can insurers penalise you for not disclosing speeding offences?

hmk_2

Ive just been involved in an accident which wrote off my citroen Xsara.Directline Insurance valued it at £3050 and asked me to send mine and my partners(who is a named driver) driving licenses. They now want to penalise me a £1000 for not having disclosed speeding offences (SP30). Can they do that? Has anybody experienced this before. Can anybody suggest what I should do??
I dont recall anything in their paperwork re this penalty and when questioned how they worked out the fine they didnt have a clue except I have to take it up with their underwriting dept. I thought you only had to disclose motoring offences excluding speeding offences.

Keith

All offences must be disclosed. As you have failed to disclose a motoring offence you are lucky to find that they have not declared your policy null & void.

I'm not familiar with not declaring on Insurance but I can only assume that their "penalty" is the difference between your policy and one with the points disclosed.

louidog

Having recently been on a speed awareness course after being caught driving over the speed limit :rolleyes: we were advised that you must always tell your insurers of any points gained or indeed speed awareness courses you have attended. Failure to do so can and will more often than not invalidate your insurance.
Most companies do not want to know about speed courses but it's best to let them know anyway!

nemo183

Your problem is that of not telling them - wrong, big time.

Their problem is that if you had told them, I doubt your premium would have increased by £1000.

My 3 (disclosed) SP30 points haven't affected my premium by a penny.

Hermione54

Frankly you are lucky that they didn't just refuse to pay out anything.

sideshow_matt

Hermione54 wrote: »

Frankly you are lucky that they didn't just refuse to pay out anything.

Totally agree with that. You have technically committed fraud, and they are well within their rights to void your insurance. Take the £1k hit and take it as a lesson learned.

ben500

You've got off lightly, they are quite within their rights to void your policy AND claim back any monies paid out during the period fraudulently covered, ie between obtaining the points and them becoming aware of them.

brazilianwax

hmk wrote: »

I thought you only had to disclose motoring offences excluding speeding offences.

Why would you think that an insurance company wouldn't be interested in speeding offences???

Somerset

Do you have to ring your insurers and tell them that you've acquired additional point ?

brazilianwax

Somerset wrote: »

Do you have to ring your insurers and tell them that you've acquired additional point ?

Check your documents. Some want to know immediately, others on renewal.

vaio

ben500 wrote: »

You've got off lightly, they are quite within their rights to void your policy AND claim back any monies paid out during the period fraudulently covered, ie between obtaining the points and them becoming aware of them.

and by the same logic presumably they would also have to refund your premiums as if you aren’t insured they can’t charge you