Charged for cancelling a policy I don’t believe I authorised

IamBec

Hey all,  I wonder if you’d give me your views... I tried to set up a house insurance policy in December.   After going through the details the agent went to take payment but their system wasn’t working and she said she would call me back the following day to take payment (policy due to start the following day).  She did say that if she wasn’t able to take payment the. The policy would be cancelled.
short story is I missed her call and thus assumed that there was no insurance in place.   The insurer/broker send a few letters (which I didn’t open until 3 or 4 weeks later admittedly) but they are saying that is now saying they held insurance for me for 1 month before cancelling the policy and I need to pay that plus the cancellation fee from the insurer which comes to around £80 (total annual policy was £584).   This seems hefty given I didn’t believe there to be any insurance...... I believe there was no payment of goods and thus no insurance but they say they can’t comment on the law, they won’t uphold my complaint and discuss further but I need to pay.    Is this right? It certainly doesn’t feel right (tho I admit I should have opened my mail
more promptly) any advice greatly received..... thanks 

[Deleted User]

It certainly feels right that you'll need to pay the fee, which will also be for the cover you had for a month. 

If you have no longer wanted any cover, you could have responded to their communications and advised them of that.

Sandtree

It certainly sounds like they acted in good faith, you did everything required to form a contract and only a system error caused it to technically be unable to complete on that day (the commitment to pay is sufficient for a contract).

You state the policy was to start the following day and so when you didnt answer their call and did not return it they followed your original instructions and put the policy in place so you were not at risk of something happening and you being uninsured. The fact you never bothered calling them back nor even looked at their letters just adds fuel to the issue.

Presumably the bit of the story you are not telling us is in that time you have gone off and bought another policy from someone else? 

Ultimately you are in your right to complain and evidence that this will result in dual insurance for the period but really their complaint about you is much more founded. Certainly the honourable thing to do is work out if its cheaper to cancel the second policy or this one and then pay whichever is cheaper

naedanger

Did you obtain alternative cover, or are you saying you believe you weren't insured by anyone for the period in question?

If you had arranged alternative cover then I think you should have a reasonable chance of having a complaint upheld. But if you didn't then I think they might go by the letter of what was said, which is your policy was cancelled. It is not that it never started, and you are simply being charged the contractual rate for the cover you have had plus (I presume) the contractual cancellation charges.

dunstonh

 I need to pay that plus the cancellation fee from the insurer which comes to around £80 (total annual policy was £584).   This seems hefty given I didn’t believe there to be any insurance.

You are working on assumption rather than fact.    So, your position in that part of the argument is weak.     £80 does not sound at all unreasonable.   That £80 will likely be made up of a cancellation fee (typically £25-£75) and premium for the period which wont be exactly pro-rata.

If you genuinely believed this policy was not in force, then it would mean you put an alternative plan in force instead.   If so, you are dual insured in error, it is normal for the insurance companies to come to an arrangement where one refunds you or they share a bit of the refund. 
If you didn't put alternative insurance in place then you just look like someone trying it on and there is absolutely no reason for them to refund you.

Hasbeen

IamBec said:

Hey all,  I wonder if you’d give me your views... I tried to set up a house insurance policy in December.   After going through the details the agent went to take payment but their system wasn’t working and she said she would call me back the following day to take payment (policy due to start the following day).  She did say that if she wasn’t able to take payment the. The policy would be cancelled.
short story is I missed her call and thus assumed that there was no insurance in place.   The insurer/broker send a few letters (which I didn’t open until 3 or 4 weeks later admittedly) but they are saying that is now saying they held insurance for me for 1 month before cancelling the policy and I need to pay that plus the cancellation fee from the insurer which comes to around £80 (total annual policy was £584).   This seems hefty given I didn’t believe there to be any insurance...... I believe there was no payment of goods and thus no insurance but they say they can’t comment on the law, they won’t uphold my complaint and discuss further but I need to pay.    Is this right? It certainly doesn’t feel right (tho I admit I should have opened my mail
more promptly) any advice greatly received..... thanks 

Yes you need to pay for the cover / cancelation fees.

And also most people open letters the day they are delivered not 4 weeks later?  

[Deleted User]

dunstonh said:

 I need to pay that plus the cancellation fee from the insurer which comes to around £80 (total annual policy was £584).   This seems hefty given I didn’t believe there to be any insurance.

You are working on assumption rather than fact.    So, your position in that part of the argument is weak.     £80 does not sound at all unreasonable.   That £80 will likely be made up of a cancellation fee (typically £25-£75) and premium for the period which wont be exactly pro-rata.

If you genuinely believed this policy was not in force, then it would mean you put an alternative plan in force instead.   If so, you are dual insured in error, it is normal for the insurance companies to come to an arrangement where one refunds you or they share a bit of the refund. 
If you didn't put alternative insurance in place then you just look like someone trying it on and there is absolutely no reason for them to refund you.

£75 is not a reasonable cancellation fee.
£10 is pushing it.

A better phrase might be "contractually obligated".

dunstonh

[DELETED USER] said:

dunstonh said:

 I need to pay that plus the cancellation fee from the insurer which comes to around £80 (total annual policy was £584).   This seems hefty given I didn’t believe there to be any insurance.

You are working on assumption rather than fact.    So, your position in that part of the argument is weak.     £80 does not sound at all unreasonable.   That £80 will likely be made up of a cancellation fee (typically £25-£75) and premium for the period which wont be exactly pro-rata.

If you genuinely believed this policy was not in force, then it would mean you put an alternative plan in force instead.   If so, you are dual insured in error, it is normal for the insurance companies to come to an arrangement where one refunds you or they share a bit of the refund. 
If you didn't put alternative insurance in place then you just look like someone trying it on and there is absolutely no reason for them to refund you.

£75 is not a reasonable cancellation fee.
£10 is pushing it.

A better phrase might be "contractually obligated".

Only if you have never run a business and don't understand the costs.

Sandtree

[DELETED USER] said:

£75 is not a reasonable cancellation fee.
£10 is pushing it.

A better phrase might be "contractually obligated".

Costs legally have to be reasonable not just contractually obligated but reasonableness can be measured on an average basis rather than individual.

Clearly you have never looked at the cost of acquisition for insurance policies let alone all the overheads of running a business.

csgohan4

[DELETED USER] said:

dunstonh said:

 I need to pay that plus the cancellation fee from the insurer which comes to around £80 (total annual policy was £584).   This seems hefty given I didn’t believe there to be any insurance.

You are working on assumption rather than fact.    So, your position in that part of the argument is weak.     £80 does not sound at all unreasonable.   That £80 will likely be made up of a cancellation fee (typically £25-£75) and premium for the period which wont be exactly pro-rata.

If you genuinely believed this policy was not in force, then it would mean you put an alternative plan in force instead.   If so, you are dual insured in error, it is normal for the insurance companies to come to an arrangement where one refunds you or they share a bit of the refund. 
If you didn't put alternative insurance in place then you just look like someone trying it on and there is absolutely no reason for them to refund you.

£75 is not a reasonable cancellation fee.
£10 is pushing it.

A better phrase might be "contractually obligated".

Do you know how much compliance costs insurers every year? software costs? HR costs?
i don't know, but would imagine it's hell of alot more than £10 per customer

mattyprice4004

You didn’t open the letters for a month?!
Sounds like the blame lies closer to home; this wasn’t their fault. If you’d bothered to open your post you could have mitigated the amount.