AXA Car Insurance

I-LOV-MONEY

When I was changing my electricity supply company earlier this year I came across a company, which I checked on this site and was told in no uncertain terms not to touch them with a barge pole (I found a metal rod instead !!!).

Hopefully, I can get some feedback on how good / bad AXA are.

Thanks.

molerat

Axa are a major insurer, not some fly by night company. I had car insurance with them for a few years and had a fault claim which was sorted painlessly and did not suffer a major price hike on renewal.

Quentin

Read their policy before you buy and be sure you are happy with their conditions.


They "try it on" by including an unenforceable condition that the car "must" have an MOT cert to be insured (the FOS has ruled this condition cannot be enforced), and only an unscrupulous insurer would stick the in their policy in the hope that a policyholder will be unaware, and accept that no MOT = no insurance so any claim would be rejected

Also check their reviews!

Plumb1

Took out a public liability insurance with a broker underwritten by axa this policy included 2000000 public liability and 5000 of tool insurance. Everything was good until I had my van broken into and lost 3500 of tools.
Imagine my surprise to find out that in a small paragraph on 1 of the 40 pages tool cover ceases after 9pm until 6am my van was emptied of 3500 pounds of tools at 3am, claim rejected but no one told me about this exclusion !!!

paddyandstumpy

Plumb1 wrote: »

Took out a public liability insurance with a broker underwritten by axa this policy included 2000000 public liability and 5000 of tool insurance. Everything was good until I had my van broken into and lost 3500 of tools.
Imagine my surprise to find out that in a small paragraph on 1 of the 40 pages tool cover ceases after 9pm until 6am my van was emptied of 3500 pounds of tools at 3am, claim rejected but no one told me about this exclusion !!!

The broker should have made you aware of the overnight exclusion, although to be honest it's far from unusual for this restriction to be in force.

Ultimately, you pay the premium, you should read and understand the cover you have bought.

MrsTrellisofNorthWales

I'm hoping to hear from others on my current situation.

I own a classic American car which I use often in Europe and therefore I have an all year green card. To keep my car authentic and in good working shape, I have to sometimes search for spare parts as the car is getting on in years.

Unfortunately my MoT ran out in January while I looked for some steering components and DVLA cancelled my road tax and made me SORN the vehicle. The car was parked securely outside of the UK for some months while I tried to get these parts as I felt it was not a good idea to drive it back to the UK for the MoT with less than perfect steering.

In the meantime, my car insurance is due to expire in early April (like next week).

Now I've been refused a car insurance renewal by Axa. They say that not having an MoT and the vehicle being SORN'd (not that I had a choice) means the car cannot be insured. This means I cannot even drive it to an MoT.

I've complained by Resolver but Axa isn't interested. I've now asked others and I've been also declined by others without giving a reason. I have many years NCD.

It's chicken and egg - cannot get an MoT as no insurance, cannot get insurance as no MoT.

If the Ombudsman has ruled on this MoT business, does anyone have a link I can quote to Axa to get my renewal?

Quentin

If you cannot get it insured because of the lack of a MOT you could arrange for the MOT garage to collect it

Aretnap

MrsTrellisofNorthWales wrote: »

If the Ombudsman has ruled on this MoT business, does anyone have a link I can quote to Axa to get my renewal?

It won't help much. The Ombudsman has ruled that once an insurer has taken your money they can't refuse to pay out a claim purely because your car doesn't have a valid MOT - even if there's a term in the policy that says you have to have one. This is (roughly) because if you breach the terms of your policy, the insurer can only refuse to deal with a claim if the mishap which occurred is somehow related to the breach - and the lack of a piece of paper can never by itself cause an accident. AXA might still be able to decline a claim if your car had a defect which would have been picked up by an MOT (like dodgy steering) and that defect was the cause of the accident.

However the thing to note is that this only applies once AXA have taken your money and given you a policy and subsequently try to decline a claim. If AXA don't want to insure cars which are SORNed or lack MOTs in the first place then the ombudsman will see that as a commercial decision for them - they won't force AXA to take your money or insure a car that they don't want to insure.

You could as above try to find a garage who will collect the car for the MOT using a trade policy - though if the car isn't in the UK that might not be easy. Alternatively try another insurer. An insurer offering short term policies (Google "short term car insurance" or "day insurance") will be used to this sort of situation and probably won't be phased by the fact that it's currently SORNed.