Help! Car Insurance Nightmare!

christopherwg

Hi everyone -


I'm looking for some help and advice. I recently was involved in an accident and was the middle of 5 cars. During my discussion with the insurance company, they noticed an issue with my policy - I'd failed to disclose a driving conviction when I accepted the auto renewal. My big mistake.


I have now received a letter voiding my insurance so as you can imagine I'm pretty worked up and distraught and just trying to make sure I do the right things in the short term and hoping someone can advise me:


1. They are saying that they will not deal with the damage to my car - I am currently using an accident management company for that who have provided a hire car - but they want me to sign a FORM OF CONSENT AND INDEMNITY AGREEMENT to deal with the third party in front - does anyone know what this means? Does this mean I have to pay them back?


2. Also, got to get new insurance and have received quotes from CTM with all the correct information now added. Should I take insurance from today or from the date where they voided the policy?


Sorry for the long message! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated during a difficult time.


Chris

paddyandstumpy

If the policy has been voiced it'll have been cancelled backwards to when it started (I would assume last renewal).

You won't be able to retrospectively get insurance for that period between then and now, you can only take out insurance from now onwards.

Make sure you declare the cancellation when applying for new policies!

christopherwg

Thanks, I have declared it so it's sent the premium rocketing obviously.


Thanks for replying.

Retrogamer

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

If the policy has been voiced it'll have been cancelled backwards to when it started (I would assume last renewal).

You won't be able to retrospectively get insurance for that period between then and now, you can only take out insurance from now onwards.

Make sure you declare the cancellation when applying for new policies!

There's a debate on some motoring forums just now with some stating you don't need to declare a void policy unless the insurance company specifically ask about a void policy as apparently when it's void, it's void from inception and strictly speaking not a cancelation.

I'm not certain if that is true or not, but may be worth checking.

Sea_Shell

What was the conviction? SP30 or IN10? AIUI they should only void a policy from inception if they would not have accepted you as a policyholder at all if the conviction had been declared. If a minor speeding, that would be unlikely, but may have involved higher premium.

I'd escalate to the ombudsman.

uk1

christopherwg wrote: »

Hi everyone -


I'm looking for some help and advice. I recently was involved in an accident and was the middle of 5 cars. During my discussion with the insurance company, they noticed an issue with my policy - I'd failed to disclose a driving conviction when I accepted the auto renewal. My big mistake.


I have now received a letter voiding my insurance so as you can imagine I'm pretty worked up and distraught and just trying to make sure I do the right things in the short term and hoping someone can advise me:


1. They are saying that they will not deal with the damage to my car - I am currently using an accident management company for that who have provided a hire car - but they want me to sign a FORM OF CONSENT AND INDEMNITY AGREEMENT to deal with the third party in front - does anyone know what this means? Does this mean I have to pay them back?


2. Also, got to get new insurance and have received quotes from CTM with all the correct information now added. Should I take insurance from today or from the date where they voided the policy?


Sorry for the long message! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated during a difficult time.


Chris

Make a dummy application adding your conviction and see whether they would have accepted you with the convictioon.

If so, I suggest you make an immediate complaint to your insurer, asking for a review, acknowledging that the information missed in the auto-renew should not have happened but it was not deliberate, or reckless but simply "inadvertant". It is unlikely that they would have declined the insurance but simply asked for a larger premium.

Where there has been inadvertent non-disclosure or misrepresentation, we expect insurers to rewrite the insurance. This should be done on the terms they would originally have offered if they had been aware of all the information. In some cases this may result in a proportionate payment; in others it may result in no payment at all. This is because the inadvertently-withheld information would, if disclosed, have led to the firm declining the application altogether.

Everything turns on the individual circumstances. Customers will find it more difficult to prove that they acted inadvertently if they answered several questions badly. To get one or two questions wrong may be regarded as inadvertent; to get several wrong starts to look like recklessness.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/46/46_non_disclosure_insurance.htm

Since then your position is if anything stronger through more recent decisions ....

christopherwg

Thanks so much for all your replies. It really means a lot during a difficult time.


Does anyone know about the FORM OF CONSENT AND INDEMNITY AGREEMENT?

christopherwg

It was a SP30.

elsien

What do the relevant bits of the form of consent and indemnity insurance actually say?

christopherwg

elsien wrote: »

What do the relevant bits of the form of consent and indemnity insurance actually say?

There are four points:


1. I consent to them taking over and conducting in my name the defence of any claim...


2. I authorise them to accept service of any civil proceedings on my behalf and to contest proceedings or effect settlement...


3. I agree to indemnify against and to repay them all sums paid by them in respect of any settlement


4. I hereby authorise .... or their agents to prosecute in my name any claim which I may have against any person for indemnity or contribution in respect of any claim which may be made against me, but it is understoof that they do not bind themselves to do so.


Any advice you can give would really help?


I plan to secure new insurance tomorrow and hope my Accident Management Company come through for me. Will also contact the Ombusman like other posters have advised.

uk1

I must admit to being a bit puzzled because you seem to be determined to back yourself into a cul-de-sac with potentially extremely poor consequences for you.

Unless I have missed something you haven't confronted your insurers with the specific complaint I suggested upthread ie that they are unjustly cancelling your cover due to an error - but you are now asking instead for advice about signing an open ended cheque to reimburse your insurers against any claim they receive - not much of an incentive for them - and to find an alternative insurer under what seems like rather difficult unresolved and possibly avoidable circumstances. Presumably you will tell your new insurer honestly that you are seeking new cover because your previous insurer refused to cover your damage losses in an accident and they cancelled your cover because they felt you had been dishonest to them when you renewed, This might not make you an attractive risk to a new insurer or the premiums attractive if someone takes you on.

You mention an Ombudsman complaint. If you see this as a way of punishing your existing insurer, you are mistaken because I fear that it is more likely to be self-inflicted wounds instead.

From what you have said you are not at a state of deadlock with your current insurers because you haven't been specific to them with your complaint. You should only go to the Ombudsman if you have used your best efforts to resolve your complaint but have reached deadlock. So if you refuse to authorise them to represent you (ignoring the acceptance of liability they are requesting) and inform them that you are now going to complain to The Ombudsman - have you thought through the possible consequences? They would probably simply shrug and stop communicating with you about your own losses until your appeal has been decided and you will start to receive communications from others involved with the accident that you will have to deal with.

On Friday I received a standard letter from the "lead caseworker and director of casework" of the Ombudsman apologising for the delay in contacting me about a complaint. They say that they are writing to apologise because they haven't yet even read the fairly simply complaint I made in September and it will "still be a while before they do" and they will "move things forward" at some time in the future, whatever that means. I don't think there is an Ombudsman for Ombudsman but that is what I feel I need. This process isn't going to resolve your immedicate problems.

Unless there are other relevant factors that you haven't mentioned here then it seems to me that you have a fairly straightforward complaint of being treated "unfairly" which your insurers must do. It also seems to me that you are in danger of making a very bad situation even worst and that what you need more than anything else at the moment is to do your very best over the next few days or so to persaude your insurers to change their mind because their position might be untenable.

Good luck.