Additional retrospective car insurance premiums

Smuppet

Hi,
I have just read some old threads about someone who was asked to pay £900 to the insurance company as additional premium as they had failed to advise of a speeding offence.
I recently received my renewal quote, and of course shopped around and got another quote £100 cheaper. My partner wanted me to give Diamond a chance to match the other quote, so I called and went through the details. They then told me that I had failed to tell them that the named driver had been involved in 2 no fault claims a couple of years previously - freakily he'd been hit from behind by another car twice in two weeks. Both claims were settled on his policy and he had his excess repaid to him and his no claims was unaffected.
Diamond advised that although the claims were on a different policy and were not his fault this would still impact on my policy as he was a named driver.
I obviously said that I would not renew with them and they said I had to pay them a further £150 for retrospective premiums and would have the debt collectors set on me if I refused to pay!
I wrote a letter of complaint which they tried to call me about, but I was out at work. They then managed to get my partner's mobile number and called him. They discussed all aspects of their demand for money and offered to reduce it to £60.
I was furious that they had disclosed my personal data and have written to ask why. No response yet!
I feel they are behaving outrageously and not only is there no loss on their part, they are trying to penalise us for being unlucky!
AVOID DIAMOND!!!

dunstonh

AVOID DIAMOND!!!

Whilst they shouldnt have discussed the case with your partner, they are correct that you owe them money. You are lucky you were not in an accident or put a claim in. There is plenty grounds for them to reject a claim as you cant claim you couldnt remember accidents just a few years earlier.

You may have to declare this issue to your new insurers as well.

Quentin

There is a lesson here for all drivers who follow the advice to include named drivers who are mature/female relatives/clean history etc to reduce premiums (even though they will never actually drive the car).

You are bound by the policy conditions to notify all convictions and accidents/incidents/claims for all drivers on the policy, and this means making sure they inform you of all their misdemeanours so you can in turn inform your insurer (or remove them from your policy!).

Otherwise issues like this can crop up in the future and bite you hard! (Harder than reported here if it gives the insurer an opportunity to refuse a claim because of non declared incidents)

raskazz

Smuppet wrote: »

I was furious that they had disclosed my personal data and have written to ask why. No response yet!
I feel they are behaving outrageously and not only is there no loss on their part, they are trying to penalise us for being unlucky!
AVOID DIAMOND!!!

What "personal data" did they disclose?

It is actually their policy to deal with spouses/partners unless you tell them otherwise:

Diamond_policy_wording,_p._28 wrote:

"Policy Administration (with the exception of General Condition 4 - Cancellation)
It is our policy to deal with your spouse, partner or parent and any other person who is named on your policy."

Smuppet

I am grateful for all the useful advice.

I did read that the insurance company were not legally allowed to go back and change the amount of premium on an expired policy, as they would be changing the terms of the contract, any advice on this? I am probably a little too close to the problem to see the wood for the trees.
My partner is younger and a higher risk than me, so there was no attempt to reduce my premiums by having him on the policy, it was purely for emergencies, or the odd party when I needed a driver!
Thanks again for all your advice.

Quentin

Smuppet wrote: »

I did read that the insurance company were not legally allowed to go back and change the amount of premium on an expired policy, as they would be changing the terms of the contract, any advice on this.

As the premium was set based on you giving the wrong info, then they are able to come after you for what you should have paid!

mikey72

Quentin wrote: »

As the premium was set based on you giving the wrong info, then they are able to come after you for what you should have paid!

That's an impressive statement.
Surely, equally, if for instance they had found out after a claim while the policy was running, they tend to cancel the policy and avoid paying out.
So it's ok to ask them to just retrospectively cancel and refund the premium then?:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Seriouly though, probably a question for the FOS, if you telephone them they can advise or point you in the right direction.

dacouch

Mikey here is the Ombudsman's guidance / rules on non disclosure, which you will find helpful.

The penultimate paragraph covers the OP's situation (Basically the Insurers are viewing his non disclosure as "Inadvertent" and as such they have rewritten the Insurance insurance eg charge the premium they would have done if they were aware of the information. They could only decline a hypothetical claim if the non disclosure was deliberate, reckless or in the case of inadvertent had they not offered cover at the time of issuing cover had they been aware of all of the facts

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/46/46_non_disclosure_insurance.htm

dunstonh

I did read that the insurance company were not legally allowed to go back and change the amount of premium on an expired policy, as they would be changing the terms of the contract, any advice on this? I am probably a little too close to the problem to see the wood for the trees.

Once offered that is correct assuming the information they are quoting on is correct. This was not the case.

The FOS guidelines have made things very clear in how non disclosure claims can be dealt with. The only grey area is really whether it was inadvertent or intentional. Timescale seems be a major factor with the FOS in that respect.

That said, in case 90/05 they ruled in favour of the policyholder as they asked if any claims had been made in the last 5 years. Not accidents whether claimed or not. Although that was a lucky get out of the policyholder that wouldnt apply in this case as there were claims.

mikey72

dacouch wrote: »

Mikey here is the Ombudsman's guidance / rules on non disclosure, which you will find helpful.

The penultimate paragraph covers the OP's situation (Basically the Insurers are viewing his non disclosure as "Inadvertent" and as such they have rewritten the Insurance insurance eg charge the premium they would have done if they were aware of the information. They could only decline a hypothetical claim if the non disclosure was deliberate, reckless or in the case of inadvertent had they not offered cover at the time of issuing cover had they been aware of all of the facts

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/46/46_non_disclosure_insurance.htm

It's very easy to decide to accept the risk with the hindsight it hasn't happened.
So the best advice must be to speak to the FOS helpline on
0800 0 234 567

vaio

dacouch wrote: »

Mikey here is the Ombudsman's guidance / rules on non disclosure, which you will find helpful.

The penultimate paragraph covers the OP's situation (Basically the Insurers are viewing his non disclosure as "Inadvertent" and as such they have rewritten the Insurance insurance eg charge the premium they would have done if they were aware of the information. They could only decline a hypothetical claim if the non disclosure was deliberate, reckless or in the case of inadvertent had they not offered cover at the time of issuing cover had they been aware of all of the facts

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/46/46_non_disclosure_insurance.htm

and presumably they would refund the OP the whole of his premium if the non disclosure was innocent and one which would have caused them to decline to quote originally?