Car insurance issue

Zozo23

Hello

Sorry in advance for the wall of text!!!!!

I need some major advice for my sister and me. We bought a new car in October last year. On the 28th of January the car was stolen off our drive way. We took all the necessary steps and started a claim with the insurance company. To cut a long story short, the insurance company have refused to pay out on the grounds of fronting.

I am well aware of what fronting is and to be fully honest we have not done anything wrong. The insurance company has said that it is a breach of goodwill/trust. My sister is 31 and i am 25, ever since I passed my driving test I have been insured with my sister on our old vehicle. However when we were on insured on that vehicle (fiat punto) my sister used to pay for the insurance, i used to pay my half via bank transfer to her. That old vehicle was on its last legs so we decided to purchase a new one (fiesta - stolen vehicle).

When we purchased the car i paid for the vehicle from my bank account. (we had both been saving up for a number of years prior to the purchase). We have provided all the proof they have asked for and they just seem to be dragging the whole thing on. Only difference this time around is i was paying the monthly instalments as i do on-line banking and have access to my account all the time (sister was not to good with her finances). Once again this has all been explained to the insurance company and they just seem to ignore the answers we give. On top of all this we have had to go back to our old vehicle (punto) after numerous repairs/fixes (alot of money) we have had to take out a new policy with another insurer and i am still paying the monthly instalments.

We have in no way changed the way we use the vehicle in all honesty we are both at work during the week (commute by train) and if when we do use it she does it most of the time 70/30 split i would say.

My sister spoke to them today as the last correspondence we had from them was asking for the account number of the person who purchased the vehicle which was the first question they asked when we started the claim. After questioning why they need to see this again they said its because of verification purposes, which to me just basically spells bull****.

Now as we have never had to deal with anything like this before we just want to know where we stand in regards to this situation. Many people have said you should take them to the ombudsman or if not them, then court.

We truthfully don't know what to do. Its just a real pain as its been going on for such a long time and to still be at square one without any conclusion.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

spacey2012

Have you had or had another vehicle registered in your name whilst this policy was in force, did you have insurance on this vehicle if that is the case .

PS whos name is this policy in and who is the registered keeper and who is named as a driver.

Zozo23

I've never had another vehicle registered in my name. Its always been with my sister. She was the policy holder on the punto and on the fiesta. She was also the registered owner on both. I just get the feeling that they are trying to ping everything on me.

Furthermore they voided the policy on these grounds and sent out a cheque in my sisters name of the instalments.

Hope that helps!

rs65

So, the younger sister paid for the car and was paying the premium.

The older sister took out the policy in her name. That does sound like fronting.

Do you have a bank statement showing her half of the car being paid to you? Can you prove her paying half of the premiums to you?

You said you sent them all the proof they asked for - what was that?

Has the void policy been declared to the new insurers?

Zozo23

To answer your questions yes I (the brother) did pay for the vehicle (as my sister was at work but we both had chosen the car beforehand) and the premium was going out of my account because of the reason stated before. She was paying the running costs and so on.

The bank statements that i have sent them show various amounts of cash deposits into my account on various dates. She is still paying me even though we do not have the car as it is an understanding between two siblings.

We have been very truthful to the insurers and have nothing to hide as mentioned before. The proof they asked for was proof of purchase, account numbers, statements, etc.

My sister did take out the policy as its her vehicle, but as mentioned before, we had been planning this from a very long time to simply replace our older vehicle except with me paying the monthly premium to make life easier (or so i thought).

Just a question for my own reference if say for example a parent buys their child a car and pays the premium but the vehicle is in child's name is that fronting? it just seems to me that they are looking at any little excuse not to pay out and we want to challenge them in the right way thus me trying to find out from people on this forum!

Thanks

airtool

Rs65 where did you get two sisters from ?
"Quote"
We bought a new car
My sister is 31 and i am 25
when we do use it she does it most of the time 70/30 split
Its always been with my sister. She was the policy holder on the punto and on the fiesta
She was also the registered owner on both.

What Zozo23 is saying is EVERYTHING is in his sisters name except payments which are through his bank account because only he has online banking to make payments.
I can only suggest the insurance ombudsman, and prove that your details have not changed from first car to last, thus no deception on this policy.

rs65

Zozo23 wrote: »

My sister did take out the policy as its her vehicle, but as mentioned before, we had been planning this from a very long time to simply replace our older vehicle except with me paying the monthly premium to make life easier (or so i thought).

You can understand the insurers concern.

You question about the parents etc - fronting is all about how the insurance is arranged.

forgotmyname

When a parent buys a child a car they should not name themselves as the main driver. That avoids the fronting issue.

Do you live at the same address? Where was the car stolen from? Whose address?

rs65

airtool wrote: »

Rs65 where did you get two sisters from ?
"Quote"
We bought a new car
My sister is 31 and i am 25
when we do use it she does it most of the time 70/30 split
Its always been with my sister. She was the policy holder on the punto and on the fiesta
She was also the registered owner on both.

What Zozo23 is saying is EVERYTHING is in his sisters name except payments which are through his bank account because only he has online banking to make payments.
I can only suggest the insurance ombudsman, and prove that your details have not changed from first car to last, thus no deception on this policy.

I had it in my mind that that they were both female. Being male makes it worse as the premium would likely have been more expensive for a younger male.

The purchase transaction was also in his name.

You don't need online banking to pay a direct debit as proven by her previously paying for the insurance.

Proving nothing has changed doesn't mean that it was arranged correctly. Could prove it has been arranged incorrectly all the time.

Zozo23

As I've said before nothing has changed in terms of using the car it was just the monthly premium coming from me.

We do both live at the same address and it was stolen from the same.

The issue now is that they want to see the final amount coming out of my account which I gave to them at the first time of asking. They have been beating around the bush in regards to coming to a conclusion. As I've mentioned we have nothing to hide, we just wanted some advice on what to do if they still end up saying no after appealing the original decision.

airtool

ZOZO23 states that the sister is the fiesta legal owner and also the policy named main driver.
Where the payments are coming from is totally irrelevant unless they can prove that she was not the actual physical main driver?.And how they would go about proving that if they lived close to one another i just do not know since both were named to drive the vehicle on the policy .