Invalid insurance 1 February at 1:22PM in Motoring 25 replies 1.6K views

Dudeweresmycar

Hi all,
my sister purchased a new car 17 months ago, she swapped over her car insurance to the new car as it had 9 months remaining. At the end of the insurance term she used the usual online companies for new quotes, she chose go compare., accepted the quote and started to pay her monthly installments .
The car has just been stolen from outside the house and on contacting her insurance company, they have advised the car isn’t insured ?

It seems that when she logged on for a quote it used the details of her old car, which was very similar make & model.
, and she didn’t realize the mistake.

She now faces a £14000 bill for the unrecovered car and the insurance company are refusing to help.

Does anyone know if she has any rights or if there’s anything she can do?

They were quite willing to accept her premiums , even though her previous car will be owned and insured by someone  else..

Any advise would be a great help.

MattMattMattUK

Dudeweresmycar said:

Hi all,
my sister purchased a new car 17 months ago, she swapped over her car insurance to the new car as it had 9 months remaining. At the end of the insurance term she used the usual online companies for new quotes, she chose go compare., accepted the quote and started to pay her monthly installments .
The car has just been stolen from outside the house and on contacting her insurance company, they have advised the car isn’t insured ?

It seems that when she logged on for a quote it used the details of her old car, which was very similar make & model.
, and she didn’t realize the mistake.

She now faces a £14000 bill for the unrecovered car and the insurance company are refusing to help.

Does anyone know if she has any rights or if there’s anything she can do?

She may be entitled to the premiums back. Unfortunately they cannot help with a vehicle that is not insured by them.

Dudeweresmycar said:

They were quite willing to accept her premiums , even though her previous car will be owned and insured by someone  else..

They do not know that the car was owned by someone else. Unfortunately because this is your sister's error and not theirs she has no recourse against them.

SiliconChip

The problem she'll have is that it's perfectly legal for somebody who isn't the owner to pay for a vehicle to be insured. Much will depend on the exact questions that were asked when completing the proposal and the answers given. It's certainly worth making a complaint to the insurer but she should be prepared for that to be unsuccessful.

giraffe69

So when the insurance was swapped to the new car with 9 months remaining didn't the company ask for the registration number to be updated even if the model was similar/identical?

Car_54

Did she not read the certificate?

JKenH

There would have had to be insurance in place for that car to be able to tax it with DVLA. Presumably your sister taxed it for a year when she bought it and she has also presumably taxed it again 5 months ago. DVLA check the insurance database when you make the payment. This suggests the car must have been insured when the road tax was due for renewal or didn’t she tax it either?

diystarter7

JKenH said:

There would have had to be insurance in place for that car to be able to tax it with DVLA. Presumably your sister taxed it for a year when she bought it and she has also presumably taxed it again 5 months ago. DVLA check the insurance database when you make the payment. This suggests the car must have been insured when the road tax was due for renewal or didn’t she tax it either?

Hi

You've covered better than I could but I too was thinking about road tax 

Another lesson is to check details as they say

Good luck OP

JKenH

Just another thought. Has she contacted the correct insurance company, not the previous one. 

Sea_Shell

Sadly this is one of the downsides of our "click, click, go" e-economy.

Especially with such an important, not to mention legal, product like car insurance.   

Even moreso if bought on a phone with a tiny screen.

The demise of the high street broker has put the power and speed at our fingertips, but has shifted all responsibility to us to get it right too.

Wonka_2

JKenH said:

There would have had to be insurance in place for that car to be able to tax it with DVLA. Presumably your sister taxed it for a year when she bought it and she has also presumably taxed it again 5 months ago. DVLA check the insurance database when you make the payment. This suggests the car must have been insured when the road tax was due for renewal or didn’t she tax it either?

Unless it had a private plate on it and the make/model were the same (I know, they're big ifs, but it is a loophole that would explain how)

Sea_Shell

Wonka_2 said:

JKenH said:

There would have had to be insurance in place for that car to be able to tax it with DVLA. Presumably your sister taxed it for a year when she bought it and she has also presumably taxed it again 5 months ago. DVLA check the insurance database when you make the payment. This suggests the car must have been insured when the road tax was due for renewal or didn’t she tax it either?

Unless it had a private plate on it and the make/model were the same (I know, they're big ifs, but it is a loophole that would explain how)

If it had a PP, would the error have been picked up by the insurer that quickly, as on first glance it would show as insured.

I would only come to light that it was the wrong car, after a little more investigation.

Eg.  A 2010 VW Golf on A123 ABC

As opposed to a 2020 VW Golf also registered with A123 ABC