Car Insurance - could we lose our home over claim situation caused by me?

BillieBoy

Ok.. I know I’m asking a lot given what I’m going to tell you but please be gentle with me. I am dealing with a lot and am genuinely pretty close to the edge.

Two weeks ago when I was at my dying father’s hospital bedside (he passed away last week) my husband had a psychotic break and took my ‘summer car’ for a drive. It was a genuine psychotic break and he has since been detained under the mental health act. During his drive he was in a very serious head on collision and sustained multiple injuries. Thankfully no one else was injured but he wrote off three other vehicles.

Now here is the bit that I’m struggling to forgive myself for. Whilst the car was off road over the winter (it’s a little sports car) we changed the registration plate to a private plate and as I had no intentions whatsoever of driving it I didn’t inform the insurance company. It was still locked in the garage and hadn’t even seen the light of day. Whilst I was away it looks as though my husband had got the car out on the day of the accident (we have cctv) and driven it just that once.  If I had been there there is no way I would have let him drive it, or any car at all for that matter.

My insurance company are refusing point blank to even acknowledge the claim and wouldn’t even take the details. 

I know I’m in the wrong and even though I had no intention of using the car, and haven’t since the plate was changed, I should have told my insurer.

The claim will be many tens of thousands which I don’t have. Will they be able to force me to sell my house to pay it? I’m devastated. My husband is seriously ill and doesn’t even know who I am and now I’ve got myself in this mess.

any advice at all will be very gratefully received.

SaverRate

Can you put in a complaint to your insurance company? At the end of the day its the same car its just got a private plate. Is it taxed and MOT'd though?

BillieBoy

The car was taxed and mot’d and no modifications had been made. It was literally just that the reg hadn’t been updated. What was odd is that the police said that they couldn’t find the car insurance under either registration on their database and when I checked it online it didn’t appear either. The old plates were in the boot and SAGA have confirmed that the policy did exist and would have been valid for the old registration.

Morph4610

Billie, sorry to hear about all your woes. Is your husband a named driver on the policy? Did you have Comprehensive cover in force at the time? If so I'm not sure your insurer could reject a claim for an incorrect reg number    

BillieBoy

Hi Morph

He was a named driver with fully comprehensive insurance but SAGA are adamant that they won’t pay. They refused to even acknowledge the details. All they did was cancel my policy and confirm my email address for marketing purposes.

SaverRate

I would definitely be making a complaint to Saga 

lisyloo

Make a formal complaint and if no joy then go to the ombudsman.
I don't know for a fact what the outcome would be but as a layperson this seems "unfair" and I mean that in the legal sense.

DullGreyGuy

BillieBoy said:

The claim will be many tens of thousands which I don’t have. Will they be able to force me to sell my house to pay it? I’m devastated. My husband is seriously ill and doesn’t even know who I am and now I’ve got myself in this mess.

any advice at all will be very gratefully received.

Was your husband named on the policy?

Where is the figure of many tens of thousands coming from? The damage done to your vehicle or are you thinking the third parties?

As others have said, insurance covers a vehicle not a registration plate and so you need to keep on at Saga/the underwriter of your policy.

Unfit state of mind is difficult to prove and the legal standards are based on tests created in 1840s where you may contend that our understanding of psychiatry isnt what it is today. That said, if he was not in a fit mental state at the time of the incident he may not be liable for the damage done to the other vehicles in a similar way to the person that has a stroke or heart attack when driving and causes an accident (assuming no underlying medical issues that were being ignored etc)

BillieBoy

Yes, my husband was named on the policy.

It’s the third party damage that I’m referring to, I don’t want to identify the accident as it was quite high profile but the vehicles that were damaged whilst my husband was overtaking were of a very high value.

I agree that is will be hard to determine if he was of an unfit state of mind particularly as he is still so mentally ill that the Hospital psychiatrists are still unable to carry out a full assessment.

DullGreyGuy

BillieBoy said:

Yes, my husband was named on the policy.

It’s the third party damage that I’m referring to, I don’t want to identify the accident as it was quite high profile but the vehicles that were damaged whilst my husband was overtaking were of a very high value.

I agree that is will be hard to determine if he was of an unfit state of mind particularly as he is still so mentally ill that the Hospital psychiatrists are still unable to carry out a full assessment.

Dont need any more information; the relevant details are there and dont need to identify the actual incident


Forgetting to update registration plates with your insurer happens fairly often, fortunately for most people they find out when the police stop them and accuse them of driving without insurance. As you will note in this decision from the Financial Ombudsman https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN2255027.pdf they required the insurer in question to send a letter confirming the car was always insured despite the wrong registration. 

If you look on here or further search the FOS' decision database you will find several other examples with the same ultimate outcome. Whilst the monies involved are notably different in this case the principle is not and so there is no reason to think that the FOS wouldnt come to a similar conclusion if your complaint had to be escalated to them. 

Morph4610

Billie, sounds like Saga might be trying to test your resolve. The sooner you formalise your complaint the better