Should you be charged by an insurance company to remove a deceased person?

BevK

Sadly my Dad has recently passed away. My Mum has changed her policies with the company known for multi-car policies to remove my Dad and have both of their cars insured just in her name. She has been waiting all week for the new documents so that we can visit the DVLA and sort out the car tax (my Dad was registered as disabled so for the last month of his life didn't pay car tax). We need to do this so that we can organise selling Dad's car. They have messed this up completely and sent a new policy in my deceased father's name. They are also trying to charge her for doing this. Is this correct? Surely if one person is being removed due to death then she shouldn't be charged. At the end of the day they are now insuring one person on both cars as opposed to two people on both cars. Any advice greatfully received. Many thanks.

beckydee

my thought are with you for losing ya dad and if this is right its disgracefull no respect at all

paddedjohn

they are allowed to make a charge for the extra administration involved

edit to add that they shouldnt be charging for the mistake they made by putting your father back on the policy

AnythingButChardonnay

I think it's pretty immoral and it sounds like they've messed you about at a very difficult time, especially if they're trying to charge you for their mistake.

I'm guessing this company is named after the rank higher than a 'Captain'? As in [Blank] of the Fleet? It rather puts me off using them if this is normal behaviour for them.

InsideInsurance

It is not surprising that they are charging for ultimately what is a mid term adjustment... you could see them possibly waiving the fee as a guesture of goodwill given the circumstances but the problem is that there are a lot of people out there who will lie about these sorts of things to try and get goodwill.

Not an insurance example but I remember one woman when I worked for a catalog company who'd phone every couple of months to say her husband had that week/month died and could she have more time to pay her bill as it was all too traumatic for her.... now either she was the worst black widow out there or she was lying a lot.

wealdroam

Sorry about your loss.

As mentioned above, yes they can make that charge.

I don't think I would've bothered to tell the insurance company.
It s not going to be a problem having a second driver on the policy who is never going to drive.
No extra risk leaving the second driver's name there, is there?

fivetide

Tell them you can send a copy of the death certificate to show you aren't fibbing.

Was the car insured in his name with his spouse as a named driver? They might be looking for more money due to less experience/risk recalculation and of course the regulation admin fee.

The thing with insurance companies is that if there is a price to add on, it will be done. If the premium would have dropped due to there only being one driver then you won't get a penny back.

Does sound like they have messed up with the new policy though and on that basis alone they should waive their fee (I'm against paying people to do a bad job).

Hope it gets resolved soon, last thing needed at a time like this.

5t.

SteveJW

I'll stand corrected but I believe to change the taxation class you have to tax the car, have a look at the back of the V5. This would involve handing in the old tax disc (disabled) and taking out a new disc immediately. They keep the old V5 (registration document) and send out a new one with the new taxation class, this can take up to six weeks, at the present moment it is a lot quicker.
Whos name is on the V5
Problem is people are wary of purchasing a vehicle without the V5

At the moment there is a lot of ex-mobility vehicles about with dealers, these are registered as disabled. I am involved with with authorising loans for employees who are buying cars via a company scheme. We inspect the cars and insist on seeing the V5, the dealers appear to leave them as disabled until the vehicle is sold
Good luck and sorry for your loss

paddedjohn

SteveJW wrote: »

I'll stand corrected but I believe to change the taxation class you have to tax the car, have a look at the back of the V5. This would involve handing in the old tax disc (disabled) and taking out a new disc immediately. They keep the old V5 (registration document) and send out a new one with the new taxation class, this can take up to six weeks, at the present moment it is a lot quicker.
Whos name is on the V5
Problem is people are wary of purchasing a vehicle without the V5

At the moment there is a lot of ex-mobility vehicles about with dealers, these are registered as disabled. I am involved with with authorising loans for employees who are buying cars via a company scheme. We inspect the cars and insist on seeing the V5, the dealers appear to leave them as disabled until the vehicle is sold
Good luck and sorry for your loss

you wouldnt have to tax the car immediately, you can sorn it while waiting for the v5 to come back.

Strider590

One of the things that I hated with my previous employer was when they sacked a woman for having an unauthorised day off when her son was tragically killed in a car crash. These days all they care about is profit, utterly disgraceful

Pretty obvious we're talking about the Admiral, Bell, Diamond, Elephant, Confused.com group....

Crabman

Hi BevK, sorry to hear about your Dad

Did the insurance company not make a pro-rata refund? They no longer have to insure your dad, therefore that is a risk that they no longer have to cover for the remainder of the insurance term.

If they issued a new policy in your father's name, I'd suggest you complain formally to them and ask for compensation for the distress caused as well as your time in dealing with the matter.

If they have the audacity to ask you to pay a fee in such circumstances, you should not hesistate to complain against them if they mess up. Similarly if you miss the dealine to get a refund on the car tax for this month as a result of their incompetence, they will have to pay for that.