Insurer failed to renew my car insurance

mandhan

Hello

Almost exactly a month before my car insurance was up for renewal, I called my insurer for a renewal quote and asked them to set my policy for auto renewal. 

I then went abroad for 3 weeks, a period during which my policy should have renewed. My car was left on my driveway. 

Last Friday evening when I returned, about 10 days after the policy renewal date, I found that the policy had not renewed. My card was not charged, no documents were on post, no emails and the car was showing uninsured on motor insurance database. 

I called the insurer the very first thing on Saturday morning and asked them to check the call record. They came back to me later that afternoon acknowledging the consultant on phone did make an error and that the system was not updated to have my policy auto renew as I had advised.

This came as a major shock to me as my relatively high value EV was left uninsured in my absence and was in danger of theft and damage. 

Since then, the insurer has come back to me, first with £50 in compensation and later on increasing it to £100 plus 'we are sorry', both of which I have so far rejected.

I must add that the same insurer increased my policy premium by close to 50% citing 'market forces', so I have little sympathy for them for their own mess up.

They are going to email me their final response with £100 offer still standing but I could take further recourse and details of which will be in the email.

I wanted to ask the members of this forum if their compensation is fair or if I should continue challenging and escalating, in which case, what would be a fair ask to them? The person on phone said that what is being offered is the maximum in their guidelines for the 'stress caused' as I was not stopped by the police. 

DullGreyGuy

Compensation is based on what did happen not what could have happened. On the basis that no losses have been occurred the £100 doesn't seem unreasonable. 

Had you been stopped or had something happened to the vehicle etc then once their error had been confirmed they would have indemnified you and provided you a defence against any prosecution. 

TELLIT01

£100 for somebody making a simple mistake from which the OP has suffered no loss doesn't seem unreasonable to me.  Had they driven the car and been stopped it would be a different matter, although the police will always say it's the driver's responsibility to make sure a vehicle is insured.

DullGreyGuy

TELLIT01 said:
Had they driven the car and been stopped it would be a different matter, although the police will always say it's the driver's responsibility to make sure a vehicle is insured.

It happens periodically due to IT issues, agents mishearing registration numbers etc etc... Insurers send a letter confirming that whilst there wasn't technically a valid certificate of insurance on the vehicle that they would indemnify the policyholder on that vehicle. It's one of the very few defences accepted by the courts on driving without insurance. 

Compensation would generally be higher then as whilst there is still no financial loss it is more stressful going through that process than simply phoning up and making a complaint.

BoGoF

Seems reasonable for 'stress' that didn't actually happen. I'd describe it as blissfully unaware with a free £100.

Aretnap

The Financial Ombudsman has some guidance on compensation for stress and inconvenience here.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/compensation-for-distress-or-inconvenience

Given that you suffered no actual loss, and that the situation was quickly put right £100 doesn't sound unreasonable. If your car had been damaged or stolen and your claim had initially been rejected then you might be entitled to more... but you can't claim compensation for something that might have happened but didn't.