car insurance cancellation dispute

lmk87

Hi all,

I really hope that someone might be able to help me here as I am feeling very stuck indeed.

This is a bit long winded but I will try and bullet point it! In short, my car insurance has been cancelled and I would like to dispute this, if not to keep my policy but to not have it on my record!

1- In March 2011, my boyfriend took out car insurance on his Mazda with Bell Insurance and insured his friend as a named driver. (yes, I know this is bound to end in tears but hear me out!). Of course, his friend crashed the car into a fence (May 2011) and consequentially the owner of the fence made a claim of about £1500 for damages. The car insurance with Bell ended there as my boyfriend and his friend decided not to continue to keep the car between them. The car went into the garage and had work done to it which my boyfriend paid for out of his own pocket, instead of claiming (just worked out cheaper)

2 - My boyfriend also had use of another car, which was owned by his mom and the insurance was in his moms name. He had a small accident in December last year, rolling into the back of a van at a set of lights. The van had no damage and nobody was hurt but sadly the damage to his car was in such a place that it made it a write off (!! we were very surprised as there was no aesthetic damage and it was hard to believe) but anyway - hey ho - so Tesco car insurance paid out on his mums policy, £3000 to cover the cost of the car.

3 - Then my boyfriends mum kindly gave him the money to enable him to buy his own car, which he did and he decided to ring Tesco insurance to insure it. Upon calling, he explained that he had the accident in December and also explained about the named driver accident in May. He told Tesco that it was his named driver who had the accident and the saleswoman informed him that if it was the named driver who had the accident, it wouldn't be classed as an accident that he had. We remember the phone call well, as we sat listening on speaker phone and asked repeatedly if she was sure this was the case. She said categorically yes, that he only needed to declare the accident that he had himself, not the accident that his friend had on is insurance. Great, we remember being pleasantly surprised - so he took out a policy and put me as named driver.

4 - The Mazda, which had been involved in an accident in May, came back from the garage and we decided that it would be logical for us both if (because my car finance was just running out on my other car and that we are saving for a mortgage at the moment) rather than have 3 cars in the house, for me to end my finance on my other car and for the Mazda to become my main car, in my name and my boyfriend would use it occasionally as and when. So I did the usual comparing game for 12 hours online and found that Premium Choice Insurance would be the cheapest. I called them and went into great detail with them about my situation, ensuring that I was covered properly (i.e we have a car port which is something in-between a drive and a garage, I didn't want to put garage and this not be valid, etc etc - basically being tedious with the whole thing and of course honest). I placed my boyfriend as a named driver and declared his accident which he had in his mums car in December. I did not declare the other accident due to us previously being informed by Tesco that we did not need to (and bearing in mind my boyfriends car, is insured on this basis also). I thought nothing of this.

5 - I pay upfront for insurance (which wasn't cheap!) on the Mazda with Premium Choice and do all the necessary formalities. Ding dang do.

6 - Then, last week I received a letter from Premium Choice to say that they were cancelling my insurance policy because they had found an accident on my boyfriends history that I had not declared. I called up to explain the situation and they said that basically there is nothing they can do, that the insurance would be cancelled regardless. They were not willing to continue with the policy. I was obviously very upset because I had not intentionally kept this information back, I had in fact I felt, gone to great lengths to ensure that I was covered fully by checking the finer details. I intended to call them back yesterday to try to come to some agreement again rather than faffing around trying again for 12 hours to re-insure with new company, but they were closed when I called and are still today. The cancellation is valid as of this morning. We called Tesco to explain the situation and said that we would like a recording of our conversation with the saleswoman who misinformed us about this and they have agreed to find this and send us the CD. They also said that we were wrongly insured with them because of this... so they upped my boyfriends premium which he paid.

7 - In the mean time though, my insurance is now cancelled with Premium Choice because of non disclosure. Upon obtaining quotes this morning I have found that I am now facing more than double the premium I was before, looking at around a £3000 excess payment!!! I have 4 years NCD, no points, no claims, never had an accident, yet I am now in the situation where I am struggling to get any car insurance due to A) an accident which my boyfriends named driver had and due the fact that we were misinformed by Tesco about what we should and shouldn't declare.

I feel extremely hard done by and really upset as from what I can grasp, this is something that will affect my car insurance and any other insurance I have, forever!

My questions are to you all.........

A) As we now know, if a named driver has an accident it is the policyholder who is responsible for it & you have to declare it. BUT if you have an accident as a named driver (i.e my boyfriend having the accident in December in his mums insurance) do you also have to declare this? We have but did we need to? It is very confusing and feels backwards!

Does anyone have any advice for me in relation to what I can do about this Insurance Cancellation? Our plan is to firstly write and complain to Tesco with the proof of the conversation my boyfriend (and I) had with their advisor, hoping that they admit they are at fault of giving bad advice - but then even then, I imagine that there is little they can do to have this cancellation amended on my record? From there I presume I have to go down the Financial Ombudsan/Court route?? It all seems to unfair after an absolutely GENUINE mistake which was caused by the fact that we were misinformed by Tesco.:mad:

C) If there is nothing I can do about it (which I really hope there is) what does this mean for me? Will I always struggle to get insurance? It seems crazy when my boyfriend and his friends, are the people who had the accidents yet it is me who is left with the consequences after being badly misinformed by an advisor who we placed out trust in...:(

Any advice much appreciated.

LMK87

InsideInsurance

Yes, the policyholder and the ND needs to declare the claim, though ultimately all insurers are entitled to set their own rules about these things and what will apply to one doesnt necessarily apply to the other.

Whilst you can write to Tesco Insurance and complain they are more likely to simply say that they dont give advice as they are a non-advisory service but they simply stated that they didnt need to record the prior accident. Whilst this was an error (and they possibly would waive the additional premium they charged you later) they would argue against the fact they advised you never to tell any other company about it.

If you do get the CD of the telephone call you could send it to your brokers Premium Choice and hope they are sympathetic and allow the policy to be reinstated with an additional premium or at least for the insurer cancelled flag to be removed.

Unfortunately you are coming up against the "responsibility" of being a policyholder, that it is your obligation to ensure all information is correct and a failure to do so lies only with you.


The best piece of advice, on this or any other insurance "should I tell them or not" type issue is that to be safest you should always ask the insurer in question and not assume that what applies to one applied to another.

dunstonh

Does anyone have any advice for me in relation to what I can do about this Insurance Cancellation? Our plan is to firstly write and complain to Tesco with the proof of the conversation my boyfriend (and I) had with their advisor, hoping that they admit they are at fault of giving bad advice - but then even then, I imagine that there is little they can do to have this cancellation amended on my record? From there I presume I have to go down the Financial Ombudsan/Court route?? It all seems to unfair after an absolutely GENUINE mistake which was caused by the fact that we were misinformed by Tesco.

I think the problem here is that Tesco are only responsible for their own product. You need to look at the application for each provider you use as there is no standard wording. You need to answer those questions as they are worded. Not how a unrelated company asks the questions for their product.

C) If there is nothing I can do about it (which I really hope there is) what does this mean for me? Will I always struggle to get insurance? It seems crazy when my boyfriend and his friends, are the people who had the accidents yet it is me who is left with the consequences after being badly misinformed by an advisor who we placed out trust in...

They are not advisers. Indeed, when you use product suppliers like this you are bypassing advisers and going DIY. That means taking on responsibility for knowing what you are buying. The providers still need to supply accurate information for their own product but they are not providing advice. The telephone staff are effectively order takers.

Have you seen how Premium Choice ask the question about past claims and incidents? If the wording includes things like "whether you claimed or not" then you are basically stuffed. Had you stayed with Tesco then there would probably be a case for them to answer (assuming it had every reared its head in the 3 years after - which often it doesnt)

Faith177

As many other people have stated Tesco can only inform you of what they require to be disclosed on their policies. It is pointless complaining to them as it is your responsiblity to disclose all material facts even if you do not feel they are relvent (that is for the insurance company to decide not you).

Also on the Premium Choice website it does state "Have you suffered a loss or made a claim within the last 5 years?"