Dual home insurance

JamesA123

Hi,
I was insured for house insurance with Legal and General for one year up to June last year, paying by direct debit. At that point I changed to John Lewis as they were better value for money.

In February I noticed that L&G were still taking money from me. I contacted them, stopped the direct debit, filled out a dual insurance form and now I assume they've accepted that I was dual insured on the grounds that they've now sent me a cheque for £130. The problem is, the amount they've taken added up to £450. I would stress that I never asked them to renew or contacted them in any way which might be taken as renewal. I just assumed that the policy would lapse.

Do I have a reasonable case for getting the rest of my money back?

Thanks,

dacouch

JamesA123 wrote: »

Hi,
I was insured for house insurance with Legal and General for one year up to June last year, paying by direct debit. At that point I changed to John Lewis as they were better value for money.

In February I noticed that L&G were still taking money from me. I contacted them, stopped the direct debit, filled out a dual insurance form and now I assume they've accepted that I was dual insured on the grounds that they've now sent me a cheque for £130. The problem is, the amount they've taken added up to £450. I would stress that I never asked them to renew or contacted them in any way which might be taken as renewal. I just assumed that the policy would lapse.

Do I have a reasonable case for getting the rest of my money back?

Thanks,

Policies paid via instalments generally automatically renew unless you instruct the Insurer to lapse the policy prior to the renewal.

In the case of dual insurance, the standard response amongst Insurers is that each Insurer refunds 50% of the premiums paid to them. This may explain why you have not received as much from L&G as you expected.

You would normally contact JL and explain about the dual insurance for them to send you their own dual insurance form out so that they can refund 50% of their premium as well.

Baileycat

Hi there,

You'll need to apply to John Lewis for some of the money back as well. Advise then that your old policy with L&G auto-renewed and that you've been dual insured - they'll then ask you to complete the same type of form/request that L&G did, and you should get some more back.

Usually each insurer is liable for up to 50% of the premium for the dual insured year, so in this case there is still a shortfall. What was the period of insurance in question? Was it just one year or more than that? If more than one it might be a bit trickier.

Hope this helps.

Baileycat

Dacouch beat me to it

Quentin

If your assumption was correct, then you don't need to be dealing with L&G - just contact your bank and claim a full refund via the direct debit guarantee (the money will go back in your account the same day you claim)


But do check you are correct and that you hadn't agreed to the policy autorenewing when you first took it out.