Diamond to cancel insurance policy?

emskyxx

Hi, I posted on here a few days ago about crashing my car after 5 days of owning it.

I made a claim with my insurance Diamond and whilst I'm yet to hear from them, I spoke to the garage yesterday who said its looking extremely likely that it'll be written off.

Having a look through my policy documents over the weekend I found this point:

Should your car be stolen and/or deemed a total loss, we will cancel your policy without prior notice by writing to your last known address. We may deduct any outstanding premium and charges owed from any claim settlement we make to you. If your car is a total loss please refer to General Condition 10.

10 Total loss of your car
If your car is a total loss, all cover including the driving of other cars extension, if applicable, is cancelled for you and any other drivers on the policy. Once we make a payment to you, your car will become our property. We will deduct any outstanding premium and charges owed from any claim settlement we make to you.

So does that mean that they'll pay out for the car but then I won't be able to transfer a new car onto the policy.
I find this extremely frustrating as I paid over £900 for the insurance and wouldn't be in a position to pay for a new car and insurance.

Having a look around online I found this point on the Financial Ombudsman website:

17. outstanding premium instalments or premium refunds

Most motor insurance policies are yearly contracts – so the full premium is payable even if the vehicle is written off during the year. If the consumer paid the yearly premium upfront, they will not receive any refund. Or if the consumer was paying the yearly premium by monthly instalments, they must still pay the outstanding instalments after the vehicle is written off.

When an insurer declares a vehicle a write-off, we expect it to offer a consumer the option of bringing a replacement vehicle onto the insurance policy so that the remainder of the policy term can be used. Depending on the make and model of the replacement vehicle, an additional premium may be required by the insurer. This should be calculated on a pro rata basis for the remainder of the policy term.

So I'm wondering if anybody has had any experience similar to this or whether I would be able to use the point made by the FOS to get Diamond to continue my policy on a new car?

dacouch

I already answered this question for you on Piston Heads, you'll get the same answers from the posters here

emskyxx

dacouch wrote: »

I already answered this question for you on Piston Heads, you'll get the same answers from the posters here

I was just wondering if anybody here has had any experiences with this sort of thing themselves.

Quentin

emskyxx wrote: »

..... whether I would be able to use the point made by the FOS to get Diamond to continue my policy on a new car?

You are highly likely to get Diamond to continue your policy - make the point to them as soon as possible!

InsideInsurance

Most insurers allow you to transfer the remainder of the policy onto a replacement vehicle in exchange for an admin fee and any additional premium calculated due to the difference in vehicles. Most will want this done in a timely manor so you cant spend 9 months or so looking for a car.

As you say, the FOS' guidance supports this stance so if they are in the minority of insurers that say you cant do this a complaint and escalation probably would land in your favour based on the recommendation.

dacouch

Have you tried ringing Diamond to ask if they will allow you to transfer a replacement car onto the policy yet?

GwylimT

My son transferred his new car eight weeks after write of settlement, I can't remember the exact cost but it was under £30.

SimonSays

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Most insurers allow you to transfer the remainder of the policy onto a replacement vehicle in exchange for an admin fee and any additional premium calculated due to the difference in vehicles. Most will want this done in a timely manor so you cant spend 9 months or so looking for a car.

As you say, the FOS' guidance supports this stance so if they are in the minority of insurers that say you cant do this a complaint and escalation probably would land in your favour based on the recommendation.

Unless one of the key points of the policy is that "Policy will be cancelled in the event of a total. If the Vehicle becomes a total loss and we indemnify you under this policy it shall cease to be operative"

emskyxx

dacouch wrote: »

Have you tried ringing Diamond to ask if they will allow you to transfer a replacement car onto the policy yet?

Diamond called me this evening. They said they have received the estimate from the garage and are awaiting the engineer to assess it. He did say it was borderline whether they will pay the repairs or write it off.
I asked what happened next and he said whenever the decision is made somebody will call me to discuss what happens next.

emskyxx

SimonSays wrote: »

Unless one of the key points of the policy is that "Policy will be cancelled in the event of a total. If the Vehicle becomes a total loss and we indemnify you under this policy it shall cease to be operative"

This is where I think I'll possibly fall down.
The policy says:
dition 10.

10 Total loss of your car
If your car is a total loss, all cover including the driving of other cars extension, if applicable, is cancelled for you and any other drivers on the policy. Once we make a payment to you, your car will become our property. We will deduct any outstanding premium and charges owed from any claim settlement we make to you.

dacouch

emskyxx wrote: »

Diamond called me this evening. They said they have received the estimate from the garage and are awaiting the engineer to assess it. He did say it was borderline whether they will pay the repairs or write it off.
I asked what happened next and he said whenever the decision is made somebody will call me to discuss what happens next.

You spoke to someone in their claims department, you need to ring customer services and ask them as I explained on the other forum.

You may find they have no problem offering cover, if they do you can start the process I explained. You should do this now rather than wait until you have a new car