Wrong job on car insurance

ellymoo

My life is an absolute bonfire at the moment. I left my job end of May and renewed  car insurance end of June. Within 2 weeks of that I had an £800 car bill, and literally the next day I drove into someone (going slowly, nobody harmed "just" paintwork) and then got a nail in one of my new tyres. I'm a state.

Anyway I renewed the insurance through a comparison website & didn't even think about the occupation bit because, well, I haven't been unemployed since 2004 and it didn't occur to me because I'm stupid. I reported the incident to my insurance company but only now several months later has the other party gone for claims, which is odd. Anyway, they rang me about something and checked my employment status & I said oh I'm unemployed now. They are obviously doing validations now and asked why I didn't say I was unemployed when I did my renewal. I am mortified.

The thing is I have a part-time job which is the same job title (only it's box office manager not office manager). They asked me to send over payslips for about 6 months which I have done. I have not counted that as being employed because it's part-time, but I suppose it still counts.

I know I sound really ignorant and stupid. Believe me nobody could be more ashamed of themselves than me so please don't rip me to shreds in replies. Am I going to go to court for fraud? I think my insurance is going to be invalidated because of this, how do I find out how much that will cost me? Any idea how long it willt take them to come back to me? I feel very sick. Thank you

la531983

ellymoo said:

 Am I going to go to court for fraud? 

No, but as said they may refuse to pay out

Mark_d

When you took out the car insurance policy in June, surely the comparison website asked questions about your employment status (eg. full-time, part-time, student, unemployed etc.) and your job title/industry.  Why not answer these questions truthfully?  I've had to renew car insurance during periods of unemployment so I know how these things work.
I highly doubt you'd go to court for fraud however your insurance may well be cancelled.
An "office manager" coordinates requirements for offices with lots of people.  It's very different to a "box office manager" job.  Are you trying to claim that the jobs are similar because there's only one word difference in the job titles?

mr_stripey

my job role changed this year with the same company and it certainly didn't occur to me to inform my insurance company.

Both roles are office based (3 days) and neither role includes any more or less driving than the other.

Maybe I should inform them? Or wait until renewal?

FlorayG

OP were you in your current job when you took the insurance or were you unemployed for a while in between? Because if you started this job immediately then you haven't been unemployed ( although they may take issue with 'full time' and 'part-time'  if the forms asked you that)

ellymoo

Mark_d said:

When you took out the car insurance policy in June, surely the comparison website asked questions about your employment status (eg. full-time, part-time, student, unemployed etc.) and your job title/industry.  Why not answer these questions truthfully?  I've had to renew car insurance during periods of unemployment so I know how these things work.
I highly doubt you'd go to court for fraud however your insurance may well be cancelled.
An "office manager" coordinates requirements for offices with lots of people.  It's very different to a "box office manager" job.  Are you trying to claim that the jobs are similar because there's only one word difference in the job titles?

Why would you bother being so sanctimonious? What's the point? You have no idea what I did/do in either role (ironically there's more people in my part-time office than there were in my full-time one) so if you have nothing of use to offer please simply pass on.

ellymoo

FlorayG said:

OP were you in your current job when you took the insurance or were you unemployed for a while in between? Because if you started this job immediately then you haven't been unemployed ( although they may take issue with 'full time' and 'part-time'  if the forms asked you that)

I've had the part-time job for about 15 years so no I guess I haven't been unemployed. Thank you.

ellymoo

mr_stripey said:

my job role changed this year with the same company and it certainly didn't occur to me to inform my insurance company.

Both roles are office based (3 days) and neither role includes any more or less driving than the other.

Maybe I should inform them? Or wait until renewal?

I guess it is worth contacting them to let them know, better to be safe than sorry as in my case!

ellymoo

After all that! I've just gone through Gocompare again to check what I put down and I'm not as rubbish as I thought. I put in the nearest title I could find, selected 'theatre' and I put that I have no other employment. So I did actually change it! What a relief.

BarelySentientAI

Fwiw, you probably would have been ok.

There wouldn't have been deliberate fraud, only careless accidental non-disclosure.

In those circumstances, it matters whether they would or would not have insured you if you gave the correct information (which they probably would, so no cancelled policy) and at what price (if it would have been more expensive, that could change the payout).

ellymoo

Thank you. That helps a lot, and is exactly the kind of response I was hoping to get: something constructive and factual. I appreciate that. 

I still can't get my head around that I actually gave the right information in the first place. I'm not as useless as I thought!