Car impounded. I was unaware insurance had been cancelled by RAC.

Joe_Horner

spacey2012 wrote: »

Insurers have to give a 7 day notice of cancellation.
When you receive a served 7 day notice by post, only one assumption must be made.
That it is valid, your insurance will be cancelled on the 7th day unless you are issued with another written notice to the contrary.

Which an email confirming "no further action required" is.

The RTA was updated several years ago to specifically allow electronic transmission of insurance related documents, which is why the post Office now has to accept emailed-and-printed certificates.

TrickyWicky

Joe_Horner wrote: »

It's unlawful to backdate, but that's not quite the same as re-instating a policy that's been cancelled in error.

In this case the argument would be that, regardless of whether or not they'd recorded it as cancelled (by removing it from the MIB), it was actually still in force and their record of the cancellation was in error.

Yes but to reinstate it through error, you're assuming that they will accept they made an error. Many insurers will not.

As for reinstating, it's not going to happen just to get the op off the hook. The point is at that time, they had cancelled the ops policy and the op was driving uninsured - with or without knowledge that is still illegal. Had there have been a claim at that time... things would have got very nasty. You can't suddenly back track months later (especially after a prosecution) and decide "No it's ok, we'll reinstate it". The police and legal system don't work like that. If it did, it would be corrupt and basically doing what big business demands.

I was in a nasty situation like this a while back. The insurers eventually sent me a certificate to show I was insured.. with the wrong registration mark and it expired before it even started lol.

spacey2012

It would depend what "no further action" referred to.
If a notice specifically re-instating the insurance was not issued, then the grey area gap falls against the OP.
An absolutes ***** trick, agreed 100%
But thats cheap insurance for you.
It is going to be a long fight, involving lots of players.
Could go either way if reasonable doubt exists, will need a good paid for solicitor to argue for reasonable doubt the certificate issued was still in-force.
A good lesson for everyone reading .
If the cancellation notice comes in writing, then the reinstatement notice needs to come by the same method.
Until it does, the "served notice" takes precedent.
They are talking about allowing service of legal notices by e-mail, but it is a long way off.
I would advise print/ copy everything in triplicate and use the free hour at solicitors until you find one who says right, lets fight.

Joe_Horner

TrickyWicky wrote: »

The point is at that time, they had cancelled the ops policy and the op was driving uninsured - with or without knowledge that is still illegal. Had there have been a claim at that time... things would have got very nasty.

Except that, if the cancellation was unlawful then the Op was insured and any accident would have been overed.

I agree that it would get very messy indeed to sort out, and the OP would likely end up with a conviction quicker than the contractural matter of the insurance was sorted, and would then have to try to get the conviction overturned (and removed from all those databases that would show it and affect things in future).

My (personal) opinion is that the email would (eventually) be found to have superceded the letter but they're unlikely to throw their hands up and accept that without a lot of pressure. Spacey's right that the important thing is to get a competent solicitor involved now rather than trying to argue the case with them and only getting representation when things have moved on down that road!


eta: Consider that "no further action" would presumably include "no need to send your certificate back" (a further action). That is a legal requirement under the RTA when a policy is cancelled, so the insurers aren't allowed to waive it. Ergo, if they no longer wanted the certificate returned, the insurance wasn't cancelled.