Car insurance auto renewal dispute

Wildsurf

Hi all,

I'd appreciate your advice on the following situation:

Whilst we were on holiday my girlfriends car insurance expired and was automatically renewed by the insurance company. We had forgotten about this as a result of being distracted by the holiday AND the fact that the insurance company had made no attempt to communicate with her.

I appreciate that we should have notified the insurance provider we didn't wish to renew, but my query is what steps they are required to take before they can automatically renew. Surely there is some obligation to inform the customer the proposed premium for the renewal so they have a chance to object?

On the return from holiday we still had received no communication (Email or letter) regarding the renewal and no new insurance certificate had been sent.

Within 14 days (does a cooling off period apply?) of the renewal point we realised our error and phoned up the insurance query to find out what was going on. We phoned up on the pretext that we wanted to confirm that as no renewal notice or insurance certificate had been received the insurance had not been renewed. Unsurprisingly this was not the case so we made sure it was cancelled with immediate effect.

The insurance company want to charge us about £30, but despite us asking have not provided a breakdown of how this is calculated.

The amount is not huge, but do we have any grounds for disputing the amount owed on the grounds that a) they have yet to provide any proof that any insurance was in place (no certificate has been received) and b) there was no notification of the renewal or the proposed charge.

However you look at it, whether they are legally in the right the level of customer service has been appalling. They are very quick to write to demand the money and acknowledge cancellation, but have not yet sent out a proof of no claims despite first agreeing to do so 2 weeks ago.

Any advice appreciated

Regards

Ben & Kelly

vusys1

when the policy was taken out (internet or phone) you should have been advised that they may choose to auto renew unless otherwise advised.

A renewal invite should be sent at least 21 days before the renewal date.

You say the policy renewed whilst on hols, had you arranged alt insurance?

If you only arranged cover upon your return,they have provided cover up until the other insurance has kicked in. So a fee would be applicable.

Not sure where you GF car was parked (airport,road etc) but you could have been towed,fined etc if the auto renewal had not happened.

McKneff

When she first took out the insurance it will have been in the 'T & Cs' about auto renewal.

Probably didnt read them when the paperwork followed.

There are thousands of people who say 'I wasnt informed in the weeks before renewal'
Wonder how many are true. Or again just not read the letter probably and its a convenient excuse.

dunstonh

Whilst we were on holiday my girlfriends car insurance expired and was automatically renewed by the insurance company.

Good job it had auto-renewal then as she would have gone uninsured.

but my query is what steps they are required to take before they can automatically renew.

1 - It should be in the terms of the contract you agreed when taking it out
2 - the renewal letter should state clearly what you should do next if you want to cancel or renew.

The insurance company want to charge us about £30, but despite us asking have not provided a breakdown of how this is calculated.

They have no requirement to give you a breakdown.

The amount is not huge, but do we have any grounds for disputing the amount owed on the grounds that a) they have yet to provide any proof that any insurance was in place (no certificate has been received) and b) there was no notification of the renewal or the proposed charge.

You have limited grounds for disputing it as you didnt have any replacement insurance. If you had replacement insurance in place then it would be a doddle to complain about. I suspect if you complained they will ask to see proof of alternative insurance from that date. As you cant prove it then they have provided cover and are entitled to be paid for it.

You could focus on their poor service and threaten the FOS. Whilst the FOS would likely side with them, the cost of complaint would be higher than the £30 charge so it may just be cheaper to waive the charge than argue the point.

Wildsurf

Some answers to the points raised so far:

1 - The car was parked on out private drive way whilst we were on holiday.

2 - We were both well aware of the renewal clause in virtually every insurance company's T&C's

3 - I can assure you that we received no correspondence before the renewal date.

Point 1 is irrelevant, we could have cancelled the insurance without arranging an alternative provider. Yes it would have been breaking the law if we'd driven the car but I fail to see why that is relevant to query. As it happens, I along with my girlfriend who is named on my policy are covered third party to drive any car in any case.

Point 2 is irrelevant as well, I have already admitted we forgot to cancel and thereby acknowledged that we were aware they'd auto-renew. Had we received any kind of notification from the insurance company we would have done something about it.

My question is what obligations are there on the part of the insurance provider prior to the renewal point? Do they have to inform us beforehand of the charge? Based on a quick calculation from the website which suggest a £15 cancellation fee they have almost doubled the cost of the insurance.

I appreciate that they might say they did post out a renewal notification and I can't prove they didn't or that we didn't receive one.

If the answer is that we are unlikely to get anywhere complaining about the non-existent communication then we'll take it on the chin, learn the lesson and move on.

Quentin

Separately to legal rights, many companies will take the view that fighting a customer over £30 isn't worth the management time etc.

So it's always worth kicking up a fuss in case you are dealing with such a company who might waive their claim just to close the file!

Wildsurf

dunstonh wrote: »

Good job it had auto-renewal then as she would have gone uninsured.

The car was parked up on our private drive. If we'd been more alert we'd have cancelled the insurance and renewed from when we returned from our holiday. Even ignoring this, we are both insured third party by my separate insurance policy to drive any car although obviously it would not apply if relied on on a regular basis.

dunstonh wrote: »

1 - It should be in the terms of the contract you agreed when taking it out

Is there any insurance company who don't include this in their T&C's?

dunstonh wrote: »

2 - the renewal letter should state clearly what you should do next if you want to cancel or renew.

Agreed, but we haven't received any such letter (or Email).

dunstonh wrote: »

They have no requirement to give you a breakdown.

Are you suggesting that they can ask for money from me without telling me what it is for? Surely they are obliged to tell me how much is for the period they were "insuring me for" and how much is made up of fees for cancelling.

dunstonh wrote: »

You have limited grounds for disputing it as you didnt have any replacement insurance. If you had replacement insurance in place then it would be a doddle to complain about. I suspect if you complained they will ask to see proof of alternative insurance from that date. As you cant prove it then they have provided cover and are entitled to be paid for it.

I accept the first point, but they have yet to prove to me they have provided any cover. We have no certificate of insurance covering the period since the renewal.

dunstonh wrote: »

You could focus on their poor service and threaten the FOS. Whilst the FOS would likely side with them, the cost of complaint would be higher than the £30 charge so it may just be cheaper to waive the charge than argue the point.

This is my current fall back position and I guess from what you are saying they are legally entitled to renew without informing us of the renewal cost or sending out an insurance certificate? Which was my original not very clearly stated query.

Thank you for your reply.

Quentin

dunstonh wrote: »

They have no requirement to give you a breakdown.

No business (not even an insurance company!) can just issue demands for a sum of money without a description of what the charge is for!

dunstonh

Is there any insurance company who don't include this in their T&C's?

Yes. The ones that dont use auto-renewal.

Are you suggesting that they can ask for money from me without telling me what it is for? Surely they are obliged to tell me how much is for the period they were "insuring me for" and how much is made up of fees for cancelling.

They can refer to it as an administration charge or cancellation charge but they dont need to break it down unless the charge is made up of multiple things e.g. if the admin charge is £20 and the premium for cover given for x days is £10.

They do not have to breakdown the actual admin charge or cancellation charge.

I guess from what you are saying they are legally entitled to renew without informing us of the renewal cost or sending out an insurance certificate? Which was my original not very clearly stated query.

The problem is that you say you didnt get the renewal. They will say they sent it and will have a date on file that shows it was sent. It could be that it was misdelivered but thats not the fault of the insurer. They wont issue the policy docs normally until you pay. However, you get a period of grace to make that payment before they cancel. You are in the window at the moment. Hence the period you are covered but dont have a certificate. If you had a claimable event and paid the premium they would have to honour it.

The telephone line staff probably wont have the ability to waive fees. So, dont waste your time with them. Write a short complaint and send it to them and you will probably get a response from the complaints handler confirming they did send the renewal and apologise the post didnt deliver and as a matter of goodwill, they will waive the £30.

Wildsurf

Quentin wrote: »

No business (not even an insurance company!) can just issue demands for a sum of money without a description of what the charge is for!

The description on the letter we received today simply says: As a result of your cancellation, there is an outstanding balance of £28.50.

It isn't unreasonable to ask for a breakdown of this so I can at least check the period they are charging for and ensure it reflects the day we first spoke to them.

Wildsurf

dunstonh wrote: »

Yes. The ones that dont use auto-renewal.



They can refer to it as an administration charge or cancellation charge but they dont need to break it down unless the charge is made up of multiple things e.g. if the admin charge is £20 and the premium for cover given for x days is £10.



The problem is that you say you didnt get the renewal. They will say they sent it and will have a date on file that shows it was sent. It could be that it was misdelivered but thats not the fault of the insurer. They wont issue the policy docs normally until you pay. However, you get a period of grace to make that payment before they cancel. You are in the window at the moment. Hence the period you are covered but dont have a certificate. If you had a claimable event and paid the premium they would have to honour it.

The telephone line staff probably wont have the ability to waive fees. So, dont waste your time with them. Write a short complaint and send it to them and you will probably get a response from the complaints handler confirming they did send the renewal and apologise the post didnt deliver and as a matter of goodwill, they will waive the £30.

Thank you very much for the advice, I'll report back if we are successful.