Insurance Company Want Me To Pay £50 Cancellation Fee

TruthSeeeker

Hi everyone,

I pay for my insurance upfront (annually) and so when I scrapped my car I told my insurance company thinking that I would recieve a partial refund of the insurance that I have paid.

The insurance company told me that due to a "fault claim" (someone has raised a claim which has now been deemed to be my fault) they will not be refunding the remainder of my insurance. They then demanded that I pay a £50 cancellation fee and I rejected doing this straight away as I said I would need to read my policy document. 

My policy document states that: 

" Cancelling after the first 14 days
•  After the initial 14 days, as long as you’ve not made a claim and nothing has happened which could lead to a claim, we’ll refund you for the time left on the policy (plus IPT where applicable). We’ll do this by working out the cost of your insurance per day, and then refund you for the days that you haven’t yet used, minus the relevant fee.
• If you’ve had a claim during the cover period, or something has happened which might lead you to make a claim, then you won’t receive any refund. If you pay for your insurance on a monthly basis, we’ll also ask you to pay the remainder of the year’s premium."

They have now sent me an email saying that I have 14 days to either change to a new car, or to pay the £50 cancellation fee. My policy document has no information about how long you have to change to a new car after you scrap your old one. During my phone call with them I let them know of my intention to cancel the insurance, but I did not ultimately cancel it.

My questions are:

1. Since I didn't make the claim and the other party involved in the accident did, does the insurance company's text still hold that they don't have to pay me a refund?

2. There is no text in the policy document about having only 14 days to change to a new car. In this case, do I not have the right to take as long as I want to change my insurance to a new car?

3. Is there any other approach I can take to handling this?

Thank you.

CliveOfIndia

TruthSeeeker said:

1. Since I didn't make the claim and the other party involved in the accident did, does the insurance company's text still hold that they don't have to pay me a refund?

A claim was made on your policy - it doesn't matter who made the claim.  So yes, they are acting in accordance with the T&Cs as specified.

In hindsight it would have been simpler to just let them know when you did get a new car.  Since your car was scrapped it's a slightly different scenario to where you sold it to someone as a running vehicle.

Mildly_Miffed

The claim has arisen from your policy. Who made it is irrelevant. So, no, it doesn't mean you can cancel as if there'd been no claim.

You cannot have a car insurance policy with no car insured. It's silly.

born_again

Perhaps read the bit in the T/C that mention informing them of material changes. Which need to be done ASAP.

Did you inform you insurance company of the accident?
So you change car & expect not to tell the insurance company that you have changed car. Lucky for you that you did not have a accident or get stopped by police. As you would have no insurance for the new car.

Bite their hand off & change the car. Or they could just void your insurance for breech of contract for 2 failures..
Not informing a accident, leading to a claim & not informing them of change of car..

CliveOfIndia

born_again said:

So you change car & expect not to tell the insurance company that you have changed car. Lucky for you that you did not have a accident or get stopped by police. As you would have no insurance for the new car.

Bite their hand off & change the car. Or they could just void your insurance for breech of contract for 2 failures..
Not informing a accident, leading to a claim & not informing them of change of car..

I may be wrong, but I got the impression that the OP has scrapped their old car but have not yet bought another one ?

TruthSeeeker

born_again said:

Perhaps read the bit in the T/C that mention informing them of material changes. Which need to be done ASAP.

Did you inform you insurance company of the accident?
So you change car & expect not to tell the insurance company that you have changed car. Lucky for you that you did not have a accident or get stopped by police. As you would have no insurance for the new car.

Bite their hand off & change the car. Or they could just void your insurance for breech of contract for 2 failures..
Not informing a accident, leading to a claim & not informing them of change of car..

You seem to have misread my comment and your comment seems unnecessarily antagonistic.

My original comment kind of makes it clear that I have done it "ASAP" (in terms of getting rid of the car), yes the insurance company knows about the accident so no I'm not "lucky" for not having an accident or being stopped by police.

Thanks for the only helpful comment here whereby you said "change the car"

TruthSeeeker

CliveOfIndia said:

born_again said:

So you change car & expect not to tell the insurance company that you have changed car. Lucky for you that you did not have a accident or get stopped by police. As you would have no insurance for the new car.

Bite their hand off & change the car. Or they could just void your insurance for breech of contract for 2 failures..
Not informing a accident, leading to a claim & not informing them of change of car..

I may be wrong, but I got the impression that the OP has scrapped their old car but have not yet bought another one ?

That is correct.

Btw I appreciate your other comment, and I have learnt a lesson for the future.

born_again

TruthSeeeker said:

born_again said:

Perhaps read the bit in the T/C that mention informing them of material changes. Which need to be done ASAP.

Did you inform you insurance company of the accident?
So you change car & expect not to tell the insurance company that you have changed car. Lucky for you that you did not have a accident or get stopped by police. As you would have no insurance for the new car.

Bite their hand off & change the car. Or they could just void your insurance for breech of contract for 2 failures..
Not informing a accident, leading to a claim & not informing them of change of car..

You seem to have misread my comment and your comment seems unnecessarily antagonistic.

My original comment kind of makes it clear that I have done it "ASAP" (in terms of getting rid of the car), yes the insurance company knows about the accident so no I'm not "lucky" for not having an accident or being stopped by police.

Thanks for the only helpful comment here whereby you said "change the car"

Not meant to be antagonistic 👍

The 3rd party clearly instigated a claim & their ins co had contacted yours. Before you informed yours & you had already scrapped the car at that point of informing them, read like you did not call them when accident happened & were hoping to simply cancel insurance. Which given you had, had a accident is not as it should have been. In effect trying avoiding a claim on your record. 

Have you bought a new car yet?

TruthSeeeker

born_again said:

TruthSeeeker said:

born_again said:

Perhaps read the bit in the T/C that mention informing them of material changes. Which need to be done ASAP.

Did you inform you insurance company of the accident?
So you change car & expect not to tell the insurance company that you have changed car. Lucky for you that you did not have a accident or get stopped by police. As you would have no insurance for the new car.

Bite their hand off & change the car. Or they could just void your insurance for breech of contract for 2 failures..
Not informing a accident, leading to a claim & not informing them of change of car..

You seem to have misread my comment and your comment seems unnecessarily antagonistic.

My original comment kind of makes it clear that I have done it "ASAP" (in terms of getting rid of the car), yes the insurance company knows about the accident so no I'm not "lucky" for not having an accident or being stopped by police.

Thanks for the only helpful comment here whereby you said "change the car"

Not meant to be antagonistic 👍

The 3rd party clearly instigated a claim & their ins co had contacted yours. Before you informed yours & you had already scrapped the car at that point of informing them, read like you did not call them when accident happened & were hoping to simply cancel insurance. Which given you had, had a accident is not as it should have been. In effect trying avoiding a claim on your record. 

Have you bought a new car yet?

I had told my insurance company about the accident as soon as it happened, and that the other party will likely raise a claim - maybe I should have been more clear.

This accident was also several months ago (around September) so it's not a case of me avoiding a claim - I just wanted to get rid of the car as it was very old, beaten down, and had no MOT.

I will try and be more clear for any future threads I start as I can now see why there was some confusion, but thank you.

Nope, I have not purchased a new car yet.

DullGreyGuy

You have made a claim, you have claimed for the monies owed to the third party rather than paying out of your own pocket. This as standard will mean a cancellation won't generate a refund however you are free to transfer the policy onto a new vehicle.  The Ombudsman generally requires insurers to give you a "reasonable time" to do this and most insurers its 14-28 days window. 

The cancellation fee you agreed to when you signed up. 

born_again

Thanks for clearing that up 👍