Legal requirement to cancel car policy for car no longer owned?

mikey72

lisyloo wrote: »

Perhaps armed with this information Bob can put this to the insurer?
i.e. if they don't allow him to cancel for free then they potentially face claims under the Road Traffic Act.

I personally don't see why they should face the costs for Bob deciding the sell his car, but in his shoes I'd give it a go.

If they don't know that, Bob certainly shouldn't be expected to know it.
I personally don't see why he should be teaching them their business, unless they're going to pay him as an advisor.

dori2o

lisyloo wrote: »

Perhaps armed with this information Bob can put this to the insurer?
i.e. if they don't allow him to cancel for free then they potentially face claims under the Road Traffic Act.

I personally don't see why they should face the costs for Bob deciding the sell his car, but in his shoes I'd give it a go.

I would agree with this, but it all depends on how much the insurance company wants to charge for cancelling a policy.

I phoned to ask how much it would affect the insurance if I had the rear windows tinted to keep the glare off my kids faces.

The insurance company said there would be no increase in premium as there was no further risk, but it was a notifiable change and that the 'administration charge' for this would be £35.

£35 to input onto a computer the fact the rear 3 windows are tinted.

It's probably the same as with the bank charges argument. If the 'admin fee' was reasonable, and was actually related in any way to the actual cost that the insurance company will suffer, then people would pay it. As it is, anything more than a few pounds is completely and utterly unacceptable and blatent profiteering.

How much can it possibly cost to update a computer with the fact that the insurance has now been terminated.

5 minutes worth of wages for the call centre adviser to take the call and make the amendment, a few pieces of paper, an envelope, a bit of ink and the postage charge.

Certainly not more than £5. I would be interested to find out what they wanted.

TSx

dori2o wrote: »

I would agree with this, but it all depends on how much the insurance company wants to charge for cancelling a policy.

I phoned to ask how much it would affect the insurance if I had the rear windows tinted to keep the glare off my kids faces.

The insurance company said there would be no increase in premium as there was no further risk, but it was a notifiable change and that the 'administration charge' for this would be £35.

£35 to input onto a computer the fact the rear 3 windows are tinted.

It's probably the same as with the bank charges argument. If the 'admin fee' was reasonable, and was actually related in any way to the actual cost that the insurance company will suffer, then people would pay it. As it is, anything more than a few pounds is completely and utterly unacceptable and blatent profiteering.

How much can it possibly cost to update a computer with the fact that the insurance has now been terminated.

5 minutes worth of wages for the call centre adviser to take the call and make the amendment, a few pieces of paper, an envelope, a bit of ink and the postage charge.

Certainly not more than £5. I would be interested to find out what they wanted.

The difference is that insurance is now priced at the lowest price point - someone who does not contact them during the year at all.

Therefore those that do make use of the customer services are the ones who pay for it. That means that the fee incorporates the staff, premises, insurance, computer equipment, software, training and numerous other things which would not be required if people didn't want to make amendments to their policy.

There's no doubt an element of profit, but I suspect the average 'interaction' with customer services incurs a cost to the insurer of much more than £5 when looking at all the costs involved.

dalesrider

Not sure if a ins co could do this.

But as the OP has informed them that he has sold the car. If they then checked who now owned the car.
Could they now revoke/cancel the ins on the basis that the OP has not cancelled after a change of details.
Such as name of registered keeper, address kept at.... And I'm sure they could come up with a few more.

raskazz

dori2o wrote: »

How much can it possibly cost to update a computer with the fact that the insurance has now been terminated.

5 minutes worth of wages for the call centre adviser to take the call and make the amendment, a few pieces of paper, an envelope, a bit of ink and the postage charge.

Certainly not more than £5. I would be interested to find out what they wanted.

Please go and learn what the difference is between average and marginal costs.

mikey72

dalesrider wrote: »

Not sure if a ins co could do this.

But as the OP has informed them that he has sold the car. If they then checked who now owned the car.
Could they now revoke/cancel the ins on the basis that the OP has not cancelled after a change of details.
Such as name of registered keeper, address kept at.... And I'm sure they could come up with a few more.

He has informed them.
He wants them to cancel. If they cancel they are finally carrying out his request.

Boberts44

Thanks for the replies so far.
I called to cancel the policy and the fee was significantly more than the remaining monthly costs so I said I would just leave the policy open then. The insurer is telling me I can't and I have to cancel it, but can't seem to say why.
I have informed them that I am no longer the owner and that I don't want to pay more to cancel that I would to have the insurance for another few months.
Just want to be sure I am acting within the law keeping the policy open.

Cheers

Boberts44

They were charging something like £57 + to cancel it btw.
I am happy to have the insurance run to term as long as this is legal

FlameCloud

Boberts44 wrote: »

They were charging something like £57 + to cancel it btw.
I am happy to have the insurance run to term as long as this is legal

The problem is you are looking at this from a purely legal perspective when there are other issues to consider.

If the person you sold the vehicle to fails to take out insurance on it and is involved in an accident, your insurers, under certain circumstances, can be forced to pay for the claim. This is under specific sections of the Road Traffic Act.

The problem for you will come when they then write to you and ask for for a cheque for that amount, in line with your policies conditions. Different insurers will word it differently- for example Direct Lines policy simply says it will recover against you if they ordinarily would not have had to pay the claim, and nothing about driving it without your permission.

I would be suprised if they didnt take the decision out of your hands and simply cancel the policy for you.

lisyloo

He's already tried to cancel.
They refused to accept his cancellation, despite telling him had to, but being unable to quote any legal requirement. So they are aiding him to keep the policy running, and equally guilty.
Also as they know the risk, and the op doesn't, I doubt they could surprise him later. Actually make them 100%, as they haven't advised him of the risk they've decided to take.

And if they wanted to mitigate their losses, they should cancel, then sue for the oustanding fee, rather than leave open the possibility of a large payout.

So this is purely your opinion?
Do you have any leagl training? or experience in the industry?
Do you have a link or a reference to any legal precedents, test cases or legal principles?

Just trying to establish what we have here, which I think may be an untrained opi nion.
You are fully entitled to hold and expres that opinion of course, I'm jsut establishing for the benefit of other what it is.
I believe FlameCloud may have some credentials in the business? and doesn't appear to agree with you.