can car insurence cancel policy withour informing customer

shino

Hi, i need some advice. i purchased car insurence from quote mehappy online, and they gave me acertain date to upload my no claim discount .To cut the long story short. my previous insurer aviva uploaded the NCD to them and sent a copy to my email as a proof.2 days after this email my policy is cancelled by QMH ,reason not providing NCD, and did noy inform me. about 2 weeks after cancelleation i tried to renew my road tax and cam eto know that i hav eno insurence. i purchased a new insurance policy and renewed road tax. i complained to Quote me happy who after almost two months and thretening with Fsa refund me the £53 charge for cancellation. they have not refunded the money deducted for the days they provide cover.They have given me £100 as gesture of good will for offering poor service.They hav ewritten that if in case you were involved in any accident(which never happened) while you were actually driving uninsured then we would have covered you.My griviences are that they made me drive without insurence and exposed me to a long list of risks.Would they have really came to my assistance had i been caught in an accident?--i never believe it. can they cancel a policy and did not inform customer? I want to take them to FSA for this.I know many will say that no harm is done.But have they been disciplined of not doing it to anyone else?

Tilt

Report it to the financial ombudsman.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-insurance.html

Apples2

The FSA don't deal with individual complaints.

There are a lot of dates missing in your post, most notably, did QMH receive theNCD proof within the timescale?

dacouch

Tilt wrote: »

Report it to the financial ombudsman.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-insurance.html

Almost certainly a waste of time, the Insurer agreed they would have and will pay claims (Third parties have upto six years to claim)

The Insurer have refunded the cancellation fee and given £100 compensation which is probably more than the Ombudsman would agree to. It will take the Ombudsman many many months to come to a decision

shino

Thankyou everyone for your time and replies.For Apples2, my NCD was uploaded to them within the timescale,an email proof was sent to me by aviva ,including a copy to QMH. I forwarded that email to them in my complaint after which they refunded the £53 charge.They ommit adressing the bad service bit of my complaint.At a later stage they gave £100.My query is do insurence companies have to follow any code of practice in dealing with customer? Such as informing customer about cancelling their policy.Because I beleive that I am not the only one whom they kept uninformed.There may be someone out there who will realise it when they will be stopped by police or worse still involve in an accident. As Far as FSA is concerned they do listen to individual complaints when i took my bank LLoyds to them .QMH has also written in there letter to me that if I am not happy with the outcome then I can contact their CEO or FSA

dacouch

shino wrote: »

Thankyou everyone for your time and replies.For Apples2, my NCD was uploaded to them within the timescale,an email proof was sent to me by aviva ,including a copy to QMH. I forwarded that email to them in my complaint after which they refunded the £53 charge.They ommit adressing the bad service bit of my complaint.At a later stage they gave £100.My query is do insurence companies have to follow any code of practice in dealing with customer? Such as informing customer about cancelling their policy.Because I beleive that I am not the only one whom they kept uninformed.There may be someone out there who will realise it when they will be stopped by police or worse still involve in an accident. As Far as FSA is concerned they do listen to individual complaints when i took my bank LLoyds to them .QMH has also written in there letter to me that if I am not happy with the outcome then I can contact their CEO or FSA

"We (or any agent we appoint and who acts with our specific
authority) may cancel this policy by sending 7 days notice
to your last known address. You will be entitled to a refund
of premium paid, calculated on a pro-rata basis for the period for
which you received cover. "

http://www.quotemehappy.com/portals/0/docs/carinsurancepolicy.pdf page 28.

QMH have confirmed to you in writing you would be covered should there be an accident. They would also confirm the same to the police which will be sufficient for the police.

Someone else in the same position may have to go through the same process as you to get them to admit it. QMH should and would be liable for consequential losses due to their error.

I think they've told you you can contact their CEO or the FSO (The Financial Services Ombudsman)

What are the long list of risks that they exposed you to?

Lum

Aren't QMH part of the Aviva group anyway?

The NCD fiasco is very widespread, there is a massive thread about it on this forum somewhere. Your situation certainly is not unique.

If they cancelled the policy without writing to you, that is a very worrying development. Personally I'd argue that doing so is a criminal offence (Causing or permitting driving without insurance) but I'm not a lawyer and I'd be reluctant to go down that road as it would involve telling the police that you have been driving without insurance.

dacouch

Lum wrote: »

Aren't QMH part of the Aviva group anyway?

The NCD fiasco is very widespread, there is a massive thread about it on this forum somewhere. Your situation certainly is not unique.

If they cancelled the policy without writing to you, that is a very worrying development. Personally I'd argue that doing so is a criminal offence (Causing or permitting driving without insurance) but I'm not a lawyer and I'd be reluctant to go down that road as it would involve telling the police that you have been driving without insurance.

How can it be a criminal offence when Aviva as an Authorised Insurer can agree to indemnify the customer after cancellation as they have agreed to do in this situation.

The OP can report Aviva to the police if she desires, the Police are aware that an Authorised Insurer can issue a "Letter of Indemnity" which is not a certificate but a letter agreeing to pay claims.

They've made a mistake, they eventually corrected it, paid compensation and agreed to cover claims during the uninsured period. There's not a lot more they can do to rectify the mistake.

If Aviva are making the same mistake on a regular basis, the FSA may be interested and seek to ensure steps are taken to rectify it and / or fine them.

Lum

I meant if they didn't do that and just cancelled the policy without informing them and refused to pay out any claims. I did also state that it was a personal, not a legal, position.

And yes QMH are making the same mistake, that of losing uploaded NCB proofs and then cancelling policies, on a regular basis. The fact that in this case it was transferred from their parent company, Aviva, just makes it even more ridiculous.

The OP is very lucky that their road tax ran out shortly after their insurance renewal. Mine runs out 6 months after my insurance renewal so were it me in this position I could have ended up driving uninsured for 6 months, although I do check askmib.com from time to time to try and avoid this.

dacouch

Lum wrote: »

I meant if they didn't do that and just cancelled the policy without informing them and refused to pay out any claims. I did also state that it was a personal, not a legal, position.

And yes QMH are making the same mistake, that of losing uploaded NCB proofs and then cancelling policies, on a regular basis. The fact that in this case it was transferred from their parent company, Aviva, just makes it even more ridiculous.

The OP is very lucky that their road tax ran out shortly after their insurance renewal. Mine runs out 6 months after my insurance renewal so were it me in this position I could have ended up driving uninsured for 6 months, although I do check askmib.com from time to time to try and avoid this.

The QMH Policy which is a contract, states they cannot cancel without sending a letter to the customers last known address giving seven days notice. I provided the quote and link from the policy in an earlier post.

Without the notice to the last known address as has happened in the OPs case the policy cannot be cancelled so the Insurers is bound by the contract (Policy).

It would not have mattered if the OP's road tax ran out six months later as in your case as QMH would have still had to honour claims (As they confirmed to the OP in writing) and confirm cover to the police. In fact you would probably have been better off as you would may have ended up with six months insurance for free

Lum

That may eventually happen, but what could happen first is you'll get pulled over after flagging up on ANPR, have your car seized, be left at the side of the road and then have to pay an extortionate recovery fee.

Sure it may all get sorted out later but I'd still rather not go through all that. Knowing my luck it would happen while a long way from home at the start of a holiday or something.