Urgent help car insurance

Quentin

forgotmyname wrote: »

Wonder what will happen if they buy a car that insurer wont cover?

Or say yes we will cover you on that car for ££££ extra?

Whenever you are wanting to change the car on cover (irrespective of the reason for the change) you should always check with insurer that the replacement is one they will cover.


If they won't then you will have no alternative (if you proceed to buy the car) but to cancel your policy and buy a new one elsewhere.


If the premium increase is so expensive that it would be cost effective to cancel and go elsewhere then that is the obvious route to take. (Especially if this happens after a fault claim as is the case in this thread, when there is no loss of NCD to consider should you cancel mid term as thee would be no NCD awarded for the full year anyway)

EdGasket

Quentin wrote: »

If the premium increase is so expensive that it would be cost effective to cancel and go elsewhere then that is the obvious route to take. (Especially if this happens after a fault claim as is the case in this thread, when there is no loss of NCD to consider should you cancel mid term as thee would be no NCD awarded for the full year anyway)

The problem is that the insurer is saying they will cancel the policy due to it being a write-off. In this case you can get a replacement car and ask for the insurance to be reinstated (as that is what the FOS says should happen i.e. you have paid for 12 months cover and that is what you should get) BUT that is different to asking for money back after a write-off has been paid out. I know logically it shouldn't matter but as far as I know insurers are only obliged to reinstate the insurance not to give you n months refund. This is in the same way that if you paid for insurance monthly, you have to carry on paying those monthly installments even after a write-off and even where no replacement car has been added to the policy.

Aretnap

The Financial Ombudsman's view on how to value a vehicle is here (linking to an old version because the current version has has most of the useful information removed in an attempt to be "user-friendly"

https://web.archive.org/web/20140709160656/http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

It is correct to say that adverts for similar vehicles generally carry little weight, because the fact that someone advertises a vehicle for (say) £1000 doesn't mean that anybody is going to buy it for £1000. The buyer might negotiate a lower price, or it might just sit there attracting no interest until the seller readvertises it at £750. Hence trade guides, which are based on actual selling prices, carry much more weight.

Point 9 may be helpful though

If the consumer only recently bought their car second-hand, we generally assume that they paid the market value price – although we will consider any evidence the insurer can provide that this was not the case.

The guidance doesn't define "recently", though I vaguely remember someone who'd been in that situation saying that they'd been told that it generally meant three months. If that's correct (and it may not be) then your son should expect £700, less his excess, for the car, assuming he bought in November (and still has the receipt).

Starvalley

Thank you very much for your information and links it is very useful. At the moment they still havent offered anything for it, we have not heard from them since they said on Wed they were collecting it on Thurs and would call on Thurs. My son has been in work on & off since Thurs but if we dont here Mon / Tues we will phone. Thank you once again its all very useful, I will update once I know anymore info.

Brooker_Dave

Starvalley wrote: »

Thank you very much for your information and links it is very useful. At the moment they still havent offered anything for it, we have not heard from them since they said on Wed they were collecting it on Thurs and would call on Thurs. My son has been in work on & off since Thurs but if we dont here Mon / Tues we will phone. Thank you once again its all very useful, I will update once I know anymore info.

Once this sorry saga is resolved, perhaps your son should lodge an official complaint?

And then take it to the ombudsman?

It would appear from your account of what happened, that they've just lied to him from the outset with the aim of cheating him out of money?

It would seem to me that the laws and regulation surrounding this business sector are routinely flouted by the companies, both large and small?

If I did this to my customers, trading standards would have a field day and I'd end up in prison...

Starvalley

Thank you thats good advice. We thought it was a bit out of order, but you know what its like they try things on if they think they can get away with it and our son thinks they must be correct, so with the comments on here he has been confident to ask questions. so far not heard from the ins though.

Starvalley

Thank you for all your advice and support. My son has now had all what he paid for the car minus the excess, its in the bank - or was :-) He bought a car which we picked up Sat and only had to pay £52 as the extra, I dont know but assume part of that is the so called admin fee.
This is all in part to information on here, its really helped, thank you.