Public Liability cancellation

silverback18

I have a Public Liability Insurance Policy, everything is fine with it, no issues, but I needed to increase my cover from £2 million to £5 million, my current insurer said that there under writers do not cover this much for my trade, that is fair enough and I have sourced an insurance that will cover my needs, but when I looked at cancelling my existing policy they said there is a cancellation fee, it works out at about £50.00, no big amount I know, but its the principle, why should I have to pay anything, when they were unable to cover my requirements, it seems they want money at every turn, I have had my policy with them for 3 years, never claimed

Quentin

It's because you take the policy out for a year at a time, and you want to change the goalposts mid term.

Have a moan about it to them and see if they will waive/reduce it, but they are correct in charging it (assuming they mention what happens if you want to cancel in the policy conditions)

silverback18

I fail to see how it will cost them £50, but businesses change during the year, a contractor I started working for required £5 million cover, it is not my fault that this insurance company cannot provide cover for this amount, I would of stayed if they could, they are not a small group either

Quentin

Actually 50 isn't outrageous as a cancellation fee.

And you need to accept that it's you wanting to alter things not your insurer

InsideInsurance

silverback18 wrote: »

I fail to see how it will cost them £50, but businesses change during the year, a contractor I started working for required £5 million cover, it is not my fault that this insurance company cannot provide cover for this amount, I would of stayed if they could, they are not a small group either

You arguably could stay with them and buy an excess policy to sit above the existing one you already have (ie covering £2m-£5m).

As Quentin says, you bought into a 12 month policy with a cancellation charge for early termination. You have decided you want to terminate early and so you cannot really complain about the cancellation cost.

Insurers may have to pay affiliates/ aggregators/ introducers £100 or more which normally is unrecoverable. You want to terminate after 1 month, then you contributing £50 towards their costs is potentially covering less than 50% of their costs

silverback18

Its not a case of I decided to leave, my business requirements changed so my insurance needs changed, they were not able to meet my insurance requirements, but I am the one who is penalised, because they do not have a policy fit for my purpose.
It is not one month, I have had my insurance with them for 3 years.
Anyway in my eyes, all insurance is a con

Quentin

silverback18 wrote: »

my business requirements changed so my insurance needs changed,......

Exactly!

Your requirements changed!!

It isn't the fault of your insurer that you have changed your requirements.

Your insurer will be quite happy to complete the policy year giving you the cover you originally asked for!

Dunno what you expect by way of an answer other than the ones we have tried to give you.

InsideInsurance

silverback18 wrote: »

Its not a case of I decided to leave

You did, ultimately. As I said, if needs be you could have bought an excess policy to layer on top of the primary policy but at this level it probably wouldnt have been cost effective to do this -v- cancelling.


Your requirements changed and your decisions resulted in this change. A policy is, typically, for 12 months. There is never any assurances that an insurer will be willing to accept any and every change you want to make within those 12 months

dacouch

I'm guessing you're a plumber or other trade who uses heat, it's common with plenty of Insurers in this field to only offer cover upto £2m as cover above this upsets their book of business (It's too high risk of a large claim) and they can also have problems with their own reInsurers.

There are many of companies that do not offer any refund if you cancel a Public Liability due to the nature of cover and also tradesmen just taking out cover to get payment of a contract