Car Insurance Cancelled Over 3 months ago

Blankcanvas

Hi,

I think I've made a silly error and I'm wondering if there's any way to rectify it.

I've been away travelling for work a lot since before Christmas and have come home this weekend to a letter telling me I needed to renew my car tax. Fine - I went online to pay and it gave me a message saying the car hasn't been found on the insurance database and I need to get it insured. After a bit of trawling through letters I've amassed while away and checking my online banking it seems that because of a missed payment months ago my insurance policy was cancelled at the start of January.

I phoned the insurance company today to try and see what could be done but they said as it was over three months ago I'd need to register a SORN on the car if I wanted to open another policy (however they noted that their underwriter isn't open today anyway as it's a bank holiday).

Does anyone have experience of this? Is there anything I can possibly do?

I have the money so could pay off the remainder of the policy if they were to let me reinstate it. But is this not possible if it's over 3 months ago?

I feel very stupid but had niavely thought that as I was registered online with them I would have got emailed about anything like this.
I haven't been driving the car as have been away but I'll definitely need it going forward.

Any advice or insights would be much appreciated.

Quentin

A cancelled policy on your record is bad news.

Most insurers won't quote if you have a cancellation like this, and has to be disclosed for evermore to most Insurers

So well worth trying to get the policy reinstated - though if you have any repercussions for driving uninsured it's unlikely any reinstatement would be back dated

You do need to sorn now until you get cover in the hope you don't get any fixed penalties for breaching the continuous insurance regulations

forgotmyname

You have not been driving it but you have not SORN'd it either so expect a nice bill from the DVLA for not having it insured.

Dont forget to declare this cancelled policy when taking out another policy.

Blankcanvas

By repercussions do you mean being stopped by police etc?

I haven't been driving so don't think that would apply if so.

Do you know if it is likely that they would allow me to reinstate? And is it up to the underwriters? The person I talked to on the phone today seemed to imply there was nothing that could be done as it was more than 3 months uninsured but they did mention that the underwriter was off until tomorrow so they wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway.

DCFC79

Blankcanvas wrote: »

By repercussions do you mean being stopped by police etc?

I haven't been driving so don't think that would apply if so.

Do you know if it is likely that they would allow me to reinstate? And is it up to the underwriters? The person I talked to on the phone today seemed to imply there was nothing that could be done as it was more than 3 months uninsured but they did mention that the underwriter was off until tomorrow so they wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway.

No he means increased insurance costs, as to how much it will go up by is anyones guess, use the comparisons for this but don't use your real details.

Well you can ask, the worse they say will be no.

Should have SORN'd it before you went away.

Blankcanvas

I had planned on phoning tomorrow to ask if it's possible to reinstate.

If this was possible I would then obviously pay the vehicle tax directly after.

However am I picking up correctly that I would actually need to fill out a SORN, then ask them to reinstate, and then pay the vehicle tax?

Is there any way to avoid the SORN? I think the "last chance" letter looks like it was sent about 2 weeks ago so was hoping I wouldn't need to do that.

Quentin

Google continuous insurance enforcement.

You commit an offence by not sorning.

You can do it online now.

And take it off sorn when you get insurance

Blankcanvas

DCFC79 wrote: »

No he means increased insurance costs, as to how much it will go up by is anyones guess, use the comparisons for this but don't use your real details.

Well you can ask, the worse they say will be no.

Should have SORN'd it before you went away.

Yeah the reason I hadn't done that was that I thought I'd be better off keeping it insured for the period that I was away so that I didn't have a period without no claims.

My delivery of this plan has admittedly been a mess.

Zorillo

I wouldn't do anything today, it's a bank holiday so it won't count against you any more than not having done it earlier will.

Speak to the insurer tomorrow, explain you've been abroad and see if they'll allow you to pay the whole premium in one go to reinstate the policy.

They may say no, in which case SORN the car immediately and speak to an insurance broker who specialises in motor insurance because omparison websites are unlikely to be competitive with a recent cancellation on your record.

Blankcanvas

Thanks very much for your help guys. Will call back tomorrow.

Does anyone know if there's any rule stopping them from being able to reinstate if it's been over 3 months or is it purely at their discretion?

Zorillo

Purely their discretion, but "backdating" car insurance is problematic due to the potential for fraud and insurers aren't keen to do it. Your only avenue is that they accept that the non-payment was a genuine error that you couldn't put right because you were abroad.