Car Insurance Cancelled!

Baldiebain

Thanks for looking at my message, I'll cut to the chase. I have two cars insured through swinton, one with 11 years NCB, and my bike with Bennetts. I got a letter from Bennetts saying a claim was made in my name. Turned out my work had made a claim for damage to a works van, I didn't know. So paid the 9quid extra asked and thought no more about it till 3 weeks later when Swinton's wrote to tell me my car insurance was being cancelled within 6 days. I ended up going through a broker, it was over 700 quid to insure third party, and that was putting my wife's name up as the primary insured! Am I an insurance leper for life? Many thanks, From Baldie

Quentin

Well..... most insurers do ask if anyone to be covered has ever had a policy cancelled

Do check that your current insurer had been properly advised!

Baldiebain

Yes I am aware of that, I went through a specialist broker because of that issue. What I need to know is, at the age of nearly 60 with no claims on my own insurance, is this it for ever?

ossie

How did your Company know that Bennetts were your insurer? Did you tell them after the accident or were you unaware of the accident?

Baldiebain

Hi Ossie, the accident was a couple of years ago, wind caught the van door when I was in the yard and broke the hinges. TBH the van went in for repair and I thought no more about it. When I phoned Swinton's they said bike insurers often "look deeper" in case you've had a car accident and not declared it on your application for bike insurance. I got no chance to explain, once it was cancelled I was out.

Quentin

Baldiebain wrote: »

Yes I am aware of that, I went through a specialist broker because of that issue. What I need to know is, at the age of nearly 60 with no claims on my own insurance, is this it for ever?

Yes.

All you can do is see if any insurer puts a 5 year deadline on the question when you're 5 years down the line.

Baldiebain

It's the permanent nature of this. Insurance quotes ask if you have ever had insurance cancelled, nothing about the last five years. This kind of thing must affect thousands of people who drive works cans etc and I bet most of them don't even know about it.

oscarward

2 months back Direct Line ask for any cancellations in the last 5 years when I got a quote from them.

Nasqueron

Are you saying your PERSONAL bike insurance was cancelled because your WORK claimed on (their? your?) van insurance which is nothing to do with you?

You really need to complain about this in writing to try and get the cancellation removed - if you didn't make a claim on your bike insurance and didn't know your work had claimed on the van insurance it seems a bit odd

Baldiebain

My personal car insurance was cancelled because my work claimed on an insurance that was nothing to do with me. When I called Swinton's they said there was nothing I could do about it and that I should have declared it, but I didn't know about it at the time I bought the insurance.

Quentin

If you knew nothing about the damage caused to your work van, then you have grounds to make a complaint to Swinton over their unfair treatment over this.


As you have discovered, a cancelled policy on your record is bad news so it will be worth taking this all the way to get the cancellation reversed. Also ask to be compensated for the extra expense their unfair action has put you to (point out you could only get insured as a named driver, were unable to use your NCD etc)


Follow the Swinton complaints procedure set out in the policy docs and if you are unhappy with their reply or they ignore you for 8 weeks you can then escalate to the FOS for their adjudication at no cost to you.