Advice - car insurer threat to cancel

geordie1234

My insurance expires on 17th Sept 2024 and cost 700.
Had a letter last week (legit) to pay them 1,300 for the current year or they would cancel my policy immediately. I dont want that cancellation against my name so I paid it. 

The circumstance was that a July 2023 claim was decided just last month that we were both at fault (rather than no fault on my side)

Can they do this?
Renewal is 1,100 rather than 2,000 (with zero years of no claims), so its suspicious.
Coincidentally, the amount they asked me for was approx their share of repair costs...

Brie

I wondered what would have caused this and then noticed that the claim was for an incident before this policy year started.  So essentially they are saying that the enrollment basis for this policy year has changed and therefore you should have been charged more from the start.  

400ixl

Was the renewal last year with the same company as the year before when you had the accident?

Either way, was the accident in July 2023 declared as an at fault accident at the time (as it was not resolved as a non fault)?

If you declared it as non fault (or not at all) when in fact it has been resolved as at fault then yes they are within their rights as they would have priced differently had you fully disclosed the accident correctly.

If you declared it as a fault accident then it doesn't make sense.

Okell

As above.

Was your insurer at the time of the 2023 "incident" the same as your current insurer?  (Presumably not?)

Did you declare the 2023 incident to your new insurer?

geordie1234

Right, so was under LV for both years and told them about the incident in July 23 as being all the other party's fault. Nothing really changed, they just informed me that we were both at fault, over a year later.
Hence the 700 quote was with max no claims discount, and no at fault claims.

The amount is excessive ... and being so close to the end of the insurance period, no sense in switching early

Hoenir

geordie1234 said:

The amount is excessive ... and being so close to the end of the insurance period, 

Merely reflects the cost had they known the full facts earlier. 

400ixl

Still not very clear.

Did you make a claim against your LV policy, or just notify them of an accident?
Did you then make a claim against the other party?
Did the 3rd party make a counter claim against your LV policy after your renewal date?

Until a claim is settles it is an at fault claim for both parties. But really not sure of the circumstances here.

The amount isn't at the end of the policy though, it is from the start of the policy as you should have paid a different amount from day renewal date.

geordie1234

I made a claim against my 2023 LV policy (at the time) for my repairs, then renewed with them on the basis of no fault. They have had full information all of the time, and were claiming against the other driver.
After that time, this change (one third my fault) has happened so theyre saying 2023/24 premium is 2,000???
The renewal quote (with zero no claims) from LV for 2024/25 is 1,000 for reference

Hence i disagree that they are charging a reasonable amount for the full year, as if they had known at the time.  They should have charged around 300.

Also, this must happen a lot (incident settled at fault at a later date) but I cannot find anything on a google search and havent heard of this before

ontheroad1970

If you claimed on the policy so close to renewal  then if the claim isn't closed, it should be regarded as an 'at fault' until closed as 'not at fault.'  You thinking it isn't a fault claim doesn't make its so.  It's only considered as such once the other side has paid the claim in full with no loss to them.

DullGreyGuy

geordie1234 said:

I made a claim against my 2023 LV policy (at the time) for my repairs, then renewed with them on the basis of no fault. They have had full information all of the time, and were claiming against the other driver.
After that time, this change (one third my fault) has happened so theyre saying 2023/24 premium is 2,000???
The renewal quote (with zero no claims) from LV for 2024/25 is 1,000 for reference

Hence i disagree that they are charging a reasonable amount for the full year, as if they had known at the time.  They should have charged around 300.

Also, this must happen a lot (incident settled at fault at a later date) but I cannot find anything on a google search and havent heard of this before

Back in my day we would have sent you a letter/email when the claim was registered that whilst we are treating it as non-fault for now that this may change as the claim develops and we'd update premiums based on the revised circumstances. 

This could go either way, other times we'd register a claim as fault even though the insured thought it wasnt their fault but if we successfully argued it on their behalf the claim gets updated to non-fault, NCD is restored and they get a rebate on their premiums if they stuck with us. 

It's similar to chargebacks where they give you the benefit of the doubt to start with and refund the monies but warn it will be recharged if you lose the appeal. 


They dont know the ultimate outcome until the outcome has happened... sometimes you can be arguing 18 months or more and its only when litigation starts that the other side decides to concede