Joint insurance cancelled.

cariluv1

Hi there,
I hope someone knows the answer to this!
My partner went online and applied for buildings insurance. He had me down as a joint account holder. He was contacted by the insurance company to say that they were voiding his policy as he failed to notify them of a previous claim. (Genuine mistake, he told them about it last year!). Anyway, they cancelled his car insurance too and my question is, am I affected by this by being a joint account holder, even though I'm not the primary account holder and had no part in completing the application? Any advice would be much appreciated.

vaio

As he had previously informed then then I'd suggest a complaint to he insurer with a view to getting both policies reinstated.

Refer to the FOS if they don't play ball

Quentin

Yes you are affected (assuming the cancelled house policy was in joint names) you have a cancelled policy on your record which you will have to disclose to other insurers.

You do need to go all the way to try and get these cancelled policies reinstated.

*Scarlett

So they cancelled the house insurance due to an undeclared claim.

Whilst this can be a genuine error that the claim was not declared, it could be that the insurer would not have taken on the risk if they had known about it. So they can cancel the policy

I assume that it was not a renewal acceptance as he had gone online and taken a new policy so how coud he have told them about it last year?

Home insurers would normally only delve into claims history if there is an issue - they normally take your word that you are giving them the correct details.

What was the claim for?

And why would they have cancelled the car policy? The 2 are totally unrelated. (Unless maybe bankruptcy related).

You can't normally apply yourself for a policy without declaring these cancellations as most insurers will ask about the circumstances of any residents of the property which would include your partner.

cariluv1

We previously had contents insurance with this company and were changing our buildings insurance over to the same company. We therefore declared the claim when applying for contents insurance and as I said, he just made a mistake when filling in the form for buildings insurance. The reason his car insurance was cancelled is because it was through the same company and they stated that their policy was to cancel all insurances through them, if information had been mis-held.

22johnny22

I am not sure why others think they cannot cancel the buildings policy, if as Scarlett correctly says they underwriting criteria would not have insured you from the outset there is no justifiable reason for a complaint

Of course if the proposal form was unclear etc. then this might be a legitimate defence.

As for cancelling the motor policy, I cannot comment.

*Scarlett

So was the claim on buildings or contents?

Normally you declare any claims on each section and if you stated the claim on the contents that does not affect buildings and vice verse (unless you have had 2 or more claims in the last 3 years or maybe a burglary claim within 12 months).

If you feel that they have cancelled the insurance unfairly the you could try

http://financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

What was the previous claim for?

I still fail to understand how thay can cancel a car policy for issues relating to your home insurance.

vaio

*Scarlett wrote: »

........I still fail to understand how thay can cancel a car policy for issues relating to your home insurance.

Presumably they feel that there was dishonesty associated with the house insurance so they are exercising their right to cancel the car insurance as per the T&C.

Having said that, any action by an insurer must pass the "treat the punter fairly" enforced by the FOS and whether they would agreed that cancelling the car because of conduct on the house policy is fair is another matter.

*Scarlett

vaio is right that the insurer can chose to cancel a policy if they have something in t&cs but they do need to treat you "fairly"

House, car, travel, life, etc policies are normally treated separately as regards to claims.