car insurer was misleading when dealing with a claim

bambola005

We've been involved in a car accident. It was a hit and run. We have comprehensive car insurance and made a claim. However in the meantime with the help of police we found the other party involved in the accident and passed their details to our insurer. Our insurance company made us an offer as the car was a write-off. They sent us a letter evaluating our car at £1700 minus the excess so we would receive £1500. We sent them the car documents and sent the forms to DVLA as well. Now they are not willing to stick to the deal as in the meantime they found out the policy holder has changed their job and failed to notify them. The accident happened a month ago and on the day when we reported it we informed them that he changed his work. As we were waiting for the cheque to be sent through we bought a new car and wanted to put it on the policy. When we called them they told us everything is on hold and they are investigating to see if the policy is still valid as due to the change of job it might not be. It took them a month since we made the claim to tell us it might not be valid. In the meantime although we had a comprehensive insurance we had no courtesy car so lost lots of money on renting cars.
They were aware from the moment we made the claim that the policy holder had changed jobs. Now the underwriters are investigating and worst case scenario would be to give us the car back and the money we paid them for insurance. But I am still left with financial loses (i.e. rented cars) Can I sue them for misleading us?

dacouch

What was your old job ?

Whats your new job?

Which Insurer is it?

When did he change job ?

Read this

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

and this

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/loss-of-use-mv.html

P.S New link for Viao and Mikey ^

bambola005

he changed the job like a month before the accident. It's the first time we have car insurance in this country and we did not know we have to notify them. In all fairness we did notify when we repoerted the accident.
he was a waiter and is now a sports coach.
I am annoyed as they could have told us there and then we cannot make a claim and we would have fixed the car and insured somewhere else. But they mislead us by making an offer, sending us forms to explain how the accident happened and so on and now they are saying they might cancel the insurance, give me the car back . So I lost a month without car , renting cars when i could have fixed the old one and be done with the whole thing. It was misleading and badly managed on their side.

what do you think?

dacouch

Which Insurer is it?

UK Insurers do not like professional sportsmen or people connected with professional sports. I suspect your partner has mentioned Sports Coach and it has set off alarm bells with the Insurers.

What sort of sports coach is he, my friend is just completing his training and will be more of a community worker when he finishes his coarses which is not a problem with Insurers. It is however important to be truthful when declaring your occupation to Insurers.

If the Insurer declines the claim, they will refund your premiums and you should be able to claim off the other persons Insurance. However if they do this you will find it very difficult to find any type of Insurance in future so it would be best to avoid this.

Can you tell us which Insurer your with as they might not ask you to update them about changes of occupation, it's a long shot but worth checking.

Also has your partner always been a sports coach eg the waiter job was just until he got a sports coach job. What sort of sports coach is he eg does he teach in schools etc or does he coach professional sportsmen etc.

Which country are you both from (This may help)

mikey72

dacouch wrote: »

............ will be more of a community worker when he finishes ..................

But still will a job as a sports coach. Ok until something like this happens.

bambola005

When we took the insurance he was working as a waiter while he was taking his degree as a tennis instructor. We did not know that we have to inform them he changed his job. He still drives from A to B meaning from home to work and back. He works at a tennis academy.

My questions was if I have any leg to stand on on the fact that they mislead us by offering a settlement and then retracting it? If the policy is not valid when the change of job is not mentioned they should have told us when we reported the accident, not a month later.

If there is anyone who was in a similar situation, opinions are much appreciated.