds like something was amiss with your insurer op.

Write to them and ask what exactly happened. They will have to tell you. You can then hopefully draw a more accurate conclusion.