One Call Insurance refusing stolen car claim then cancelled insurance policy

koala_bear00

Hi All,
This is my first time posting to the forum but felt so strongly about sharing my experience as I hope it will be useful to others. Sorry, it's a bit of a long story...
I signed up for a new car insurance policy with One Call Insurance on 11th Feb 2020 for it to start on 16th Feb, after previously being with Admiral. My car was then stolen off my driveway on 3rd March. I reported it immediately to the police and One Call Insurance (who are a broker for One Insurance) who said after 14days if the car is not recovered it will be written off. The car was a financed merc with about £20k outstanding.
After taking the kids to school (for the last few days before self isolation was recommended) in an uber and stressing about how I was going to do the food shopping whilst under lockdown with 2 young kids and no home delivery slots, I get a call from one call insurance to say they need more information about a previous claim I had made with Admiral.
So, in the previous year, my sunroof suddenly shattered while I was driving along the motorway. Admiral initially questioned if I was covered for the sunroof but I pointed out that with my comprehensive insurance windscreen and glass is automatically included and covers sunroof damage. They then suggested I should get it repaired under my manufacturers warrantee as it must be a faulty part. After a lot of back and forth with mercedes and Admiral, Admiral agreed to pay for the repairs to the sunroof and some minor body damage that the shattered glass caused (Mercedes provided a letter to say the part was not faulty and it wasn't covered under warrentee).
When I took out the new insurance with One Call I told them about the claim on the online details including the date and selected 'windscreen' option as it wasn't any of the others in my mind (theft, third party, accidental damage & other, were the options I think). Now that my car was stolen one phone operator said they don't do a full search on windscreen claims as they are negligible costs usually but mine was £4500. She also said that I said it was non-fault (I have to admit I believed it was non-fault because it wasn't my fault (!) but all claims where they can't recover the money from someone else is classed as fault. I shouldn't have to have industry knowledge about how they list and process claims in my view but now I've learnt that it's best to be well versed!) and I needed to prove Admiral had advised me it was listed as a windscreen claim and that it was non-fault. I asked Admiral for the documentation and they sent the NCB which stated 'fault AD only claim' (AD only means advice only). No mention of windscreen.
One Call Insurance told me very bluntly that they could only act on that information but to ask Admiral to provide my CUE database information as all the discussions about windscreens were done verbally and looking back nothing was emailed with that wording.
It might be interesting to know that you can request your CUE information for free via the MIB website. It takes 4 weeks to process once you provide your ID etc. Admiral stated it would take them 8 weeks...
One Call Insurance tell me that because I didn't give them all the right information about this previous claim & it is in the Insurance company's right to void my insurance from the beginning and reject my claim regarding the stolen car. They tell me they take it I am unhappy and want to complain and let me know it takes them 8 weeks to conduct their investigation after which I can go to the Ombudsman.
In the letter I receive, they say nothing about the windscreen part but say this claim was a fault claim and I should have properly reported it. Despite being as open and honest about that previous claim in both my details when signing up (there is no box to tick fault or non fault to my memory - was via moneysupermarket.com) and verbally. They said my insurance company will send me a letter regarding my policy but they reject the claim for the stolen car.
I then get a separate letter from One Insurance (separate registered company) saying they are cancelling my policy but get my licence plate number wrong on the letter!
After 5 days of panic and stress from the initial call with one call insurance I pull together all the emails and downloaded documents from One Call Insurance and Admiral and find (thankfully!) I had downloaded my motor insurance document on the 11th Feb clearly showing the previous 'windscreen' claim listed as 'fault'. I also have my parting email from Admiral listing my claims with them and they say I have 'none' (there were 2 other claims, 1 a windscreen claim and the other was non-fault where someone reversed into me). I also downloaded the motor insurance document again and saw they changed my reg plate number and added the stolen car as a claim.
I am totally confused now as I don't see why they have cancelled my insurance and not voided it. If it's cancelled then they should still process my pre-dating stolen car claim right? Also, given the licence plate number is wrong on the letter, I'm not sure it is valid anyway?
One Call Insurance and One Insurance are not responding to my emails and I feel I have no choice but to wait the 8 weeks for them to conduct the investigation. I expect I will need to go to the Ombudsman anyway, which I can only do after I have my 'final' letter from them.
Has anyone got experience with how long it normally takes for the Ombudsman to come to a decision and how long it then takes to settle the payout? Any other advice would be so helpful.
Stay safe everyone.

chanz4

Great for you that all calls are recorded, so raise a complaint with admiral as well. The ombudsman will say as long as the none correct disclosure would normaly of covered you if it had been, they will   tell them to pay up but this one reason always togo on provider rather than price

dacouch

"AD claim" does not mean advice it means Accidental Damage Claim
Providing One Call would have insured you had they known about the claim being for £4500 and being a fault claim eg Admiral did not recover their money then they are obliged to pay your claim.
However with the other two claims you mentioned there is a chance they would not have offered cover in the first place which would mean they can deny the claim and void the policy.
You need to establish whether or not they would have covered you in the first place

koala_bear00

@dacouch - thanks for your comments. I've looked at several sites to work out what AD only claim means and they all say 'advice only claim' which goes to show how confusing this all is, and to my point before, how a 'normal' customer is supposed to have industry knowledge seems quite unfair. Is there an official site that explains the different types of claims?
You say that the outcome depends on if One call insurance would have insured me had they knew the cost of the £4500 claim... my point is that it is their responsibility to do the proper checks not mine. I gave them the information they needed, what more should I have done?

@chanz4 thanks also for your comments. I got my CUE documentation back and it didn't have any details of the calls that were made. It only had a list of my claims plus how they were settled. Bit dissapointing.

dacouch

Did your Insurers recover their outlay of £4500?

molerat

Have Admiral classed this as a glass claim or not ?  Many insurers do not cover panoramic roofs, which I suspect this is due to the cost, under glass - I believe Admiral do but you would need to check.  You also need to check if there is a £ limit on glass cover in your policy - if they do cover panoramic roofs there should not be as they can be scary expensive to fix. If it should be covered by glass, which does usually cover repairing paintwork and ancillary equipment due to the glass breakage, then you need to complain to Admiral as well as One Call.

koala_bear00

Thanks @molerat . Yes Admiral cover sunroofs and didn't specify a difference to panoramic roofs or a maximum cost as far as I can tell.
I have started the complaints process with Admiral now too. 
@dacouch, Admiral didn't recover the £4500 from me and there was no one else involved... not sure I've understood the point of your question.

dacouch

If they did not recover their outlay from anyone else and have classed it as an Accidental Damage claim and not a windscreen claim then the claim is regarded as a fault claim