Automatic renewal, quote never recieved

1886

Hi,

My house insurance expired recently and the company I was with did'nt send a renewal quote to me. In their terms and conditions it states that they will do so at least 21 days beforehand.

The first I knew that it had expired was when they sent me an email saying that they had been unable to take payment. My bank details have changed. I'm glad they were'nt able to take payment as I had'nt seen the quote.

I then began to get emails and texts telling me I had to pay a £35 non renewal payment fee so I emailed them to make them aware that I had never been sent an email or letter with the renewal quote as stated in their own T&C's.
When they replied the basically ignored this and just gave me a list of times and dates when they had sent texts telling me I owed them money.

I find it strange that they can't tell me when or how the renewal was sent out but they know the exact time everything else was sent. I just renewed my car insurance and the Co-Op sent me my renewal quote by email and post four weeks beforehand.

I've now been told that they handed the debt to a recovery agency. I don't know what the next step to do is as I've already contacted the insurance company and they basically did'nt want to know and swerved the question when asked how and when they sent out the renewal quote.


Thanks

chanz4

raise a complaint

dunstonh

If you arranged alternative insurance to be in place from the renewal date then you are in a strong position. If you haven't, your position is weakened. Did you have cover in place elsewhere?

*Scarlett

I agree with the above. If you have taken a policy with another insurer then you will have proof of dual insurance and the company may refund the fees.

When you took the policy originally they should have told you that it would renew automatically and stated this in the policy docs that they sent you.

1886

In the terms & conditions it does state that the policy will automatically renew but, it also states that you will be contacted at least 21 days beforehand. This did'nt happen. I have never received a renewal quote.

Because I had changed my bank details from when I originally took out the policy it meant that they were not able to automatically renew the policy. I'm glad this is the case as without seeing the renewal quote it may have been higher than I could have got elsewhere.

They have'nt taken any payment off me as they have'nt got my new bank details.

I'm usually really good with dates for car insurance, MOT etc but I had forgotten the house insurance was up for renewal soon. This is why companies pre warn you but on this occasion it did'nt happen.

I took out insurance with another company as soon as I found out mine had expired. I did'nt want to start a new policy with this company as I did'nt like the way they were going about their business i.e not contacting me beforehand even though they say they will then demanding a non payment fee.

The only thing that concerns me slightly in the fact that although they have broken their own T&C's they have now given my details to a debt recovery agency.

I did contact the insurance company to make them aware I had never received a quote but they did'nt want to know. All they said is that they tried to contact me after the policy had expired as they had'nt been able to take a payment for the new policy, the one that I had never received a quote for!

Quentin

This won't go away if you ignore it.

The damage they can do to your credit record may make it worthwhile to pay now under protest then pursue your complaint. (Though they will doubtless say you agreed to autorenew when buying the policy and that they did send a renewal notice)

*Scarlett

You were uninsured for a period of time and if something had happened you could have argued that it was just due to bank issues. Would you not want to have been insured continuously?

On auto renewal most companies will obviously send a renewal letter / email and attempt payment for the new policy.

If the payment is refused they will normally send another letter / email to tell you about this, which the insurer did.

Your policy stated auto renew so it's up to you to tell them to lapse the policy.

It's unlikely that they did not send a renewal but not impossible that it was lost / overlooked.

If you normally have email contact with them surely there should be a record of the email renewal .