Insurer cancelled policy, who's liable ?

leeelw

My wife is a named driver on my policy, I am the policy holder and pay the direct debits.

The police pulled up my wife on july 11th as we came up on their system as having no insurance, upon phoning the insurer they advised the police we have been uninsured since mid april !!!!! ......this led to our car being siezed.

We had no idea we were uninsured.

An instance occured in feb I changed jobs and had to change my payment dates, in the midst of confusion my insurer took three different sums of payments from me, in between my complaints, two payments were refunded, however, unbeknown to me this stopped my direct debits.

Automatically I recieved a renewed policy for next year covering me till mar 2013, also, advising my next payment date was 30th of april.

Seperately in the background the previous policy has flagged as defaulted, therefore this automatically cancelled my new policy by the insurer.
my only guess is that the 3 payments were correct and they would of kept my policy up to date ? ......which begs the question, why did the insurer refund 2 payments, if the policy was owed this money?

I did not recieve the cancellation letter about the policy, by huge genuine oversight I omitted to advise I moved, which is entirely my fault.

subsequently I had another bulk payment taken from the insurer in June - which i since found was a card payment from the credit chasing team which was owed to my old policy.

I genuinely had no idea I defaulted on the last policy, and therefore my wife who was driving also had no idea.

I've tried reasoning with the insurer and lost my rag, other than willing to solve a problem they just want to blame you for everything......now my policy has gone from £600 to £1800 - as a defaulted policy, insurance cancelled by an insurer, and points pending.

Who is liable for the points, my wife the driver ? or me the policy payer who defaulted ?

I have to shoulder responsibility as the policy debtor, my wife knew nothing what was going on, however, if my wife being the driver gets 6 points penalty then she will lose her license (under 2 years) and her job as its not viable to reach by any other means

it is a pickle and no way in the world did I know or ever would send my wife and my 1 yr old on the road without insurance

any advice welcom, thank you

huckster

Messy. Suggest a written complaint to the Insurers, with threats to involve the FOS and to inform the FSA about what had happened. I would suggest a Data Protection Subject Access Request for all the information held on the policy and copies off all letters issued. The Insurers have to write out informing of the pending cancellation, giving the policyholder a minimum of 7 days notice before they cancel.

Whoever is driving the car is responsible for checking that the car is Insured, not the policyholder. Obviously when you drive it is your responsibility. Anyone can check the Insurance database the Police will check. Askmid.com

forgotmyname

The driver is responsible, In their eyes she should know if she was insured or not.

I can imagine them saying dont you check your insured before every journey you make?

Few things against you on this. You failed to notify them you moved, So they probably did notify you your policy was going to be cancelled.
So your not going to be able to blame them on that.

If it was a monthly plan i guess you also failed to notice they have not taken any money since?

I used the askmid website every now and them, Even though i paid for my policy in full.

Losing your rag with them wont help, Especially when it was your fault.

I dont think they can keep payments you made for a new policy to cover the costs of an old one.
My old firm had a customer that owed them money. He came in to pay cash for an order and im sure they called the legal department up as to whether they could keep the money he just gave them,
Turned out they could not, Obtaining money with deception or false pretences or something.

They had to give him the goods or give him his money back.

kingstreet

huckster wrote: »

The Insurers have to write out informing of the pending cancellation, giving the policyholder a minimum of 7 days notice before they cancel

Which is fair, but the OP states;-

I did not recieve the cancellation letter about the policy, by huge genuine oversight I omitted to advise I moved, which is entirely my fault.

huckster

kingstreet wrote: »

Which is fair, but the OP states;-

Yes I know about the COA, but the OP should ask for copies of letters they issued, regarding cancellation.

leeelw

thank you for your replies

I have to shoulder responsibility but am still miffed as to why if my bulk payments in feb satisfied my policy until end of march - why did they refund me what they deemed as over payments? which now seem to incorrectly refunded.

they cannot answer this question either ?

the truthful reality, despite the going ons - who is right, who is wrong, this does come under our remit to check, double check and triple check.

I am hoping the court will look on favourably, in 8 years of driving i've not had any problems whatsoever - and allthough it is our remit to check, we were never driving around knowingly we were without insurance ?!?

dunstonh

Next time you move house, buy a mail redirect. Dirt cheap and would prevent things like this.

vax2002

You need a specialist solicitor .
This will be a difficult web to untangle, the insurance companies solicitor will be required to be summonsed to court and placed on oath to testify that cancellation documents were served and produce copies of them.
If this can not be done reasonable doubt that the certificate was valid will remain.
Finding a solicitor with the guts to do this may be hard, most just want an easy payout.
If the certificate can not be proven to have been cancelled correctly then it is still valid.
This is not a moral compass position it is the law.
The question over payment would be one between the lender and agreed recipient and a separate contractual issue .
Not making a payment does not automatically cancel insurance nor does an insurer stating its cancelled.
Correct procedures are in place in Law to prevent insurers cancelling policies retrospectively to avoid claims.
Once the solicitor makes it clear that the policy is to be presented as defence, the prosecution will summons the Insurance company and this is where the solicitor can place them on oath, the answers given often change drastically once this happens.
It is down to proving the policy was cancelled correctly or not or reasonable doubt will see the case found not guilty.

This is not withstanding you have not helped your case by doing a vanishing act.
If you can prove the insurance is still in force, the car will be returned and the court will award all costs.
To fight in court the fixed penalty needs to be rejected, but seek immediate legal advice before doing so.
To help the case you can request a SAR request from the insurer for all information they hold.
This may reveal the letters of cancellation and show the strength of the hand against you before engaging in a fight.

Hope This helps.

kingstreet

I suggest the OP splits the issues.

Stay here for the insurance administration issue and complaint.

Register and post over here about the legal implications of wife's driving without insurance allegation;-

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=5