advice on renewed car insurance policy.

k.locke

Hi there, first time posting so bare with me. Seeking advice on car insurance renewal, and whether my insurance provider is treating me both fairly, and within the law.

In June 2013 I started a car insurance, fully comprehensive, and given 7yr ncb.
In Sept 2013 my wife, named driver, had an accident into the back of another party.
Our car was cheap, and written off, full market value paid to us.
We replaced car, and continued to insure with them, with a slight adjustment in policy cost as cars very different.

In June 2014 the policy renewed with the replacement car.
My ncb increased to 8yrs.
In july/august 2014 the car failed its MOT and it was More economical to replace with current vehicle.
We adjusted vehicle with insurance company.
In sept 2014 insurance company sent letter informing me that a claim had been lodged against my registration. It noted road accident place, which I looked up on google maps and determined neither myself, nor my wife, had ever been anywhere near in lives, yet alone in that car.
I rang the company, explained, and they were to pass on for investigation. We never heard back f4om them.
In February 2015 we had to make a claim of glass replacement, which insurance company confirmed doesn't effect the ncb. We paid the £50 excess.

Now. We never received any notificàtion this year regarding any changes in insurance of vehicle. On 15/6/15 the first payment of renewed policy went from bank, and it had virtually doubled.
I rang insurer to be told the claim against me was still open, which the claims team then closed and got policy ammended.
This amendment came through post just £100 reduced, and this time it highlighted just 3yrs ncb.
I phoned back to question the small reduction and why the ncb was reduced to 3yrs when I had 8 throughout the previous years contract with no claim which would effect the policy ncb.
At first I am told it was the claim against me, then told it may have been my record showed 3 claims, despite 1 being a false claim that the investigations Team never closed unproven and onewas the glass claim which they admitted doesn't effect ncb.
Finally, asking many questions, and mentioning it can't be lawful as the previous years contract was not broken by us, they finally gave the reason.....
Apparently they "reviewed" the june2013-14 policy and then realised they had not reduced my ncb when they renewed the 2014-15 policy, despite us not breaking that policy to have increased premiums. So they based this year renewal on the policy 2yrs previous, not the previous policy.

When I questioned whether that was lawful, and that as soon as we made the first payment, and complete the 2014-15 policy it made the pr3vious policy contract null and void in this situation.
Their tone and responses suddenly changed, kept being put on hold to talk with supervisor, they agreed I would not be liable for recovery of difference that not reducing the ncb the previous year created.
I was experiencing them "trying to appease" me.
I then asked question as to why, if my ncb should have been knocked back to 3yrs at renewal of 2014-15 policy, then why did this years policy still only give 3yrs ncb when we had no claims on the 2014-15 policy to reduce further. Simply, why wasn't it now 4yrs!
On hold again, and returned with agreement to readjust with 4yrs. The extra 1 year only reducing monthly payments by around 70pence more.

The advice I am looking for is to whether the company can "legally" refer back to a policy from June 2013-14 and determine that because they didn't adjust the 2014-15 policy, because of a claim on the 2013-14 policy, that they are now going to adjust the 2015-16 policy?

I hope the above mak3s sense, as it is a little complicated covering a few yes and cars, and they have made several critical errors. Any advice is helpful.

InsideInsurance

Where prior years normally comes into play is where the consumer has "forgotten" to mention something that subsequently comes to light. In those cases they certainly can charge an additional premium for the prior years cover which had been based on a false declaration.

Now this situation is slightly different because they were aware of the situation and its them that ballsed up. Depending on how the contract is explicitly worded it may be contractually possible for them to go back and charge the AP but the FOS is unlikely to stand by it. That said this point is fairly moot because they have already waived the AP.

A late adjustment to the NCD the FOS is more likely to standby as there was a fault claim and so assuming you didnt have NCD Protection it should have been reduced to 3 years and then gone back up to 4 years this year which is what they have done.

Ultimately you can register a complaint and escalate it to the FOS on the actual outstanding point if you arent happy with their response but other than them deciding to reinstate your NCD to avoid the FOS fee for a referred complaint I dont think the prospects are that great.

Personally, I would certainly be looking at shopping around next year given these guys dont seem to have the firmest grasp of whats going on.

k.locke

Thanks for reply. Could you clarify what FOS and AP are?

I have called the FCA and they have started the formal complaints procedure with cooperative insurance for me.

1 point I thought of after my posting was that their decision to "wave" recovering the difference of price for last years insurance between 8 and 3 yes no claims wouldn't stand up in a UK court if they tried to recover anyhow.
They not only provided insurance cover including the insurance certificate, by as it was through a financial agreement i.e contract which laid out all the terms, conditions, price and repayments etc, it was a legally binding contract
, which as you highlighted was not obtained by any deceit or misinformation provided by the insured party.
They literally cannot legally recover those costs, and if they suggest that one as a way of trying to get me to back off it won't work, as I am well aware of financial contractual agreements in court.

You are right that they don't seem to know what on earth they are doing. The ridiculous part is within the time frame I have before the first payment cover runs out I can't get a competitive quote as the "update of the central insurers database" of my now 4yrs NCB will only show 3yrs NCB until 6weeks has passed.