Admiral cancelled my car insurance and asking for £10k from me for third party costs!!

Afsana

Hi everyone!
I really need some legal advice.

I got a car insurance policy with admiral about 4 years ago. I have always had my now ex husband as a named driver on the policy. I have always been really good at telling them whenever I have had any change of circumstances etc. In May 2018, my ex husband had a car accident involving two other cars. One car made a claim for vehicle damage and two personal injury claims. The other car did not claim anything. I wasn’t sure whether to claim for the damages to my own car so left it for a while. Then in August I decided to claim for my car damages. They asked me to provide a licence check for myself and they did a three way call with the dvla and my ex partner to perform an eu licence check with him. It turned out that my partner had two offences and points from one incident in 2017 which were for driving without insurance and using a phone.

Admiral have since cancelled my policy and told me they would not have insured him if they had known so they will be recovering the third party claim costs from me. I have explained to them that my partner did not know about these points (which I know seems very unlikely, but he tells me that he didn’t even know that his eu licence could obtain points in the uk). I had always asked him about any convictions, points in the past, and he always told me he hadn’t any. Whether he was lying to me or stupidly did not know, I have no idea.

Admiral have not yet settled the claims, but I’m presuming that it will be around £10-15k in total as they have said the vehicle damage comes to £4500 and there are two whiplash claims.

I tried contacting the MIB who have said they cannot help as they only help victims of car accidents with uninsured drivers (I thought that if my policy is cancelled, it means my ex partner was uninsured, hence the MIB could cover the costs, but I was told by Admiral that as there was cover at the time of the incident, they have an obligation to pay the third parties) - not sure if this is correct. But in their terms and conditions, it states that they have the right to recover costs should the insurance be cancelled.

They have also told me that they have have only put it on the database that my ex partner had insurance smelled, not myself, so that I shouldn’t have to declare in future that I have had insurance cancelled.

I am also in the process of having a financial ombudsman look at my case.

My complaint is that I think it’s totally unfair that I am completely liable for the costs, even though the policy is mine. I have done everything reasonably to provide all the correct information to Admiral the whole time I was with them. I have looked at the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, and it states that it is the consumers duty to "take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation" - I believe I did this at all times. It’s unreasonable to have expected me to have done anything more. I do not know how to check licences, and I’m pretty sure it is the insurance company’s duty to check the licences. They have never asked to even see my partners drivers licence, ever.

I also contacted a lawyer privately, who also said the law in car insurance is very vague and unclear, but I could take it to court. I don’t have the money to spend on solicitors, especially if the likelihood is that I will lose the case. In the case I do take it to court, can I argue that my ex husband was not actually covered as it was invalid, so the MIB should cover the costs, or do I argue that I should not be made liable for the third party costs since my ex partner lied to me about these points.

I would appreciate any advice anyone can give me as to what options I have to take this further. I think if anyone should be liable to pay the third party costs, it should be my ex husband, not me, and I would be grateful if anyone can advise me ways I can ensure this is the outcome.

Thanks,

Afsana

dacouch

The act allows the Insurer to void cover PROVIDING they would not have offered cover had they been aware of the correct details.

Have you checked with Admiral that they would not offer cover had the two convictions been declared?

forgotmyname

Wrong place for legal advice in this instance, you need to find local legal help before submitting a complaint. A well worded complaint with some legal help may get a result in your favour.

agrinnall

Get the money from your ex-husband. He's the one who had the accident and previously drove illegally. And if he is a UK resident then he has failed to exchange his EU licence for a UK one as required by the law.



https://www.gov.uk/exchange-foreign-driving-licence

SummerSunshine2

I think you’ve done as much as you can.

I wouldn’t bother with sol at this point in time.

Do you have any legal expense cover via your car insurance or can call the helplines?

Why hadn’t your partner done anything to change his license if he’s been in the uk driving for more then a year? DVLA make shadow licensees.

You will have to negotiate with the insurance company for the money they want and try and get it of your partner.

maninthestreet

Surely your ex-husband knew of these convictions? How could he possibly believe they somehow were irrelevant in relation to car insurance if he was a named driver on the policy??

angrycrow

The voidance stems from the fact he has two very serious convictions IN10 and CU80. I have seen CU80 convictions add £1000 to a premium. The insurer logic is any driver can pick up a speeding conviction but using your phone whilst driving or not having insurance are willful illegal acts. If someone is willing to ignore that law they are also very likely to lie to their insurers.

I do not agree your insurers suggestion you do not need to declare the voidance. It was your policy so whilst your husband had the accident you both need to declare the voidance.

Good luck but I can't see this having a good outcome.

Aretnap

As the person who took out the policy, you are the person responsible for supplying accurate information to the insurer.- and the person responsible for the consequences if you don't.

However as you note, you are only required to take reasonable care to ensure that the information you provide is accurate. If you provide inaccurate information inadvertently, despite taking all reasonable steps to ensure it was accurate, then the insurer should not void your policy - even if they would not have covered you had they known the full facts. Showing that you provided the false information innocently is not easy as most misrepresentations will involve an element of carelessness at least, but it can be done in some circumstances - a classic example being a person who was unaware that the second hand car they bought had been modified.


If you can persuade the ombudsman that you provided the false information because you were mislead by someone you had good reason to trust, they might class it as innocent non-disclosure and order Admiral to cover the claim. I imagine that they will be sceptical that you had no idea about your husband's convictions, but the process is free to you so you have nothing to lose by trying.



The question relates to "convictions", not to "points on your UK licence"; it's inconceivable that your husband didn't know about the convictions so it sounds like he was hoping that the fact that he had a non-EU licence would mean that he could get away with lying about them. Your task is to persuade the Ombudsman that he did this by himself and that you had no reason to suspect that he wasn't being honest when he told you that he had no convictions. This is probably your only realistic hope of getting the voidance overturned.


I've done some searching on Ombudsman decisions in the hope of finding similar cases to see which way yours might to but haven't found anything similar - maybe someone else will have more luck?

http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/

Aretnap

agrinnall wrote: »

And if he is a UK resident then he has failed to exchange his EU licence for a UK one as required by the law.

This is not correct - an EU licence holder is under no obligation to exchange his licence for a UK one until he turns 70, even if he is a UK resident.

https://www.gov.uk/driving-nongb-licence/y/a-resident-of-great-britain/full-car-and-or-motorcycle/european-union-or-european-economic-area

(There's an exception if he originally got his EU licence by exchanging a non-EU one rather than by passing a test in the EU)

Afsana

Sorry for delay in getting back to you all. Thanks for the replies!

So the IN10 and CU80 offences were given on the same date. I also found out that he had unpaid fines through the licence check. They were at a previous address so my ex husband says he didn’t know about the fines or the convictions. I’m thinking he lied to me, as he would have had to be stopped by police etc in order to get these convictions. But he says that he thought his EU licence could not obtain points. He never exchanged his EU licence for a UK one. Just to clarify, he passed his test in the EU and has an EU licence, not a NON-EU licence.

I have been told by Admiral that they would not have provided cover had they known about the IN10 offence, hence why they cancelled the policy.

So they won’t just add to the premium unfortunately.

I’m still waiting to see if an ombudsman is willing to take my case. I honestly don’t know what else I could have done to provide the correct information. I know I am responsible as it is my policy, but there was nothing more I could have done. My ex husband has mislead me. I didn’t need him on the policy, and would have been fine to not have him as a driver anyway as he rarely drove it.

Afsana

Also, i did have legal cover on the policy but if the policy is cancelled, am I entitled to legal cover?