Insurance policy cancelled following claim. In desperate need of legal advice

yani2k9

INSURANCE CANCELLED FOLLOWING CLAIM

Hello guys!

I've found myself in a bit of a conundrum with my insurance company, and desperately need some advice. Please bear with me as it's a pretty long story - I will try to explain it the best as I could.

Over 2 and a half months ago, on 12th May 2013, I was involved in a car accident, about two weeks after I purchased the car. I was fully insured with a comprehensive policy provided by Eco Insurance (Co-Operative) with my father as the policy holder and myself as an additional driver.

The insurance companies and the police concluded that the accident was my fault so I was viable for all damages. At the time, this was horrible news but at least all parties were insured and we thought all would be ok.

Rang up the insurance company to file the claim, they decided the car is to be written off and collected it within a couple of days, and everything seemed to be running smoothly.

Two days later we received from Eco Insurance asking us to explain why we declared my father as the registered keeper of the vehicle, when in fact the car was under my name. We responded immediately and explained the situation as follows: The 'new owner' part of the V5 document was filled out by the seller of the vehicle, who mistakenly entered my details for new owner, as I was the one handing over the cash to him. Also, the insurance policy documents and the new log book arrived after the accident took place, so we were unaware of these discrepancies. After we responded to this concern, the issue was never raised until 2 months after.

After this, we spoke to the insurance company on several occasions to ensure that the claim is moving forward normally, and whether they needed any additional information. On two separate occasions when speaking to the claims department, we were reassured that everything was fine and that the value of the car will be paid out to us within a week, providing that we send evidence of financial interesticon in the cars (i.e. bank statement and sales contract). We reacted immediately and sent the required evidence on the next day. This was on the 14th July.

Four days later, on the 18th July, we received the most disturbing letter yet. "In view of your failure to correctly respond to the question/assumption regarding registered keeper of the Seat Ibiza, we must treat this insurance as void from the inception date of 30th April 2013." So in essence, the entire situation is now being treated as me being uninsured and I've become viable for all 3rd party claims (including a claim injury filed by my best friend, who was a passenger in my car and got injured).

I feel that this decision made by the insurer is completely unjustified, and unethical to say the least. We responded to all their queries, provided all the information they required, paid all monthly instalments diligently, cooperated with all their instructions, and now they're clinging on to the most pathetic reason as an excuse to cancel the policy and refuse liability. Simply a small discrepancy/technicality which wasn't even intentional.

For a whole week we were on the phone to Eco Insurance, trying to resolve this but all we got from the other end were arrogant customer service advisors (and supervisors), barking quotes from their terms and conditions, with absolutely no desire to help. They just wanted to get rid of us, even if the manner they did it in was completely unwarranted and immoral. We tried to rationalise with them and explain that who the car is registered to had absolutely no impact on the insurance nor the claim but it is very difficult to reason with people just plain simply do not care. We are literally being bullied into accepting liability for something that the insurer should be responsible for, and whatever we say to them is being rejected.

We have no idea what to do. We don't have the financial means to be able to afford a solicitor to handle the case, and we sure as hell can't afford to pay for the 3rd party claims, which I imagine would be in the thousands.

If anyone has previous experience with similar situations, and/or is competent with the laws surrounding motor insurance providers, I would really really appreciate some advise - this is our last hope!

I appreciate you reading the entire description, and I wish you a good day!

Many thanks in advance!

dacouch

Whose bank account do the bank statements show the money to buy the car coming from?

Does your father have another car?

Did you pass your test in April / May this year?

What make and model car is it?

yani2k9

dacouch wrote: »

Whose bank account do the bank statements show the money to buy the car coming from?

Does your father have another car?

Did you pass your test in April / May this year?

What make and model car is it?

Thanks for your response, dacouch!

The money came out of my account for the most part, some of it was in cash and about 500 of it was a loan from my brother. The car was intended to be mine, but putting me down as the registered keeper was a genuine mistake.

My father does have another car indeed, which is insured with a different company.

Nope, I have had my license for almost 8 years now.

Did you mean the make and model of the car which was written off, or my father's car?

Many thanks!

dacouch

yani2k9 wrote: »

Thanks for your response, dacouch!

The money came out of my account for the most part, some of it was in cash and about 500 of it was a loan from my brother. The car was intended to be mine, but putting me down as the registered keeper was a genuine mistake.

My father does have another car indeed, which is insured with a different company.

Nope, I have had my license for almost 8 years now.

Did you mean the make and model of the car which was written off, or my father's car?

Many thanks!

You paying for the car is a recognised sign of "fronting" for obvious reasons, if you add in the fact your father has another car it makes it even more suspicious to an Insurer.

What were you using the car for at the time of the accident eg shopping, social or work?

wealdroam

yani2k9 wrote: »

The car was intended to be mine, but putting me down as the registered keeper was a genuine mistake.

This will be your downfall.

If the car is yours, why was it a mistake for you to be listed as the registered keeper?

yani2k9

Thanks for your contribution guys!

dacouch wrote: »

You paying for the car is a recognised sign of "fronting" for obvious reasons, if you add in the fact your father has another car it makes it even more suspicious to an Insurer.

What were you using the car for at the time of the accident eg shopping, social or work?

It was around midday on Sunday and I was just dropping a friend back to his house.

wealdroam wrote: »

This will be your downfall.

If the car is yours, why was it a mistake for you to be listed as the registered keeper?

I paid for the car with my own funds, but ideally wanted to have it registered under my father's name, so he could be the policy holder as he had quite a few years of NCB which made it considerably cheaper.

In hindsight it was obviously a mistake, but due to the negligence of ourselves and the seller, the wrong keeper was recorder on the logbook. And we had no idea until after the accident because that's when the paperwork arrived (logbook and insurance policy).

vaio

yani2k9 wrote: »

.........I paid for the car with my own funds, but ideally wanted to have it registered under my father's name, so he could be the policy holder as he had quite a few years of NCB which made it considerably cheaper.

In hindsight it was obviously a mistake, but due to the negligence of ourselves and the seller, the wrong keeper was recorder on the logbook. And we had no idea until after the accident because that's when the paperwork arrived (logbook and insurance policy).

To summarise...you bought the car, insured it in dads name and have come unstuck because the V5 is in your name. If dad's NCB is already in use on his other car then you'll have the full set

Who is declared as the main driver? You or Dad?

zenmaster

It's certainly a mistake - a BIG one.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with who the registered keeper is but everything to do with who the main driver is.

You have declared to the insurance company that your Dad is the main driver when it's quite apparent that he is not.

It's called Fronting and it is illegal as it is a form of fraud.

As the linked article states, many people (and you appear to be one of them) do not know this but ignorance of the law is no excuse.

I hope that you can resolve the situation, but it's not looking good.

ging84

You are in deep deep trouble, if this was genuinely not fronting, i feel bad for you, well your father really.
What is likely to happen is, the insurer will pay out to the 3rd parties.
The insurer will possibly pursue the policy holder to recover what they can of these costs.
Bottom line is, the policy holder is you father, if he owns a house or has life savings, in an extreme case these could be at risk.
You need to look for some sources of professional advice, if you really can't get a solicitor, Citizens Advice would be the place to go.
Stop posting about it on the internet, delete this post or edit out the insurance company details, the date and the vehicle details. You've already given them enough details to pin this post to your claim and pretty much admitted to fronting

rs65

yani2k9 wrote: »

I paid for the car with my own funds, but ideally wanted to have it registered under my father's name, so he could be the policy holder as he had quite a few years of NCB which made it considerably cheaper.

Thats the important bit. Clearly fronting.

You need to seek legal advice as you are likely to end up having to pay the other parties losses yourself.

arcon5

This is well and truly going to come back and bit you and your dad in the ar5e!

You and him now need to declare you've had a policy cancelled on all future policies - this will add significantly to the cost of insurance!!!