Car stolen ..forgot I had 3 points from 2 years ago

sibod2002

Morning

My car was stolen this morning and I have phoned my insurance to make a claim and when they checked my licence there is 3 points for speeding in Feb 2014..I had totally forgot I had these and I had been honest with my insurance when taking it as I told them I had had other claims etc it was a genuine mistake .

I am now worrierd that my insurance will be void and if my car isn't recovered I will not get a payout .

Will they just void it straight away or take other things into consideration ?

Alter_ego

Yeah that happened to me, forgot the result though

Retrogamer

They would only be able to void it, if they can demonstrate that with those points declared at the beginning they wouldn't have insured you.

If everything else is above board, then they'll likely pay you out, minus the backdated premium you owe from if you declared the points when you took out the policy.

Aretnap

Retrogamer wrote: »

They would only be able to void it, if they can demonstrate that with those points declared at the beginning they wouldn't have insured you.

Not entirely true. If they judge that the omission was deliberate rather than careless they can void the cover entirely - even if they would insured you had you declared the points. An example of evidence that they could use to show that the non-disclosure was deliberate would be if their records showed that you'd originally got a quote with the points declared, then remover them from the form when you didn't like the quote.

In the absence of something like that though hopefully they will just reduce the payout slightly to reflect the extra premium you would have paid had you declared the points correctly.

MataNui

Its an insurance company. They are not exactly known for being compassionate or giving people the benefit of any doubt. I would guess they will void the claim. If you can show it was a genuine mistake then you can appeal but given that:
If its the same insurer you had when you got the points-
You should have informed them at the time.
You have had a renewal since so would have been reminded to declare if anything changed.
Or Its not the same insurer-
In which case you omitted the information on your original form.

Its not looking too good since either scenario gives them valid reason to void your insurance. Also i would guess you are now going to find it near impossible to get affordable cover in the future since they will update the MIB database to say why your policy was cancelled.

sibod2002

They have rang me and told me I'm entitled to a hire car on my policy so I'm guessing they are accepting my claim ?

trollopscarletwoman

If they voided your claim on the basis of lack of omission on 3 penalty points then I would be going to the insurance ombudsman if there is such a thing.

But as had been said they will pull any stroke they can.

sithemadmonkey

Retrogamer wrote: »

They would only be able to void it, if they can demonstrate that with those points declared at the beginning they wouldn't have insured you.

If everything else is above board, then they'll likely pay you out, minus the backdated premium you owe from if you declared the points when you took out the policy.

That, or they'll do a proportional settlement, whereby they'll work out what percentage of the 'true' premium you've paid, and pay that percentage of your claim. So if they calculate your premium should be £1,000 but you've only paid £500 then they'll pay 50% of your claim.

antrobus

Aretnap wrote: »

Not entirely true. ....

Dunno about that.

If the insurer cannot show that the misrepresentation affected its decision about whether (or how) to offer cover, we are unlikely to agree it was fair for it to:

• avoid the policy
• charge an additional premium or
• apply additional terms to the policy

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/misrepresentation-and-non-disclosure.htm#a5

MataNui wrote: »

Its an insurance company.....

And thus has to abide by the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, and the rulings of FOS.

trollopscarletwoman wrote: »

If they voided your claim on the basis of lack of omission on 3 penalty points then I would be going to the insurance ombudsman if there is such a thing.

It's the Financial Ombudsman. But yes, if the insurer voided the policy you would take it to FOS.

antrobus

Miss J took out a car insurance policy in December 2010. When doing so, she was asked if she had "had any motoring convictions and fixed penalty offences in the last 5 years. This includes any convictions where the conviction ended in the last 5 years." Miss J answered "no".
In February 2011, Miss J was involved in an accident and made a claim for the damage to her car. As the vehicle was damaged beyond economical repair, the cost of settling the claim was estimated to be the car's market value of £4500.
While the claim was being assessed, Miss J told the insurer that she had received a fixed penalty for speeding in March 2009, receiving a fine of £60 and three penalty points. Miss J said she had rushed the application for the policy and forgot to mention the fixed penalty.
The insurer avoided the policy and rejected Miss J's claim. Miss J was unhappy with this and brought the complaint to us.
The underwriting criteria that the insurer used showed that 10% would have been added to the premium if the insurer had known about the 2009 fixed penalty when the policy was taken out.
We upheld the complaint. We decided that Miss J had not taken reasonable care in answering the question asked by the insurer - but we thought the insurer should have taken a proportionate approach. So we told the insurer to reinstate the policy and consider the claim - and pay the appropriate proportion of the vehicle's market value if it was accepted (approximately 91% in this case).


http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/misrepresentation-and-non-disclosure.htm

marleyboy

One can be forgiven for not being in the right frame of mind and forgetting a 2 Yr old penalty when they have just found their car has been stolen.