XSDirect saying I owe them £51,000 !!!!!

[Deleted User]

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seatbeltnoob

this is a lesson in don't mess with legal stuff, insurance etc.

it seems like they knew what they were doing by cancelling the insurance, you thought it was a silly administrative error, "oh well. I'll just get another policy". But little did you know, this was a perfect set up to claw money back from you years down the line. Next move for them would be to make these charges stick and get you to agree to pay them, and then sell on the debt to a third party.

If they wanted you to send in those forms, they should have chased you a few times, reach out to you after not receiving the paperwork. I was involved in an accident. I was delivering and had top up insurance in place. I was hit by a vehicle insured by the same insurance company as my main car policy. So they wanted to deal with it internally. Once they gave me a figure, they were "testing" me, but asking for the policy number of my top up policy and the claim reference number. If I didn't have it, I would have been screwed. Luckily I was coverd and had it. They chased me up about 2 times a week for 2 weeks, until they got the number from me.

The way they just gave you 1 attempt to post the documents and then didn't chase or anything seems like they knew you were at fault and they had to pay out anyway. They paid out over £50K without even wanting to see your version of events written down on paper. They were pulling a fast one to claw back money from your later.

KimJongUn88

You need to seek clarification as to whether they just cancelled the policy or voided it from inception.

Sea_Shell

seatbeltnoob said:

it seems like they knew what they were doing by cancelling the insurance, you thought it was a silly administrative error, "oh well. I'll just get another policy". But little did you know, this was a perfect set up to claw money back from you years down the line. Next move for them would be to make these charges stick and get you to agree to pay them, and then sell on the debt to a third party.

Hmmm....interesting.  Is that their "plan"?


However, OP, can they actually get £51,000 from you?  Do you have assets (home, savings)?    Do you rent, or live with parents etc (sorry I don't know how old you are?).    

Sea_Shell

sheramber said:

it is quite possible the personal injury figure has only recently been established as it would depend on how long lasting the effects of the injury were.

How much the excess was is not relevant if the policy was cancelled.

I agree on your first point.

However, I was just trying to ascertain if the OP knew what sort of policy they were buying, and if they understood that even in the event of the policy not having being cancelled, they would have been asked to pay a £3000 excess towards the TP claim.

Most people limit their excess under a policy to that which they can afford in the event of a claim under a section that carries such and excess.


It would also appear that this insurer are happy to re-insure customers who have had previous policies cancelled (hence the OP's reinsurance with them), so they may gain repeat business, from those customers who cannot get insurance in the "main stream" because of a policy cancellation!

Grumpy_chap

I am confused on the timeline here, as I understand it:

• The OP took out an insurance policy, say month 1
• The OP had an accident, say month 2
• The insurer sent some forms requesting information from the OP in relation to the accident claim and asked for return within 14 days
• 14 days is a very short time - people can take longer for an annual holiday
• Without any further chasing the information, the insurer then terminated the policy, say month 3.  This was not cancellation (no further on going cover) but voided the policy from inception.  
• That means the OP was un-insured from taking the policy month 1 and therefore the OP is liable for the value of the claim in month 2.

I do understand that, when the insured's car is written off, then the policy is required to be paid in full but does not always continue (unless transferred to another vehicle between incident and settlement).  Once the insurer had settled the OP's write-off claim (even if that was nett zero because of high excess), I would understand the policy being cancelled going forwards.

What does not seem normal or reasonable is that the insurer voided the policy from inception simply because the OP failed to respond to a request for information within a very tight timeframe.
It cannot be right that an insurer can avoid their liabilities by such a technique, or all insurers would adopt such an approach as common practice.
It seems to be that, if the policy was voided from inception, there must be some reason other than the incident / failure to respond to request for information.
If it was simply failure to respond to request for information, I would expect the insurer to chase several times by letter, email, phone,  and even to share the claimant's description of events for the OP to confirm as what happened or say it was incorrect.

Is there something I have missed?

sevenhills

ariyanxh said:

I did cooperate. I had proof of postage. But I don’t have receipts from 3 years ago. This is crazy. Is there any way out of this ?

Perhaps it would have been better to just complete some more forms?

This is from their website "We offer lower premiums to drivers in return for sharing the risk of an accident. By paying a lower premium and having a higher excess, our drivers save, and their premium is guaranteed not to rise as a result of a claim."

Is that what you paid, the excess?

ariyanxh

I’ve been reading on trust pilot other people’s experiences. They have been doing this a lot. 

One individual did £200 worth of damage and they get a letter through the post 3 years later asking for £35,000. !!!!!!? I have no idea how this company is still operating. 
I’m going to take this advice on here. I shall start an official complaint. I’ll then speak to the FOS.  

ariyanxh

The only email I can is this from the brokers. This was received shortly after the letter from XSDirect saying they will cancel my policy. 

Sea_Shell

So if your policy was not cancelled until 1st February 2018, and your accident was in the January, then they do not appear to have voided from inception and should only be pursuing you for your excess.