Home insurance nightmare!

Bella2008

My Dad had a leaking pipe once which caused some rot and asked his then insurance if they'd cover it. Someone came out to look but they refused the claim and dad paid himself to fix the damage.

He didn't declare a claim on his next year's quote as he thought there wasn't one. All was fine. This year he went with the AA and they recently wrote to him saying they'd found a claim he hadn't declared and to explain it. He wrote back to explain and sent copies of the refused form saying no claim. Today he got a letter saying sorry he's decided to cancel the insurance and they've sent a refund of the £50.

So I just rang them to explain he didn't want to cancel just a renewed quote with the 'claim' on it, they said be well over £300 now as he's had insurance declined because of not declaring a claim. I said there was no claim, they said well it comes under an 'incident'.

Anyway, we did find one on go compare for £145, we spoke to them and explained about the incident and they were fine.

But now I guess for the rest of his life he'll have to declare that he once had insurance refused, which will cause problems! How annoying! Will this 'incident' and refusal always be on his record now?

rs65

Bella2008 wrote: »

Today he got a letter saying sorry he's decided to cancel the insurance and they've sent a refund of the £50.

Sounds like he cancelled - not them.

Bella2008

No he didn't cancel, he sent (well I did) an explanation about what happened. The reason they cancelled it was because whichever insurance they use refused it upon finding out about the 'incident'. No idea why they sent a letter saying that dad had cancelled it, the bloke on the phone didn't seem to know either.

InsideInsurance

Where did he buy the insurance from? Directly from the AA's website? Via an aggregator? Over the phone with the AA?

Bella2008

It was just via a comparison site, gocompare or something.

rs65

Bella2008 wrote: »

No idea why they sent a letter saying that dad had cancelled it

He now has a letter confirming that he cancelled.

Bella2008

Yes I thought that, not sure if it makes any difference though once everything is 'on record' in a database somewhere

Oh well thanks anyway

System

it sounds like her did make a claim but it was refused , just because it was refused doesn't mean it doesn't count.

InsideInsurance

Bella2008 wrote: »

It was just via a comparison site, gocompare or something.

First thing to do is to actually check where he did the quote and how the AA site appears when you are transferred through. Insurers/ brokers have to be better at wording questions now since the rules changed. The vaguer the questions and the associated help text the more chance you have of arguing it.

Secondly, assuming they do accept that it was unintentional rather than fraud they should not cancel the policy unless the insurer they placed the business with would not have taken on the risk had they known about the claim. Unfortunately you cannot know this for certain yourself but the AA should honestly tell you and the FOS would ask them to do the same if it gets to that.

The sensible approach would be to complain and argue that this was an innocent misunderstanding and as such a cancellation is unreasonable and that if they do not resolve the matter you will take it to the FOS. Its up to you to decide if the resolution should be the original policy reinstated but admittedly with a slightly higher premium due to the claim or if its simply that the cancellation is removed from your record and the premiums of the new policy adjusted to reflect this.

The risky approach would be to buy elsewhere, declaring the claim but not the cancellation. If a future insurer questions the fact that the AA voided his prior policy then you use the letter he has to "prove" that he cancelled it not the AA. I wouldnt do this but clearly some others here are suggesting it