Car insurance voided after accident indemnity request

[bart70]

Background

a good friend of mine who has learning difficulties and works as a mobile home care had her insurance voided after an accident. The reason was her miles were higher than what she said they would be. This is not the reason for the thread. They have now wrote to her asking her to sign a indemnity agreement in which the insurance company will deal with third party claims and then she must pay them pay any costs incurred and damages claimed on her policy which they voided.

I’ve sat her down and explained why the insurance has been voided and that she will have to pay for the damage to the other party which is a local authority. But having read the indemnity agreement I’m not sure if she should agree to it. I understand from a legal view she is liable for any claim but given her lack of understanding the situation should she sign this agreement which states she will repay the insurance company any cost incurred? Would it not be better for the local authority to send her the bill direct? They are also chasing her for the whole policy cost despite making it void from day one?

any advice on the situation would be very welcome and thank you in advance.

[R0b]

Suggest your friends gets some legal advice on the insanity document and properly advised on whether they can do that, and if so, the consequences.

[des8]

If she can afford to indemnify the local authority herself there is no need for her erstwhile insurers to request an indemnity agreement.
In fact if the insurers were sued by the local authority there is still no need for her to sign such an agreement as legislation allows the insurers to reclaim their costs from her.

Unusual for a company to cancel insurance because of excess mileage, unless the figure on the proposal form was wildly out and could be construed as a blatant attempt at fraud. Generally just charge the extra premium.

If they are voiding the policy they should be returning any premiums already paid.
They cannot charge a premium for a non existent policy

Care to name the insurers?

[bart70]

Would I be allowed to post the letters she has received with her details blanked out. More than happy to name the broker and insurance company

[bart70]

The insurance company is Alwyn insurance and the broker is right choice insurance brokers. They have refused to refund the policy and are demanding the full payment despite Saying The policy is void from day one. It just seems to me that they have looked for a way to get out of paying for the claim and taking advantage of the fact that she has a learning disability and is unable to understand the legal part of it. She can’t work as they have refused to repair her car and have left her with more stress. I understand she has cocked you on her mileage but as you say why couldn’t they just charge her the extra premium. Just feels unjust how they are treating her. I want to help.

[des8]

So this is the broker trying to squeeze every last penny out of their clients.

The insurers give a binding contract to the broker who are completely responsible for running it.
The insurance company have nothing to do with it except collect their percentage of the profits.

The broker has enough bad reviews to ensure I would never use them.

By how much did your friend exceed her estimated mileage, and how long had the policy been running?

[bart70]

She had clicked on 10,000 miles on the comparison site but she had done 25,000 in the last 12 months. I’m guessing they had looked at her MOT history online. The policy had been running for 4 months at the time of her accident

[des8]

That far over mileage limit is difficult to explain away.
Was the current policy a renewal of the previous policy, or a completely new policy?
As it has only been in force for four months, what was the current mileage use?