Home Contents Insurance - Cancellation Charges/Is Insurance Void

Romorrison

Hi

New to board and looking for a little bit of advice. I took out home contents insurance today with Direct Dial (part of Coop). I completed everything I thought correctly including the questions on no claims bonus. I've owned my flat 8 years and never claimed on contents insurance so I said 5 plus years of no claims.

I then signed up and paid - when I reviewed the documents sent under no claims it said it needed to be continuous. My flat was let last year and I didn't have contents insurance for that year. I think that my no claims bonus should probably be 0 rather than 5+ years.

Direct Dial say that to cancel the policy will cost £35 or an amendment will cost £25 plus change in fee. However I noticed my error immediately and no have the position of needing to pay £35 for nothing. Is this correct - is there no cooling off period/time to notice errors before these charges kick in? I think the policy is essentially void as the error is so fundamental. In my defence I think I made the mistake as it didn't say continuous in the question. Not that it makes much difference

The policy is not due to commence until I get my flat back on 10th October. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Many thanks
Rollo

hugoshavez

Romorrison wrote: »

Hi

New to board and looking for a little bit of advice. I took out home contents insurance today with Direct Dial (part of Coop). I completed everything I thought correctly including the questions on no claims bonus. I've owned my flat 8 years and never claimed on contents insurance so I said 5 plus years of no claims.

I then signed up and paid - when I reviewed the documents sent under no claims it said it needed to be continuous. My flat was let last year and I didn't have contents insurance for that year. I think that my no claims bonus should probably be 0 rather than 5+ years.

Direct Dial say that to cancel the policy will cost £35 or an amendment will cost £25 plus change in fee. However I noticed my error immediately and no have the position of needing to pay £35 for nothing. Is this correct - is there no cooling off period/time to notice errors before these charges kick in? I think the policy is essentially void as the error is so fundamental. In my defence I think I made the mistake as it didn't say continuous in the question. Not that it makes much difference

The policy is not due to commence until I get my flat back on 10th October. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Many thanks
Rollo

Strange, the question on the site is:

At the start of this policy how many years will you have continuously held CONTENTS insurance?

Where'd you get no claims bonus from?

Even so, it's unlikely to pose any sort of problem. As long as you haven't failed to disclose any claims.

Romorrison

Thanks Hugo

I completed the information and questions on confused.com. The question on that site was how many years no claims bonus do you have on your contents insurance. If you click the help box beside the question it then specifies continuous, however it doesn't specify it in the question.

Still should have known but hope your right about it not being an issue

Cheers
R

keith1950

Hi, comparison sites may be usefull to give an indication of the best prices available at the moment but this is exactly the reason that why I would never purchase through a comparison site.

I find the insurers with the best prices and then go direct to the insurer or through a cashback site to purchase.

There always seems to be some confusion ( sorry ) between the insurers questions and the comparison sites .

Unlike car insurance I doubt that would ever ask for proof of no claims etc. ,all that would happen would be that if you had a claim they would check if you had any previous claims.

dalesrider

Romorrison wrote: »

The policy is not due to commence until I get my flat back on 10th October. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Many thanks
Rollo

Would this not fall under the DSR. As such if within the timescales allow you cancel under said with no charge....
They mssy bluster on the charge, but stick to your guns and they will waive it.

Quentin

dalesrider wrote: »

Would this not fall under the DSR......

No.

(DSR don't apply here)

Romorrison

Thanks all - important lesson learned about using the comparison sites. No damage down thankfully and it adjusted the premium by 33p- so all good