Insurance company called to cancel my policy their fault!

Sandtree

not2plan said:
I will expect the broker to pay for the difference as they will be finding me the alternative quote or they will be paying for my time to do it.

Insurance is all about putting one back to the position they were in before and covering costs.
A reasonable position to take, not looking to profit but looking to resolve the problem they caused without being worse off.

The broker told me I was still covered for now and they have not cancelled it yet which suggests there is wiggle room and they told me they are looking into that eg other cars I own, experience, etc.
I'm certainly not going to accept a cancellation without redress or solution.

And if the new quote comes in lower will you pay them the surplus?

If you say the broker has made the error and you have a reasonable amount of business with them then clearly they will be wanting to see what they can do with the insurer but it is ultimately the insurer's decision.

Unfortunately with vague/obtuse answers its difficult to give any more thoughts, we live in a high risk area and had an expensive Group 50 car without needing to go to a specialist broker let alone having to pay a broker for advice so clearly there are facts being missed out but your prerogative on what you want to share

not2plan

MEM62 said:

Was this requirement included anywhere in you policy documents?   If not, you have a case to argue.  If so, you don't have a leg to stand on. 

No. Not discussed on the phone or written down.
Not included in the list of requirements ie mileage declaration, proof of NCB, copy of license.

They may or may not be quaking in their boots.   

Would make me happier.

Whether you consider this requirement to be relevant or necessary is irrelevant to your case.  The underwriter can impose what requirements they see fit.  They do not require you to see the point in them. 

Very true. Odd to hear about it at this stage since it very much a high criteria requirement before quoting wouldnt you say ?

If they have messed up, they may be guarded in what they are telling you.  As for fault, you really need to establish this by proving that the requirement was not stated in the documentation.  

Naturally. It wasnt/isnt in my documents.

As above it either was documented or it wasn't.  Underwriters are not able to add the condition after the event.  

The proof is more about it actually being this and not something else where the broker has screwed up and is lying to me - it would not be the first time an insurance company has lied to me.

If you have had a policy cancelled, it is bad news as all future ones will either be problematic, expensive or both.  

I didn't think it would be smooth sailing.

If you are 100% that this was not raised before and is not included in the original T's and C's you should be OK.  Would be interested to see how it turns out.    

100% several times over.

Ditto.

Herzlos

not2plan said:

I will expect the broker to pay for the difference as they will be finding me the alternative quote or they will be paying for my time to do it.

Insurance is all about putting one back to the position they were in before and covering costs.
A reasonable position to take, not looking to profit but looking to resolve the problem they caused without being worse off.

Good luck. You can try and take them to small claims for that difference back but expect to be fighting against a legal team with decades of this sort of thing.

Back to the position you are in would be no insurance and your money back for any unused time. They won't cover your time sorting it out or the premium difference in going to another insurer.  They certainly have no obligation to get you insured with anyone else, it's outside the scope of the contract.

I'm also not sure why adding commuting would mean a new policy. I've added commuting and class 1 mid policy and only had to pay the (trivial) difference. Sure, you may have a hard using a 2 seater for work, depending on the work.


I'm curious about this car now, more power than an M3 but slower. Is it something pretty unusual, like an imported truck?

not2plan

Sandtree said:

And if the new quote comes in lower will you pay them the surplus?

Unfortunately with vague/obtuse answers its difficult to give any more thoughts, we live in a high risk area and had an expensive Group 50 car without needing to go to a specialist broker let alone having to pay a broker for advice so clearly there are facts being missed out but your prerogative on what you want to share

A new quote simply wont be any cheaper. Wanting immediate cover is never the cheapest option for starters.

There are no vague answers and no hiding anything other than identity.
I used a broker because the main stream market quoted so high that they effectively didn't want to know.
That's how it is with high power or modified vehicles.
That's why specialist brokers exist.

I'm happy for you that you found it easier to get insurance but as you appear to have some knowledge of insurance you should well know that your situation is irrelevant to mine. We could live next door, have a similar job and age and the same NCB and for "reasons" our quotes could still be miles apart. It's just how the quotes system works taking into account all sorts of factors on an hourly basis, even the weather ! as its driven by statistics.

Thus the car make/model and it's value are somewhat irrelevant to the issue at hand other than it being a higher risk vehicle than the average (and potentially to yours regardless of grouping) and therefore having special terms which potentially? didnt/dont apply to yours either.

not2plan

For the sake of argument I just ran it through the meerkat.

It's roughly double what I'm paying.

k3lvc

DB1904 said:

Herzlos said:

not2plan said:

I would also not have use of the vehicle if they cancelled the policy until I could obtain another policy, and my other vehicles are not the same use class so not an option to be driven, thus effectively without a car.

What's the car and useage class? Surely you can change the class on one of the other vehicles?

The 6 month thing doesn't sound unreasonable from an insurance point of view. You've driven modified cars before so it may not apply to you, but I dare say a lot of drivers of smaller cars and treat themselves to something fast have expensive accidents in the first 6 months. Imagine being used to a 60bhp VW Polo and then upgrading to an M3.


Your only real option is to find another insurer for this car immediately, and then insist that the broker gives you a full refund on the policy. They won't pay you any difference between what you paid them and what you need to pay now, because not everything is equal. You might need a fight via the ombudsman to even get a refund on the 2 months you've already used which would potentially not have even been covered.

At least one poster has imagined that. 

Careful - last time I made such a suggestion I got a 2 week ban 

Sandtree

not2plan said:

Sandtree said:

And if the new quote comes in lower will you pay them the surplus?

Unfortunately with vague/obtuse answers its difficult to give any more thoughts, we live in a high risk area and had an expensive Group 50 car without needing to go to a specialist broker let alone having to pay a broker for advice so clearly there are facts being missed out but your prerogative on what you want to share

A new quote simply wont be any cheaper. Wanting immediate cover is never the cheapest option for starters.

There are no vague answers and no hiding anything other than identity.
I used a broker because the main stream market quoted so high that they effectively didn't want to know.
That's how it is with high power or modified vehicles.
That's why specialist brokers exist.

I'm happy for you that you found it easier to get insurance but as you appear to have some knowledge of insurance you should well know that your situation is irrelevant to mine. We could live next door, have a similar job and age and the same NCB and for "reasons" our quotes could still be miles apart. It's just how the quotes system works taking into account all sorts of factors on an hourly basis, even the weather ! as its driven by statistics.

Thus the car make/model and it's value are somewhat irrelevant to the issue at hand other than it being a higher risk vehicle than the average (and potentially to yours regardless of grouping) and therefore having special terms which potentially? didnt/dont apply to yours either.

Not that many years ago I was creating pricing structures for Motor insurance and so have a strong understanding of "reasons", whilst still in the insurance industry I've been focusing on other aspects in more recent years like the black art of reinsurance or capital modelling.

I'm somewhat curious as to what you "so high" figures are? Personally I thought circa £650 for a 4.7L/450BHP/£90k with a learner driver was a great price. A specialist broker is needed for much more complex cases than simply an expensive/good performance vehicle. Heavy modifications, bad history, classic car absolutely but car insurance is so commoditised that you really need to be at the fringes to need them.

Herzlos

not2plan said:

For the sake of argument I just ran it through the meerkat.

It's roughly double what I'm paying.

Unfortunately that's not their problem. Out of curiosity how much more would you have paid 2 months ago if they didn't give you a quote?

not2plan

Sandtree said:

I'm somewhat curious as to what you "so high" figures are? Personally I thought circa £650 for a 4.7L/450BHP/£90k with a learner driver was a great price.

This was in the high 3 figures, most other quotes I would take were in the low to mid 4 figures.

It's all relative to location, car, risk, history of claims against that model, etc etc

For me these numbers were deemed high as the rest of my policies including highly modified vehicles are all sub 300.