Inadequate insurance - what should I do?

ElephantBoy57

DLsttyl said:

My insurer of a secondary (rarely used) vehicle was not informed of some points and a disqualification - the policy renewed by itself and I didn't inform them of the change.

Self-renewal of policies should be banned. I just cancelled my breakdown cover today, on principle I will not go with that company again. It took me several calls before I got to speak to a person, they deliberately make contact difficult by not displaying an email address.

It cannot be fraud if it self-renewed; it is just a money issue.

Mercdriver

If you think it is likely that they will cancel your policy, (and a ban makes this likely) cancel it yourself.  But don't on any account drive until you are covered by someone else, and be sure to declare everything to the next company.  If they cancel you will always have to declare it as policy questions are always worded: Have you EVER had a policy cancelled.  

sweetsand

Jumblebumble said:

sweetsand said:

They could charge with fraud, IE paying less for your car insurance than you would have otherwise and cheating them out of the money they would have got if you told them the truth.
It's fraud, it is not nice, do the right think, fess up, now!

I would be interested in you citing a case where an insurance company has charged anyone with fraud under these circumstances rather than voiding from inception and keeping the premium

You can look up the cases but below is a link that tells you in plain language that lying to an insurance co to get cheaper quote is fraud and not just by hiding penalty points/etc but insuring the car in your name and having a young driver but the younger driver is the main driver, giving a flase address eg address of family where it is chaper to insure and a lot more

Someone we know had their insurance canclled and not got a penny back when someone grassed them up saying they parked their car in a garage overnight when in fact it was on the drive. Someone told me at work that they child had bught a car in their name and inusred in parents name to get cheaper insurance then a minior prang and the youngster on the phone to insurance and the firndly chat resulted in the insurance ascertaining the car was fraudulently insured so gave the family the option to pay for the damge to their car, the third party, write of the insurance premium, and blacklisted from isnurance or go to court - they not to go to court and lost the price of their car worth about 1k before the crash 300 insurance and 3k damage to the other car and now pay a hefty mark up on their own car, house and contents insurance.

I have famiy that works in one of th top insurance co's and they have an voice analytic sytem that listens to the two way call and alerts the insurance if there are any porkies.

https://www.ingenie.com/young-drivers-guide/what-happens-if-you-lie-to-your-insurer

Thanks

sweetsand

Mercdriver said:

If you think it is likely that they will cancel your policy, (and a ban makes this likely) cancel it yourself.  But don't on any account drive until you are covered by someone else, and be sure to declare everything to the next company.  If they cancel you will always have to declare it as policy questions are always worded: Have you EVER had a policy cancelled.  

Indeed and if you lie about that, they will find out in most cases especially when yu need them EG you crashed or invloved in a crash and they will not payout to you and chase you for the money with the option of court action for fraud and most people pay up that have a few quid to their name and a property.

sweetsand

ElephantBoy57 said:

DLsttyl said:

My insurer of a secondary (rarely used) vehicle was not informed of some points and a disqualification - the policy renewed by itself and I didn't inform them of the change.

Self-renewal of policies should be banned. I just cancelled my breakdown cover today, on principle I will not go with that company again. It took me several calls before I got to speak to a person, they deliberately make contact difficult by not displaying an email address.

It cannot be fraud if it self-renewed; it is just a money issue.

Aut renewals are the biggest con around. Having said that some people are very forgetful/lazy and it suits them so you are therefore never not insured on car/property etc unless you have no money in bank/cc - but i laways get them to stop the auto reneweal EG Ring secuirt kind of insisted i said no and they don't Aviva insurance prefers auto we said no - property with anoter we said no - rental properties with another no aut renewal - we save ourselves close to 1.5k during the last 12 months on renweals.

DLsttyl

sweetsand said:

Jumblebumble said:

sweetsand said:

They could charge with fraud, IE paying less for your car insurance than you would have otherwise and cheating them out of the money they would have got if you told them the truth.
It's fraud, it is not nice, do the right think, fess up, now!

I would be interested in you citing a case where an insurance company has charged anyone with fraud under these circumstances rather than voiding from inception and keeping the premium

You can look up the cases 

Are there any that you know of?

dacouch

sweetsand said:

Jumblebumble said:

sweetsand said:

They could charge with fraud, IE paying less for your car insurance than you would have otherwise and cheating them out of the money they would have got if you told them the truth.
It's fraud, it is not nice, do the right think, fess up, now!

I would be interested in you citing a case where an insurance company has charged anyone with fraud under these circumstances rather than voiding from inception and keeping the premium

You can look up the cases but below is a link that tells you in plain language that lying to an insurance co to get cheaper quote is fraud and not just by hiding penalty points/etc but insuring the car in your name and having a young driver but the younger driver is the main driver, giving a flase address eg address of family where it is chaper to insure and a lot more

Someone we know had their insurance canclled and not got a penny back when someone grassed them up saying they parked their car in a garage overnight when in fact it was on the drive. Someone told me at work that they child had bught a car in their name and inusred in parents name to get cheaper insurance then a minior prang and the youngster on the phone to insurance and the firndly chat resulted in the insurance ascertaining the car was fraudulently insured so gave the family the option to pay for the damge to their car, the third party, write of the insurance premium, and blacklisted from isnurance or go to court - they not to go to court and lost the price of their car worth about 1k before the crash 300 insurance and 3k damage to the other car and now pay a hefty mark up on their own car, house and contents insurance.

I have famiy that works in one of th top insurance co's and they have an voice analytic sytem that listens to the two way call and alerts the insurance if there are any porkies.

https://www.ingenie.com/young-drivers-guide/what-happens-if-you-lie-to-your-insurer

Thanks

That article is just written for google SEO reasons, it would be very unusual for someone to be prosecuted for fraud in such circumstances. It tends to only happen when the police are involved in the matter and for some reason want to go after the person.
It's very unusual for an Insurer to report someone to Insurers and tends to only happen in pre planned complex fraudulent claims. The police are not interested when an Insurer reports Joe Bloggs who insured his son's car in his name 

DLsttyl

eamon said:

Fess up to the points total as an admin error on your part. What your Insurance co do next is out of your hands. I wonder if it would be useful to take an opinion from an insurance broker on what you can do re the claim and the attitude of your insurance co. Possible Insurance co responses range from paying out to not paying out, cancelling your policy and black marking your record. 

Hmm, I wonder if it's worth it, then.
If I start the claim is there any going back/deciding not to pursue it? Will my insurer speak to the other party and everything quickly becomes quite complicated?
It does strike me as unlikely that they'd just say, OK, let's back-date it and still pay out on this claim... like someone else said; any little reason not to pay, let alone a big one like this.

So my best bet might still be to settle this incident outside of insurance, and then quietly fix my insurance (e.g. take up a new policy separately.  I'll decide tomorrow. What's the vote? Is there any conceivable way I could attempt one option and then the other? I can't think how.

TooManyPoints

The heading of your question is incorrect. You don’t have inadequate insurance. You have a policy which you obtained by misrepresentation. If the insurers discover that (which they surely will if you continue with a claim and probably will anyway since they’ve already asked to see your driving record) I doubt very much whether they will simply ask for an increased premium; they will almost certainly cancel your policy. You may have got away with it if you only had a single conviction, but to have three which you declared followed by a fourth which resulted in a discretionary disqualification (probably meaning the excess speed was high) I don't think will be treated lightly.

The repercussions of that are immense. You will have to declare it as a fact for the rest of your life. Whenever you make a proposal for an insurance policy one of the questions is “Have you ever had a policy cancelled?” You will have to answer that you have and it will cause you either increased premiums or refusal to quote.

I don't think you'll make much progress by saying it was because the policy auto-renewed. There's bound to be a clause in the policy which says you must inform them of any convictions or fixed penalties (either when they occur or upon renewal) and they probably sent you an e-mail anyway telling you the policy was due to renew and reminding you that you must inform them of any material changes. You could look on the bright side and be thankful that you were not involved in an accident which resulted in a claim for serious personal injury. Although the insurers would remain liable to pay the Third Party (under the Road Traffic Act) they would be able to pursue you for reimbursement of their outlay.

The best thing you can do is cancel the policy yourself before the insurers cancel it for you.

Mercdriver

OP, you need to cut your losses.  I would cancel and forget the claim.  It will be cheaper than having to go through specialist brokers for the rest of your driving career.