Car Insurance Cancelled - Car Siezed

Jackson87

Hi guy,

I'm new to the forum but seeking some advice.
As the title suggests my car insurance was cancelled by my provider and I was stopped by the police yesterday which resulted in my car being siezed.

The reason for cancelling was apparently due to me not providing my no claims bonus for my policy starting in November. My question is shouldn't my provider by law notify me that my policy will be cancelled in 30 days I'm writing?
I have not changed address, phone number or email address and I have had no communication from them whatsoever - the only time I found out was when I was pulled over.

I now need to pay a substantial amount of money to get my car back plus take out specific impound insurance which is £500 for 30 days and that's not including impound fees, fines and any points I may get. I know at the end of the day is my own fault for not checking I have insurance but should they not tell me in some format that if I don't action something they will cancel it?

I just want to see what you guys think?
Thanks in advance

paddyandstumpy

I'm fairly certain they will have emailed or written to you (check your policy wording around cancellation, it will outline how they contact you).

Did you give them a genuine email address? Have you checked your spam folder?

huckster

Normally 7 days notice of cancellation by your preferred communication method.

So find out what you told them or what is registered as communication method. If it is by email, then check that the email address they have for you is correct. If they mistyped the email address, you will not have received notification. If the email address is correct ask when they sent the email and check your junk mail folder. Contact your email provider, to get proof, if no email notification was received.

Some Insurers do appear to have problems with email notifications, as they often rely on their Insurance database systems to generate the emails. If there was a problem on the day/date in question, the email may never have been sent. Which is why you ask your email provider for proof, if their server never received any email from the Insurers.

Submit a Data Protection GDPR subject access request to the Insurers.

lisyloo

Just a rant, but it does annoy me greatly that companies ask for lots of contact information and then when there is something important they do not get in touch.
Lack of insurance should be communicated by a recorded delivery or similar method not just email.

uk1

Jackson87 wrote: »

Hi guy,

I'm new to the forum but seeking some advice.
As the title suggests my car insurance was cancelled by my provider and I was stopped by the police yesterday which resulted in my car being siezed.

The reason for cancelling was apparently due to me not providing my no claims bonus for my policy starting in November. My question is shouldn't my provider by law notify me that my policy will be cancelled in 30 days I'm writing?
I have not changed address, phone number or email address and I have had no communication from them whatsoever - the only time I found out was when I was pulled over.

I now need to pay a substantial amount of money to get my car back plus take out specific impound insurance which is £500 for 30 days and that's not including impound fees, fines and any points I may get. I know at the end of the day is my own fault for not checking I have insurance but should they not tell me in some format that if I don't action something they will cancel it?

I just want to see what you guys think?
Thanks in advance

If you had received the request, could you have provided them with your renewal proving your no clsim bonus?

sal_III

I suspect somewhere in the T&C of the policy is stated that the policy will be automatically cancelled if you fail to provide proof of NCD within a certain time frame, which I guess is considered an advanced notice.

I always check on https://ownvehicle.askmid.com/ if my insurance is valid after a renewal, especially if changing providers.

rudekid48

lisyloo wrote: »

Just a rant, but it does annoy me greatly that companies ask for lots of contact information and then when there is something important they do not get in touch.
Lack of insurance should be communicated by a recorded delivery or similar method not just email.

Many years ago, notice of cancellation did get sent by recorded delivery, but it was a waste of time (and very expensive) as people (mistakenly) believed that if they refused to sign for the letter then it could not be enforced.

uk1

sal_III wrote: »

I suspect somewhere in the T&C of the policy is stated that the policy will be automatically cancelled if you fail to provide proof of NCD within a certain time frame, which I guess is considered an advanced notice.

I always check on https://ownvehicle.askmid.com/ if my insurance is valid after a renewal, especially if changing providers.

What you "suspect" may or may not be correct. But T's and C's are irrelevant id they are "unafair". You can effectively ignore them. The Insurers needed to "make contact". That doesn't mean (for example) claiming to have sent a letter and then gone to sleep.

Jumblebumble

huckster wrote: »

Normally 7 days notice of cancellation by your preferred communication method.

So find out what you told them or what is registered as communication method. If it is by email, then check that the email address they have for you is correct. If they mistyped the email address, you will not have received notification. If the email address is correct ask when they sent the email and check your junk mail folder. Contact your email provider, to get proof, if no email notification was received.

Some Insurers do appear to have problems with email notifications, as they often rely on their Insurance database systems to generate the emails. If there was a problem on the day/date in question, the email may never have been sent. Which is why you ask your email provider for proof, if their server never received any email from the Insurers.

Submit a Data Protection GDPR subject access request to the Insurers.

I
I don't think the OP will get any sense out of any of the free email suppliers if he users one of them and probably not a paid email provider unless he uses a business grade system
Office 365 may give the results he needs
(Even a professional mail filter such as Trend Micro HES only goes back a week )
I would complain to the ombudsman after a formal complaint

uk1

rudekid48 wrote: »

Many years ago, notice of cancellation did get sent by recorded delivery, but it was a waste of time (and very expensive) as people (mistakenly) believed that if they refused to sign for the letter then it could not be enforced.

The is then and now is now. Placing someone into a situation where they might unknowingly have been placed into a criminal situation is arguably a situation where the word "contact" means attempting to speak to someone rather than simply claim something else.

[Deleted User]

From my own experience, failing to provide proof of NCD (being late in doing so) resulted in additional charges (refunded), to the extent that I was assumed not to have any NCD. They didn't just cancel the policy. However, I can well believe that some insurance bottom feeders will do just that. Anyway, surely in our digital age the insurance lowlifes have an industry-wide database of no claims discount. Why don't they just look up customers in that? What? They don't have such an industry-wide database? Well b*****r me! Who'd have thought it! They have industry-wide databases to log claims (CUE). Then again, an industry-wide database for NCD would benefit customers, so no right-thinking bunch of scammers would set one up, I suppose.