Car Insurance and Category D 'write offs'

mikey72

InsideInsurance wrote: »

There already are standardised databases in terms of the DVLA (for write offs), the police (for stolen vehicles not yet written off) and the db for checking HPI/ finance.

These databases cost money to run and maintain. If you want the data to be "free" then what you are really saying is you want everyone to pay an extra £3 a year in taxes to cover it. Alternatively there are already plenty of services offering to check all three databases for you for a nominal sub £10 fee

Will that be the same database at the dvla that the insurers use when you type in your numberplate for quote, and they tell you what your car is?
The same one the insurers themselves actually notify the dvla to update when the insurers get the v5 off the previous owner, and the insurers class it as a cat D, when they write it off?

So, in summary, the database the insurers get updated when they themselves class it as a cat D in the first place, and then they interrogate again to get the details next time?

So where does the extra £3 come in?

InsideInsurance

Yup, thats the one, and insurers have to pay the DVLA for information. From memory it used to be £2.95+vat for the address of the owner of a car as we used to get the invoices in claims when we were trying to trace TPs

Some of the other data sets are paid on a subscription rather than per use basis.

mikey72

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Yup, thats the one, and insurers have to pay the DVLA for information. From memory it used to be £2.95+vat for the address of the owner of a car as we used to get the invoices in claims when we were trying to trace TPs

Some of the other data sets are paid on a subscription rather than per use basis.

I think if you admit they have access to the information, and it may be on subscription, the onus must be on the insurer to query the status of the car when they query the rest of the details to provide the quote, if it's important to them. "treating the customer fairly" springs to mind.
The customer certainly has no general access, and wouldn't normally be expected to query every car they owned.

olly300

vaio wrote: »

Yep, I think that's the general rule the FOS apply, if an insurance company cares about something they need to ask clear questions at the proposal stage. If they don't ask then they don't care.

The only fly in this particular ointment is that whilst almost no company asks about write off status there are a few which exclude them in the general assumptions/terms & conditions.

So, the advice has to be answer the questions honestly and read the general assumptions/terms & conditions

So until there is a ruling from the FOS companies won't change their behaviour, as I strongly doubt Axa or any of the other insurers ask these questions or have it in the key facts of their insurance policies they will not pay out if the car was a CAT D write off.

InsideInsurance

I dont know if the T/L info is subscription or per use basis. If it is on subscription then most subscriptions are at a user level, you'd assume that the number of users they need would massively increase if every single quote included a check rather than just the X in 1000 cars they insure that they total loss each year.

That said, I think we are at cross purposes given the other poster is saying having TL on the V5 would stop fraud, I would suggest they are talking about at the point of buying the car not the insurance. I am not sure if any insurer is going to want to offer a free "call us before you buy for a HPI, Police and DVLA check". I did look into offering something vaguely related to this and the amount the data provider wanted to charge for it was silly money when they heard we not only wanted to use the data in pricing decisions but allow the public to get the info for free

mikey72

olly300 wrote: »

So until there is a ruling from the FOS companies won't change their behaviour, as I strongly doubt Axa or any of the other insurers ask these questions or have it in the key facts of their insurance policies they will not pay out if the car was a CAT D write off.

To be fair to Axa (direct) they are quite clear on their policy on cat D on the initial screen of their quote page.

Others aren't though.

cepheus

Axa in trouble for holiday insurance now!

bushie_2

I have yet to find the question asked on any proposal form as to whether your car is classed as a cat c or d, surely this is misleading the consumer like as op pointed out, the insurance company are aware and happy to take your money and only tell you they won't pay out/your not properly covered when you make a claim. Is it enough to say it is in the small print of the insurance contract as I see it as misleading.

I'm only asking as I bought a cat c last year and put it back on the road, must admit my insurance co was helpful, just asked for copy of mot and vic certificate as I had them done but if the car was on the road when I bought it, I would never have thought it relevant to declare this.