Car Insurance Cancelled, Notice Sent To Wrong Address

acbleeds

Hi

I was stopped this week by the police for driving without insurance. At the time I was completely bemused, stating I had insurance and I showed the officer the recent payment out of my account by logging onto my account on my phone. The payment taken at the end of June, as far as I was aware, was a double payment as the May direct debit had failed.

When I phoned my insurance company the following morning, they said that my insurance was cancelled on June 11th and the payment taken on 28th June was the outstanding balance due and a cancellation fee (which combined was almost to the penny a double monthly payment, hence me thinking this). Also, at the time, I had no idea the payment had bounced, I don't check my bank that often and they don't send me any notification of a payment failing.

The insurance said they had sent me notice in writing of their intention to cancel if payment was not received. However, they had sent the notification to an address of a driver I added (my mother) back in 2009, not my address. Apparently they have had this down as my address since that time they claim. I told them I have never changed my address, that I am the policyholder and have always had the same address for the past 6 years or so now. It's not even as though my mother could have passed it to me, she moved house in 2009/2010. They basically said tough, they'd cancelled it and that's that.

The police officer gave me a form and said I had to produce my insurance document at a station within 7 days. What do I do/say???? I had no idea I was driving without insurance, I have been with this company for 4 or 5 years now, always been fully comprehensive insured on my car and can't believe they have now put me in the position of potentially being criminalised for their admin error.

Any advice would be very welcome, I am really stressed about this.... Many thanks!

dacouch

Did you bounce May's payment

rs65

Have you had anything by post from them since 2009 - such as renewal notices?

acbleeds

dacouch, May's payment didn't go through due to insufficient funds in the account, I only noticed this at the beginning of this month as had received a charge at that time from my bank, but had also noticed that I had then also had a debit taken by them for what I thought was a double month's payment so thought nothing more of it.

rs65, in all honesty I don't know. They have always automatically renewed my policy, I have no idea what the actual start and end date is each year. They say they have been sending document's to the address of the named driver so they probably have been, I wouldn't have noticed, I've just seen the direct debit go out every month.

dacouch

How do you tax your car, post office or online

acbleeds

dacouch, Tax is done online from the notification letter I get each year using the code on it. That's a good point, wouldn't the addresses need to match? Car is registered to me, always has been since I bought it in 2006 from showroom and has always been registered at my address.

forgotmyname

Its not the cars tax and registration. But the insurance renewals...

I think thats what they meant. If the renewals came to you then why send to a different address. Their fault?

If the renewals went to your mums then your at fault not not telling them.

thegirlintheattic

Best thing you can do is get LV to uncancel your insurance and back date the insurance to cover the time you were stopped. Otherwise you are going to get done for no insurance and have to declare that plus cancelled insurance to get your car insured - which is going to put your premiums through the roof.

forgotmyname

6 points and IN10 is it? = Insurers may want ££££+++

cajef

acbleeds wrote: »

rs65, in all honesty I don't know. They have always automatically renewed my policy, I have no idea what the actual start and end date is each year.

So you have never seen an insurance certificate for your car since 2009, did that not ring bells that you should have had one and something was wrong.