Car insurance proof of address not being accepted

Sam_G

Hi all,
I have recently taken out a car insurance policy with Admiral. 2 days before the policy is due to start I get a request from their audit team wanting documents for proof of address, as well as a copy of my driving license and license history from the DVLA. That's fine, happy to provide those. I look down the list of items they will accept for proof of address and it says the following:

A copy of a recent council tax or utility bill.
If you are unable to provide any of the above, then we would accept any of the following documents:
Landline Bills/Broadband Bills
Car Tax Reminder Letter
Mortgage letters
HM Revenue & Customs or Benefit letters
P60 letters
TV Licence letters
Electoral Roll letter or Voting cards
Pension letters
We cannot accept:
Bank statements
Mobile phone bills
Tenancy agreements
Hospital appointment letters
Payslips

For context I live with my parents, so instantly the council tax bill, landline bill, utility bill, and mortgage letters vanish from the list of possibilities. My car tax is paid by continual direct debit, so I don't any reminders from them about that. I phoned the DVLA and they said they can't provide any reminders or bills for direct debit holders. HMRC letters can only be within the last 3 months, I haven't received my annual tax statement from them yet this year so there goes that one. My P60 is addressed to my work office as is standard practise by my employer, no address there either. I don't have any pension letters, again these are a yearly thing and the last one I got was in April. That leaves me with electoral roll letters, which I haven't received since the last time there was a vote. So all in all I have zero of the documents they have requested and they have stated they will cancel my insurance inside 7 days if I fail to provide what they want. I find this a bit ridiculous seeing as I can/have provided them with driving license (proof of address), passport (proof of ID), multiple bank statements (proof of address). As well as this they can carry out a credit check on me to confirm this information. 

My question is on what grounds are they able to decide what constitutes proof of address? By making this list as restrictive as possible they are giving themselves free rain to cancel insurance at will, which I have no doubt I will be charged a fee for the privilege of! I find it absolutely absurd that a credit card company will lend me thousands of pounds of unsecured loan based on a proof of address that a car insurance company won't let me use to pay for a £300 policy up front! 

Do I have any grounds to fight this? Will this count as having insurance declined if I can't get a proof of address in time? They have me in a position for which I have no way out and I feel completely helpless.

Any advice would be great,

Thanks, Sam

Sam_G

EDIT: I can't open the spoiler, not sure if anyone else can? But here is what it says:

A copy of a recent council tax or utility bill.

If you are unable to provide any of the above, then we would accept any of the following documents:

Landline Bills/Broadband Bills

Car Tax Reminder Letter

Mortgage letters

HM Revenue & Customs or Benefit letters

P60 letters

TV Licence letters

Electoral Roll letter or Voting cards

Pension letters

We cannot accept:

Bank statements
Mobile phone bills
Tenancy agreements
Hospital appointment letters
Payslips

Sandtree

You wont be the first person living with their parents that have gotten insurance from Admiral so give them a call to discuss. 

Its unusual that they want a second proof of address (given the license is one) and that bank statements are on the not acceptable list though have a suspicion on that one.

MovingForwards

Have you called admiral, advised of your living / bill situation and asked what else they will accept as proof?

dunstonh

Any advice would be great,

What have Admiral said when you have phoned them to discuss this?

Sam_G

I have phoned admiral, they stated that they wouldn't budge and they would cancel my policy inside 7 days if I failed to provide the documents.

rs65

Sam_G said:

I have phoned admiral, they stated that they wouldn't budge and they would cancel my policy inside 7 days if I failed to provide the documents.

Cancel it before they do.

If the sales process doesn't mention this need, I would also make a complaint

Sam_G

So I have had some positive news, not from Admiral of course, they're still useless!
After speaking to my company HR they are going to send me out a P60 addressed to my home address, although it could take 10 working days to process (Large business and Covid slowing things down) so I'm going to have to go back to Admiral and tell them that, see what they say. 
Safe to say I won't be purchasing anything from this bunch of conmen again!

jimbo6977

Agree with the advice above, if YOU cancel the policy and find an alternative insurer you don't have to declare the cancellation. If you leave it until THEY cancel the policy, you have to declare the cancellation to all future insurers and they won't care about the reasons or the whys and wherefores. This will cause you a huge headache and cost you dear for the rest of time. 

In the meantime, from a quick search, I believe the contact you need at Admiral is Claire Charlton, Head of Customer and Conduct. 

Sam_G

jimbo6977 said:

In the meantime, from a quick search, I believe the contact you need at Admiral is Claire Charlton, Head of Customer and Conduct. 

Thanks jimbo6977, fortunately my local council were fantastic and printed me off a proof of electoral address the same day, I just had to drive in and pick it up. So I have now submitted that as my proof of address. I will wait for them to accept it and then when I have confirmation I will raise a complaint. 

If I wasn't in the fortunate situation of having my local council do that for me at such short notice I would have been in real trouble and had to cancel the policy. A lot of stress, time, and reliance on other people to make up for Admirals inability to accept government approved forms of proof of address. I don't think it's very acceptable on their part personally. I would be interested to hear other people's opinions on whether this is standard practice, or just something used by the dodgy insurance companies? If this is what you get trying to buy the policy I'm terrified to see what they would do to wriggle out of paying if I ever had to make a claim! Doesn't bode well.  

MovingForwards

Admiral are not a dodgy insurance company, if anything something has triggered them to check your address; doing searches at different addresses on comparison sites, not being able to electronically verify you or something else.

Better it was done now, than later if you have to claim.