Driving with no insurance

rs65

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

The original e-mail sent to the company makes it 100% clear to me that OP had asked the policy to be cancelled.

Maybe so but that is irrelevant now. The insurers have accepted it wasn't a cancellation. I think she has been lucky to get the indemnity but she has it now so should push for 100%. Doesn't cost anything to go to the FOS.

Mike0408

This is her email, it's very bad and I don't think it gives her a leg to stand on. I think It is going to hinge on wether it is reasonable that she wasn't given notice of either the cancellation, or the charges they levied without notice. I'm not trying to say she didn't do it , she did, she made a huge mistake and there is no doubt about that. I'm looking for any tiny little thing that may help her that's all.

Hello, i am looking to cancel my car insurance with you, I currently have policy ref *****.

My reasons for wishing to cancel are based on current research. I am about to start a new job so therefore need to adjust my insurance to meet that. The adjustments will be adding 1000 miles annually, changing my occupation to check in services at an airport, taking my additional drivers off the insurance and including commuting in my insurance which has reduced my annual fee by up to £800 with numerous other companies, however when i have looked at go girl it has increased by around £70.
Regards

That is her e mail.
The Ombudsman will either side with her or the insurance company - that is a 50% chance is it not?[/QUOTE]

As in the post above, the insurance have accepted it was their fault and it WAS NOT a calculation.

The part of the email saying ''i am looking to cancel'' is not her saying she want to cancel, just her informing them she is THINKING about it.

Also the way the e-mail was worded is against the terms and conditions of cancellation of insurance, mainly because their was NO DATE given when she would have liked the insurance to stop, so they should not have accepted that as a cancellation, they should have emailed her back with the proper way to cancel.

dacouch

Mike0408 wrote: »

This is her email, it's very bad and I don't think it gives her a leg to stand on. I think It is going to hinge on wether it is reasonable that she wasn't given notice of either the cancellation, or the charges they levied without notice. I'm not trying to say she didn't do it , she did, she made a huge mistake and there is no doubt about that. I'm looking for any tiny little thing that may help her that's all.

Hello, i am looking to cancel my car insurance with you, I currently have policy ref *****.

My reasons for wishing to cancel are based on current research. I am about to start a new job so therefore need to adjust my insurance to meet that. The adjustments will be adding 1000 miles annually, changing my occupation to check in services at an airport, taking my additional drivers off the insurance and including commuting in my insurance which has reduced my annual fee by up to £800 with numerous other companies, however when i have looked at go girl it has increased by around £70.
Regards

That is her e mail.
The Ombudsman will either side with her or the insurance company - that is a 50% chance is it not?

As in the post above, the insurance have accepted it was their fault and it WAS NOT a calculation.

The part of the email saying ''i am looking to cancel'' is not her saying she want to cancel, just her informing them she is THINKING about it.

Also the way the e-mail was worded is against the terms and conditions of cancellation of insurance, mainly because their was NO DATE given when she would have liked the insurance to stop, so they should not have accepted that as a cancellation, they should have emailed her back with the proper way to cancel.[/QUOTE]

If the customer cancels their own policy, the Insurers is under no obligation to advise the customer they've cancelled the policy.

The cancellation costs are outlined within the policy booklet and / or the terms of business so there is no need for the Insurer to advise the customer of the charges to be levied.

Quentin

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

.....I'm I'm looking for any tiny little thing that may help her that's all......



.....The Ombudsman will either side with her or the insurance company - that is a 50% chance is it not?

You don't seem to have spotted the Big Thing here, and are actually unneccessarily scaremongering!

Big Thing:

From the insurer, and in writing:

"We are satisfied that you did not request cancellation..."

And your nonsense way of calculating the odds based purely on there being 2 possible outcomes is far from helpful!

(By your reasoning, you would say every time I go to start the car there is a 50% chance the battery will be flat, as it either will be or won't be!)

In this case the insurer's actions (which they accept were wrong) has caused recoverable costs to the policyholder (as well as stress).

Their offer to pay just a gesture to the policyholder is a try on!

vaio

good (if expected) result.

Now they have admitted they shouldn't have cancelled the policy what possible reason can there be for them not picking up all the resulting costs? Answer, none whatsoever

Get on to the FOS on Monday, don't worry about them withdrawing the "goodwill" offer of £100, I'd be asking for all the costs, (impound costs, any additional insurance costs, incidental travelling etc etc) and I'd be surprised if you didn't get all those plus £100 for the hassle, stress & inconvenience.

sithemadmonkey

Mike0408 wrote: »

financial ombudsman service do win ALLOT of cases against insurance companies (just look at watchdog) i think they win about 95% of cases against insurance companies.

It was actually 47% of cases for motor insurance in 2013 (see here for more info - it's broadly similar for other insurance types). FOS don't 'win' or 'lose' cases as they are an independent adjudicator - they seek the fairest outcome given the circumstances.

Having said that, I think it's clear to most (including the insurer, judging by their response) that the 'fairest' outcome in this situation is to find in favour of OP's daughter and tell the insurer to reimburse all costs involved.

OP, I would without doubt go to FOS, make clear that the insurer has already accepted their mistake and that they are not reimbursing you for all costs incurred (that is the crux of your complaint to FOS). Expect it to take a while, but at least you'll know that just going to FOS will cost the insurer over £500 in FOS fees alone...

jo-lo123

Thanks for all the responses, whilst I realize that the insurance company maybe did not have to inform us of the cancellation, the original email was not compliant with their own tems and conditions on two points 1) because it made no mention of the intention to return the motor insurance certificate (which must be returned in accordance with the motor vehicles order 2010, and 2) because you are required to acknowledge that the policy ceases to be effective from a particular date and time. I think they realise that there should have been some sort of communication to clarify what we actually wanted to do, but as mentioned above this is all irrelevant now as they have stated that they are satisfied the email was not a cancellation.
I think we will probably sent a letter to the insurance company to say we do not accept and will contact the fos.

spacey2012

The reason for the reinstatement is they failed to serve correct 7 day notice by post.
No other reason or goodwill.
The police will ignore this and hope you buckle not wanting to go to court, once the FPN is paid, you have no right to appeal.
They will IMO, keep chucking it out in hope you give in, they have nothing to lose by doing so, they are keen to protect the result.


The issues need to be separated, the no insurance prosecution and the complaint.
Separate them and keep them wide apart.
Prepare for a magistrates court case and appeal to higher court as magistrates can ignore case law and often side with police so be prepared to appeal to a court that must follow the law.
IMO the police will report and await what plea is entered and what disclosure the defence presents, the CPS may step in and offer no evidence at hearing level.

dacouch

spacey2012 wrote: »

The reason for the reinstatement is they failed to serve correct 7 day notice by post.

The Insurer does not need to serve a 7 day notice by post to cancel the Insurance if the customer has cancelled the Insurance.

The Insurers appear to have acted incorrectly by miss reading the email the daughter sent. Had the email specified a date the Insurer would not need to serve a 7 day notice. There are methods of ensuring the RTA element is cancelled and the 7 day letter is not required

jo-lo123

The arresting officer consistently does not ring us back and we are unable to contact him. No one else at the police station will discuss it with my daughter as they say he has all the information and he will decide what happens. We have had nothing from them apart from the slip of paper he gave her when he took her car. She needs to reinsure her car which has been off the road since the event. Does she actually have a pending prosecution or not? We asked the police but they say there is nothing on the system and only the arresting officer will be able to answer queries about the case. We don't want to get into more trouble by not declaring something but we are unable to find out if there actually is a pending prosecution or not. The cost of her insurance will obviously be massively increased if she has.
Does she need to declare to the insurance that she has a pending prosecution? And any advice about how to get any sense out of the police. She is unable to do her job if she cannot put her car on the road.