Appealing car Insurance being revoked due to DVLA not issuing driving licence

dave18

Hello,
This morning I received notification from my car insurer that they will be revoking my car insurance, as at present due to DVLA records my licence is showing no entitlement to drive, due to a medical condition. Following a seizure in July 2019, I notified the DVLA that this had occurred and was advised I would not be able to drive for 12 months and my licence would be suspended. In June this year I applied to have this removed but my case has become bogged down within DVLA. Both my GP and Consultant have advised that they have written to the DVLA to state that I am now fit to drive, which occurred in August. DVLA then sat on this information for several months before writing back to my GP for extra details. 

When the car insurance came up for renewal in October I added myself back as the main driver and my wife as the 2nd driver, believing that my driving licence would be issued not long afterwards and also in the belief this was allowable under Section 88, though I have not driven since my seizure in 2019. My wife had been the main/only driver on the policy since my seizure.

As you will see this is a mess to say the least  and I have lodged a complaint with DVLA and will be calling them daily going forwards. Do I have any way of appealing this decision by my insurer, especially if my licence is activated again within the next 7 days following my complaint to the DVLA? 

Sandtree

On what grounds have they cancelled your insurance? For not informing them the situation on your license or for the situation itself? 

dave18

This is the core content of the email I have received.

We have issued cancellation because you have been unable to provide your driving licence summary showing your entitlement to drive. Unfortunately, we are currently unable to provide insurance cover for you in this case when we take into account other factors including the requirements of our pricing algorithm.

As a new insurer, we want to give everyone a better price for their car insurance. To do this, we work with several partners, agreeing when we can and can’t offer cover. I apologise for any misunderstanding, but, much as we'd like to, we can't cover everyone. We're working on increasing the number of people we can cover, but we do, unfortunately, have limitations. Regrettably, we are currently unable to cover you.

We will refund you everything you have paid to us minus the amount of days you have been with Marshmallow. We will also apply a cancellation charge of £75. We will work out the exact refund amount on the day of cancellation & email you confirmation. The funds will be in your bank account within 10 days of that cancellation.

Sandtree

Presumably they would allow you to remove yourself and leave it in your spouses name until the DVLA license issue is resolved and then add yourself back on?

I would certainly be considering a complaint both on the grounds of the £75 fee and the having an insurance cancellation against your name when its their mistake 

TrickyDicky101

Sandtree said:

I would certainly be considering a complaint both on the grounds of the £75 fee and the having an insurance cancellation against your name when its their mistake 

How is it the insurer's mistake?  

Sandtree

TrickyDicky101 said:

Sandtree said:

I would certainly be considering a complaint both on the grounds of the £75 fee and the having an insurance cancellation against your name when its their mistake 

How is it the insurer's mistake?  

On the basis the OP is saying they didnt lie about their circumstances (by answering my question) and therefore the insurer’s questions/processes were insufficient to filter out an issue that their insurers are not willing to take on.

Having gone through the site there is no questions on medical conditions to be declared to the DVLA nor the DVLA’s response after declaration. They have obviously done a behind the scenes check to validate the OPs license which has come back confirming that he does hold a full license but currently has no entitlement to drive due to a medical condition. That fact, that the OP didnt hide because he was never asked about it, has resulted in them saying they can no longer insure him. So, if their panel of insurers dont want people with DVLA medical conditions they should be asking the question up front (or doing realtime DVLA checks) and hence its the intermediaries fault. 

TELLIT01

I would think your only chance of a success appeal to the insurer is if the DVLA come back and say that your licence was reinstated in July/August but the systems hadn't been updated to show that.  If the DVLA states that the licence hasn't been reinstated you have no grounds that I can see to appeal.  In fact you have been driving without either licence or insurance.

To Sandtree, isn't having a current, valid driving licence a basic requirement of insurance?  Isn't there a question in the insurance application to confirm that?  If so, the fact that the OP gave incorrect information would be enough for the insurer to cancel the policy.

dave18

TELLIT01 said:

In fact you have been driving without either licence or insurance.

I haven't been driving since I had the seizure in July 2019 as stated in my original post. At the point when I took out the insurance in October based on the information provided to me by both my GP and consultant I wrongly presumed it would be a formality having my entitlement to drive returned.

Sandtree

TELLIT01 said:

To Sandtree, isn't having a current, valid driving licence a basic requirement of insurance?  Isn't there a question in the insurance application to confirm that?  If so, the fact that the OP gave incorrect information would be enough for the insurer to cancel the policy.

I’ve not seen a policy that states it is however they will normally state that you must obey the terms of your license and therefore even though you are insured to drive whilst your license is suspended would breach this term.