Licence points incorrect on policy - will this affect a claim?

hughie2020

Hello 

Earlier today my partner was in an RTC (no one injured thankfully), the other driver admitted liability to us and police. Our car has been written off. 

I have started the claim with our insurance but have just noticed that our policy does not show speeding points from 2022. I was sure I had informed the insurer at renewal that year, and have just left it to auto renew each year as nothing had changed on the policy. 

Is this likely to leave our policy void and affect our claim? 

Aretnap

Depends... If your insurer accepts that the non-disclosure was the result of carelessness rather than deliberate (and it sounds like it was) then at worst they should reduce the payout for any claim by a percentage equivalent to the percentage of your premium that you saved by not declaring the speeding conviction. In other words, if they would have charged you 10% extra has they known about the points, they should still pay 90% of your claim. 

They would only be able to refuse to pay out altogether if they would not have insured you at all had they known the full facts (which is unlikely for a single speeding ticket) or if they can prove that you deliberately withheld the information (which would generally require additional evidence, like a record of you getting quotes with and without the points declared, and then choosing the quote that you liked more).

In any event your own insurance situation would not affect your right to claim the full value of your car from the third party insurer if the other driver is indeed liable, though be aware that a roadside admission is not the be all and end all of determining liability.

hughie2020

Aretnap said:

Depends... If your insurer accepts that the non-disclosure was the result of carelessness rather than deliberate (and it sounds like it was) then at worst they should reduce the payout for any claim by a percentage equivalent to the percentage of your premium that you saved by not declaring the speeding conviction. In other words, if they would have charged you 10% extra has they known about the points, they should still pay 90% of your claim. 

They would only be able to refuse to pay out altogether if they would not have insured you at all had they known the full facts (which is unlikely for a single speeding ticket) or if they can prove that you deliberately withheld the information (which would generally require additional evidence, like a record of you getting quotes with and without the points declared, and then choosing the quote that you liked more).

In any event your own insurance situation would not affect your right to claim the full value of your car from the third party insurer if the other driver is indeed liable, though be aware that a roadside admission is not the be all and end all of determining liability.

Thank you so much - so whatever happens with our insurance we will still be able to get the cost of our car covered by their insurance? 

We are insured with Admiral. 

Should I ring Admiral in the morning to discuss the points situation? Amongst other things they have sent a link for license checks, so I assume it will become apparent then? 

Hoenir

Come clean. The outcome, as painfull as it maybe, could be far worse if they detect the points first. 

DullGreyGuy

hughie2020 said:

Aretnap said:

Depends... If your insurer accepts that the non-disclosure was the result of carelessness rather than deliberate (and it sounds like it was) then at worst they should reduce the payout for any claim by a percentage equivalent to the percentage of your premium that you saved by not declaring the speeding conviction. In other words, if they would have charged you 10% extra has they known about the points, they should still pay 90% of your claim. 

They would only be able to refuse to pay out altogether if they would not have insured you at all had they known the full facts (which is unlikely for a single speeding ticket) or if they can prove that you deliberately withheld the information (which would generally require additional evidence, like a record of you getting quotes with and without the points declared, and then choosing the quote that you liked more).

In any event your own insurance situation would not affect your right to claim the full value of your car from the third party insurer if the other driver is indeed liable, though be aware that a roadside admission is not the be all and end all of determining liability.

Thank you so much - so whatever happens with our insurance we will still be able to get the cost of our car covered by their insurance? 

We are insured with Admiral. 

Should I ring Admiral in the morning to discuss the points situation? Amongst other things they have sent a link for license checks, so I assume it will become apparent then? 

Deliberate or reckless allows them to void the policy and avoid the claim. If it's careless then it comes down to if they'd have insured you had they been told, assuming they would then as Aretnap says they can reduce the claim by the percentage difference in premium. In some cases insurers offer you the opportunity to pay the additional premium and then settle the claim in full but they arent obliged to do so.

In either case any shortcomings from your insurer due to non-disclosure issues can still be recovered from the third party insurer. If your policy is void they simply won't assist you in doing so however many insurers are more than happy to deal with a non-fault third party (some even pay you to do so rather than claim off your own insurance).

The fact that you not only didnt notify them at the time but allowed it to renew a second time without the points declared will go against you and MAY start to look more like reckless actions than careless. 

paul_c123

I think a calculation is done where the percentage difference between the amount you paid for the policy; and what they WOULD have charged if you had correctly declared the points, is taken. Then they pay out only that percentage of the claim.

It may be that the addition of 3 points for speeding didn't affect the policy amount at all, or only very slightly. I can't imagine they wouldn't have taken on the policy, given how many people have speeding points.

paul_c123

hughie2020 said:

Hello 

Earlier today my partner was in an RTC (no one injured thankfully), the other driver admitted liability to us and police. Our car has been written off. 

I have started the claim with our insurance but have just noticed that our policy does not show speeding points from 2022. I was sure I had informed the insurer at renewal that year, and have just left it to auto renew each year as nothing had changed on the policy. 

Is this likely to leave our policy void and affect our claim? 

Of course, taking the OP at face value, if you say you informed them, you may have a redemption there. But then, they say to carefully check the personal info they summarise before accepting the policy is accurate, and if it wasn't there......