Home Insurance refund for a proper you no longer live in?

spo2

Aylesbury_Duck said:

spo2 said:

macman said:

Possibly, though you would think that setting up a policy at the new address would serve as a reminder to cancel the old one...

You would think - but we still get renewals for the previous owners of our house. We've owned the house for over 6 years and they pay about twice what we do for buildings and contents and seemingly never notice

I've had something similar, with the previous owner having paid for locks, roof and vermin cover for years, at over £20p.m. and rising each year.  I've returned mail, emailed and called the insurer several times, to no avail.

Same here - I have tried to inform the insurance company that the person does not own the house or have any interest - but they do not seem to be interested. They're still getting their money so they won't cancel it without the account holder's say so!

Sandtree

pbartlett said:

I do believe the policy is (and has been since you moved out) null anyway as you cannot insure something that you don't have an insurable interest in.

https://www.abi.org.uk/data-and-resources/tools-and-resources/glossary/insurable-interest/

I would question if it is fully correct, you cannot claim on something where you do not meet the insurable interest tests but that doesnt mean you cannot insure it. A former client was paying about £700k a year in premiums for a policy where it was highly questionable if they had any insurable interest (it was a joint policy with total premiums of circa £40m)

For general insurance the insurable interest is at the point of claim (life insurance its at the point of purchase) and therefore if you were planning to buy a car on Sunday but something happened and you didnt actually do so until Monday but had already arranged the insurance and couldnt be bothered queuing to speak to the insurer to change it etc that wouldnt void the policy just because you had no insurable interest at inception... you just couldnt claim if the car was stolen over night.

Some insurers are reasonable when you point out that you move address etc and forgot to tell them and that show you are covered by another policy at your new address. The reasonableness only tends to go so far (wont refund 10 years of premiums) and things get less amiable if you're no longer insured at your new place.

pbartlett

Thanks for that. I think (but may be wrong) that if you have an insurable interest at the start of the (non-life) policy but then subsequently don't have one (eg you move out) then the policy is not void. If, however, you didn't have an insurable interest on taking out the (non-life) policy then the policy is void from the start.

Thus when the OP moved out the policy was in effect. However, at next renewal, the OP is entering into a new contract and at that point does not have an insurable interest and thus the policy is void - no premiums are due, no claims are possible.

All renewals of this void policy are also void.

Happy to be corrected.

edit: found this. See clauses 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 etc and particularly 4.1 regarding return of money

PART NAME (lawcom.gov.uk)

born_again

spo2 said:

Same here - I have tried to inform the insurance company that the person does not own the house or have any interest - but they do not seem to be interested. They're still getting their money so they won't cancel it without the account holder's say so!

You can understand why they won't when a unknown 3rd party is contacting them. They are not going to cancel a policy. It could be anyone who has a grudge against the person.

Sandtree

pbartlett said:

the OP is entering into a new contract and at that point does not have an insurable interest and thus the policy is void

They don't still own the watch they declared just because they moved home? The OP implies it was a rental so would be contents only.

They still own the contents they owned previously and so still have an insurable interest in it, what the actual issue is a declaration one because they have negligently failed to update their address... I dont know many that move home in their birthday suit with absolutely none of their contents