A non fault, non recovered, zero pay out cancelled motorbike claim has serious implications?

scobiej

I recently had a web based insurance quote declined (via Admiral) and had to ring up to find out why. It turned out I had not put on details about a claim that was against my name back in January via Zenith Insurance. To be honest, I had totally forgotten about it because it was a scooter worth £250 which I had stolen from a train station which had been reported to police but the insurance company was such a nightmare, it would've cost me more to go through with the claim than the bike was worth, so I told them to forget it.
I now go to insure another vehicle and when they add this on, it has pushed up the new insurance by over £350! That's 4 times the amount of an annual insurance on the stolen scooter I had.
This is morally wrong beyond comprehension and Zenith are saying they cannot remove it from their records (remember, they paid out nothing for it). 
Is there any legal course of action I can take?

Sandtree

"Fault" is a contentious word when it comes to claims and almost certainly should be dropped as it causes so many headaches.

Almost all motor insurers require you to declare incidents whether you claimed for it or not and therefore irrespective if Zenith were to remove the log or not you should still declare the matter to future insurers. Because theft claims almost never result in a recovery being made against the thief they are typically viewed as a "fault" incident even if you aren't "to blame" for it.

What actually happened with Admiral? Did you buy the policy and they then cancelled it for non-disclosure? As this is potentially something else you now must declare to other!

Jumblebumble

scobiej said:

I recently had a web based insurance quote declined (via Admiral) and had to ring up to find out why. It turned out I had not put on details about a claim that was against my name back in January via Zenith Insurance. To be honest, I had totally forgotten about it because it was a scooter worth £250 which I had stolen from a train station which had been reported to police but the insurance company was such a nightmare, it would've cost me more to go through with the claim than the bike was worth, so I told them to forget it.
I now go to insure another vehicle and when they add this on, it has pushed up the new insurance by over £350! That's 4 times the amount of an annual insurance on the stolen scooter I had.
This is morally wrong beyond comprehension and Zenith are saying they cannot remove it from their records (remember, they paid out nothing for it). 
Is there any legal course of action I can take?

You need to add to the Subject "failed to declare incident"

chrisw

scobiej said:

back in January. To be honest, I had totally forgotten about it because it was a scooter worth £250 which I had stolen from a train station which had been reported to police but the insurance company was such a nightmare.

Yeah right. Six months ago, £250 lost and insurance a nightmare but you completely forgot about it. I can remember having my push bike stolen 30 years ago.

You made a fraudulent declaration, consider yourself lucky to get away with a £350 increase.

Hasbeen

chrisw said:

scobiej said:

back in January. To be honest, I had totally forgotten about it because it was a scooter worth £250 which I had stolen from a train station which had been reported to police but the insurance company was such a nightmare.

Yeah right. Six months ago, £250 lost and insurance a nightmare but you completely forgot about it. I can remember having my push bike stolen 30 years ago.

You made a fraudulent declaration, consider yourself lucky to get away with a £350 increase.

As above and also do not steal scooters?  "it was a scooter worth £250 which I had stolen from a train station" LOL 

phillw

It's kinda annoying as they could just check and not make you enter the details in the first place.
I had a similar issue a few years ago with the insurer coming back for more money when they discovered the 4 year and 11 month speed camera fine that I had forgotten about.
There isn't particularly anything you can complain about though.

[Deleted User]

scobiej said:

This is morally wrong beyond comprehension

Perhaps, but in your defence, you say you just forgot about it, rather than intentionally omitting it, so don't be too hard on yourself.

Sandtree

phillw said:

It's kinda annoying as they could just check and not make you enter the details in the first place.

Dont you think its a good test of your moral compass/ "memory"? There are many elements of the declaration they cannot test and have to take on trust, having one or to they can systematically validate your answer could be seen as a sensible approach.

As others have already pointed out the OP had something of material worth stolen, had to deal with the police, had a major pain dealing with an insurance company etc and yet shortly after totally forgot about it... wonder if they remember all their speeding tickets etc too?