Unfair car insurance cancellation fee

nikuku

I wonder whether anyone here may have some advice or had a similar experience.

I recently took out a car insurance policy in December 07. The "key facts" summary statement and website stated that this policy included 45 days EU cover. In January, I was sent to work in France by my UK company on a temporary basis, but knew that my policy covered me. However, my policy documents hadn't come through yet.

I contacted my insurance company (broker) to discuss a potential extension to the 45 days till the end of March, and was told they would look into it. The result? - a couple of days later, I finally received my policy documents (dated 13 Feb) and a notice of insurance cancellation (dated 14 Feb).

I was told the reason for this cancellation was non-disclosure of the fact that I went to France, but without my policy documents, I felt I acted in good faith with what information I had been sent and could not have known I had to disclose this beforehand. Also, they told me that I only had 30 days EU cover which was detailed in the (delayed) docs - even though I had summaries which stated 45 days.

The insurance company are adamant they will cancel the policy. Worse, the broker is going to charge me 25% of the refund as its cancellation fee - around £170.

Is the broker in their rights to do this, and what consumer law protects me in this case? I am about to complain on the grounds that, based on the information I had received, I had always acted in good faith and the fact I received my insurance docs on the same day as the cancellation notice, there was nothing I could have done to avoid this course of events - and as such, incurring the cancellation fee through no fault of my own.

Please, I am rather stressed and concerned - any advice or collected words of wisdom would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Nikuku

olly300

The insurance company and the broker should be covered by the financial ombudsman. So look at the back of the documents you received from them and write a written complaint (use recorded delivery) to both parties laying down your case and asking for the fees to be removed/refunded. State at the end of the letter that if you do not receive a satisfactory reply you will take your case to the finanical ombudsman then if you get no joy from one or both of them take your case to the financial ombudsman. The website is http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/