Direct Line and Aviva Car insurance - cancellation decision reversed...issues?

liviboy

Hi all,
To describe the situation quickly, this is my father-in-law's policy.
Brother-in-Law bought car insurance from Aviva for father in December. He didn't upload the requested documents in time and managed to ignore umpteen reminders to do so.
Aviva gave notice of policy cancellation at the end of January - B-I-L still managed to ignore.
Policy cancelled.

B-I-L bought a new policy through Direct Line, obviously didn't tick the box saying "have you ever had a policy cancelled?".
Direct Line then gave notice of Cancellation because he did not disclose the previous cancellation, giving 7 days notice, but "if you would prefer you may cancel this policy before the cancellation date by calling us".
B-I-L at this point finally fessed up that he had screwed up and asked for help.

Myself, my wife and her father made contact with Aviva who eventually put us in touch with their Policy Investigations Unit and asked us to submit the outstanding documents to enable them to investigate.

In the meantime, my wife and her father called Direct Line and cancelled the policy in advance of the cancellation date.

Aviva's Policy Investigation Unit have today confirmed the cancellation has been removed and invited us to take out a new policy and confirmed this cancellation does not need to be disclosed to any insurer as it has been reversed.

The question is, does the Direct Line policy cancellation need to be disclosed, or, because the policy was cancelled, as invited to do so on the notice, by the policyholder in advance of the cancellation by direct line does it NOT need to be disclosed?

We have worked really hard with Aviva to get the original cancellation reversed and Direct Line only gave notice of cancellation because of the Aviva cancellation...so that is now no longer a valid reason for cancellation (as it is as if it never existed). Just need to work out if we now need to go and have a fight with Direct Line or if by cancelling in advance that fight is no longer required?

Many thanks in advance for help/thoughts/opinions.

liviboy

The actual wording of the Direct Line letter is:

Please regard this letter as our intention to cancel this policy in accordance with your policy booklet terms and conditions. Your policy will be cancelled on 19 February 2020.

And then under:

If you would prefer, you can cancel this policy yourself before this date, please call our customer services department on 0345 246 3761. If you choose to do so, you may be charged a fee. Details of any applicable fees are detailed in your policy schedule.

The policy was cancelled by phone the 16th February.

chrisw

I would say the Direct Line policy doesn't need to be declared as you cancelled it rather than them. So you haven't had a policy cancelled by them.

frankersBri

No need to declare the Direct Line cancellation. Your B-I-L cancelled the policy, not Direct Line, so it does not need to be disclosed as an insurer cancelling a policy. Good work on solving the problem with Aviva though!

liviboy

Thanks for the replies. We also heard back from Direct Line that the cancellation does not need to be declared as my F-I-L cancelled the policy.

He now has a nice new Aviva policy which actually cost less than the original policy!