Being asked to cancel car insurance

JAllen_2

My father-in-law currently has car insurance with Budget which is underwritten by Aviva. He had an accident back in Oct 2023 and in his opinion the other party was at fault. He got the car repaired through Budget and he wasn't asked to pay any insurance excess to the repairer. In April this year, he renewed his policy and the schedule stated the other party was at fault. All seemed well, but Budget are now saying Aviva has subsequently changed it to a fault claim and because of this, the only option is for himself to cancel his policy and pay the cancellation fee. When we call Budget, they say he's still currently insured but bizarrely, they are unable to give us a timeframe when he has to cancel his policy by. Has anyone come across a situation like this before? It seems strange they're going down this route rather than letting him keep his policy with an increase in premium because of the previous accident?

tacpot12

Not come across the situation before, but it would seem risky to wait to see when they cancel the policy. Such an action would have to be declared when buying insurance in future and the cost for insurance could be very much greater as a result. 

DullGreyGuy

JAllen_2 said:

My father-in-law currently has car insurance with Budget which is underwritten by Aviva. He had an accident back in Oct 2023 and in his opinion the other party was at fault. He got the car repaired through Budget and he wasn't asked to pay any insurance excess to the repairer. In April this year, he renewed his policy and the schedule stated the other party was at fault. All seemed well, but Budget are now saying Aviva has subsequently changed it to a fault claim and because of this, the only option is for himself to cancel his policy and pay the cancellation fee. When we call Budget, they say he's still currently insured but bizarrely, they are unable to give us a timeframe when he has to cancel his policy by. Has anyone come across a situation like this before? It seems strange they're going down this route rather than letting him keep his policy with an increase in premium because of the previous accident?

Did Aviva, as the insurer, or Budget, as the broker, deal with the original claim?
Do you still have the initial communication when the claim was registered? What does it say about fault, NCD etc?

Claims can take an age to resolve. The insurer, or the broker if the insurer has delegated authority to them, ultimately has the right to settle the claim as they see fit. Its been a while since seeing claims paperwork but the last time I did it was increasingly common for insurers (or those with delegated authority) to say "this is our initial stance but we have the right to change it if facts change". In my claims days, a fault claim becoming non-fault could be dealt with automatically, it was fairly common because most claims are fault initially. To have a non-fault claim changed to a fault one post renewal required intervention by technical teams as the system wasnt built to deal with it. We however had an in-house built system so could do what we wanted ultimately, many others use commercial systems and there lifes naturally more complex.

Ultimately, if he cancels the policy it's not something that needs to be declared. I would hope that Budget/Aviva waive their charges for cancelling given its at their request. 

JAllen_2

Did Aviva, as the insurer, or Budget, as the broker, deal with the original claim?
Do you still have the initial communication when the claim was registered? What does it say about fault, NCD etc?

He was contacted by Enterprise to arrange repairs with a local garage after he had reported the accident to Budget. Not sure if Enterprise were appointed by Budget or Aviva. The claim was registered via a phone call and the only communication he received subsequent to that, was from Enterprise via text messages just to organise the repairs with the garage.

cw8825

Are budget able to cancel and insurer with another of their panel or not able to insure at all

its usally 7 days from when they send it in writing 

JAllen_2

Budget are now saying they can arrange insurance with a different underwriter after being vague on the matter when we first contacted them.