Cancelled car insurance due to mistake in details

Andzus

Hi all,
This is going to be one looong post, sorry, so I've tried to split it into sections with most important one being Actual Issue. I'm trying to understand if anyone's had similar issue and if maybe I should go to solicitors, could they help?

About us:
My girlfriend an I got a car insurance with 1st Central through GoCompare starting 10th October. Both of us used to hold EU licences and I have gotten a UK licence this year so when doing quotes I was changing us around on the quote sites to understand what whether its cheaper for her to be the policy holder (EU licence 9 years, 2 years NCD) or me (UK licence 10 years, 0 years NCD).!

Background:
We settled for 1st Central with her the policy holder and me as the main driver. on 11th October they sent us an email saying that while doing multiple quotes across multiple systems we had mismatching details:

• Multiple quotes were requested with different dates of when your named driver(s) started living in the UK
• Multiple quotes were requested with different dates of how long your named driver(s) held their driving licence

I contacted them and essentially there was a mismatch on the dates of when we started living in the UK I had put across the different sites like GoCompare, Confused, ComparetheMarket. So we went through the entire process of sending documents from when we came here to show that we've been living here for 9 years. Deadline for this was 1st November. Two batches of documents were sent on 14th Oct and on 18th Oct, when the 14th Oct documents weren't good enough. Did not hear from them since, emailed them on 29th Oct and only got an automatic response so we thought that everything is being processed and they will get back to us.!

Actual issue:
18th November: Email from 1st Central:!Following!routine checks,!it has emerged that some of the information on your policy may be incorrect.!!Our records indicate that when you took out this policy you advised us that our named driver, xxx, has been a resident in the UK since he was born. However, it has now been brought to our attention that he has been a resident in the UK since xxx 2010.I immediately got back to them saying that we've gone through this by sending proof documents as explained above.!
19th Nov - They gave me their phone number to discuss.!
20th Nov - finally managed to reach them. Apparently on GoCompare I had selected the box that says I've been living in the UK since birth, so 5 of the quotes they have show that I've been living here since birth, 5 quotes have a date in 2010. I was honestly very surprised since that would definitely not be one of the things I would select, I explained it's a mistake but what they are saying it's a 'Tick box' I had to select so I did it intentionally. They would not accept that and said this was intentional fraud. I know what fraud is and I know I'd never put 'since birth in the UK', but they cancelled my insurance with immediate effect.!

My hopes:
They have made a string of mistakes and wrong arguments which make me hope I can at least get rid of the - Have you had your insurance cancelled: YES tickbox I now had to select to get a new insurance on the same day. I'm not fussed about another insurance company or the extra I had to pay now. It's just - I made a mistake and now this is gonna be fraud forever.!

1st Central Mistakes:

1. What I was told on the phone is that it's my responsibility to check their records are accurate and that the Insurance Confirmation email HAS a statement 'That I need to check my documents now'. I was reading the email while on the phone and it DOES NOT say that, it just says that I can access my documents online. When I confronted them about it, 1st Central said 'Oh, we cannot access this email now to confirm'. Sounds convenient.!
2. Their initial cancellation email said we will be charged £75. On the phone I was told their cancellation charge is £50, when I told them thats a mistake - they said - 'but it's cheaper for you, right? So where is the issue?' Well I see the issue as - THEY CAN make a mistake and it's no problem whatsoever.
3. They have sent their cancellation refund:!£‎360.78 out of £514.03. This is for 1 month and 10 day minus the £50 cancellation fee, so I've done a quick calc and it's missing around £45 as a minimum. even if we got charged for 2 months it's missing money. Again, in this case I'm not fussed about the money but they keep making mistakes.!
4. On the phone I asked how can I appeal this decision and I was told that there will be details in the cancellation email, which there were not.
5. And obviously, they started this investigation into the wrong dates 1 day after we got our insurance, took us through a process and then suddenly this just came out of nowhere.

Thank you to anyone who's got ideas on how to handle this.
Andris

Penelopa.Pitstop

So, did you check details of your policy after buying it? Did you make a mistake and bought it with wrong information that you lived in UK since birth?

Andzus

No, we did not check the details because already on the next day they started querying us about the documents so we were getting these together so we can send them across. Yes, I made the mistake of selecting the box that I lived in the UK since birth.

ciderboy2009

Personally I don't think you've got a leg to stand on here.

When actually purchasing the insurance you would have confirmed that the information you had entered was accurate - it wasn't.

The "mistakes" you list as made by 1st Central are all irrelevant.

tacpot12

You can complain to First Central, and if that does not resolve the issue, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

I think the basis of your complaint is that while you made a mistake in not checking the final set of information that went to First Central, you provided all the information on 14th and 18th October to them and that they were aware of the true situation and they would have insured you had you entered these details from the start for the price you were quoted - get a friend to enter your correct details to GoCompare (changing the house number) and take a screen shot of the price, so there was no reason to cancel the policy, and that by cancelling the policy they are creating great problems for you in the future, so their response is unfair.

The redress you are seeking is that they reinstate the policy (so that you can declare in future that you have never had a policy cancelled).

Good luck