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Dear all,
I am writing this on behalf of my brother who has ended up in lot of hassle following a small mistake. He had his car insurance with Bell for few years. Insurance was renewed automatically and the annual premium was taken as lump sum in Oct last year. He is in training and has to keep moving every six months. He moved to a new rented accommodation about 20 miles away from original address and as happens, forgot to inform the insurance company. He had this 'Black Box' installed in the car when policy was started to bring the premiums down. Apparently it has also got a location tracker and when company found out that car was being parked at a new address, they sent letters to his original address asking about this? My brother didn't have any postal redirection so these letters went unanswered. No attempt was made to send an email/call him by the insurance company.
They eventually cancelled the policy charging an hefty 200 pound cancellation and refunded 150 pounds to my brother's account. He noticed this refund and assumed it to be some sort of discount from the company. He was stopped by police in April for not having insurance, who called up the insurance company and that was first time he came to know about policy cancellation.
Car was towed away and he had to pay 250 pounds to get it released the next day. He had to buy a 'Special Insurance' to get the car out of impound itself as normal insurance wouldn't cover such an eventuality. This was about 300 pounds for for 4 weeks. He was sent a penalty charge for 3 points and 300 pounds by the police which he has obviously declined and case has now gone to court but we are still waiting to hear from them. In the meantime, options for insurance have obviously narrowed as he is now considered to have this 'conviction' despite the case still ongoing. He had to pay 1500 pounds for insurance premium, more than double to what he was paying previously.
I also wasn't aware the 'Driving without insurance' is considered an absolute offense. As a matter of fact, I also drove his car few times as my insurance covers me to drive other cars. Apparently both of us would have got penalties, in case I was stopped by police at the time.
I am so surprised that such an simple error on his part has ended up wasting so much money and he might end up with a criminal record because of this! He did make some calls to the insurance company about not contacting him before cancellation but they simply washed off their hands by saying that it's company policy not to call/email people in such a situation.
I was wondering, if any other members have been in a similar situation or heard about outcome of such a case from court?
Could someone share their suggestions as to the responsibilities of insurance company in contacting him, when they had all his details? How should he proceed with regards to court hearing, when he eventually gets a date?
Looking forward to some helpful advice.
Thanks in advance.
I am writing this on behalf of my brother who has ended up in lot of hassle following a small mistake. He had his car insurance with Bell for few years. Insurance was renewed automatically and the annual premium was taken as lump sum in Oct last year. He is in training and has to keep moving every six months. He moved to a new rented accommodation about 20 miles away from original address and as happens, forgot to inform the insurance company. He had this 'Black Box' installed in the car when policy was started to bring the premiums down. Apparently it has also got a location tracker and when company found out that car was being parked at a new address, they sent letters to his original address asking about this? My brother didn't have any postal redirection so these letters went unanswered. No attempt was made to send an email/call him by the insurance company.
They eventually cancelled the policy charging an hefty 200 pound cancellation and refunded 150 pounds to my brother's account. He noticed this refund and assumed it to be some sort of discount from the company. He was stopped by police in April for not having insurance, who called up the insurance company and that was first time he came to know about policy cancellation.
Car was towed away and he had to pay 250 pounds to get it released the next day. He had to buy a 'Special Insurance' to get the car out of impound itself as normal insurance wouldn't cover such an eventuality. This was about 300 pounds for for 4 weeks. He was sent a penalty charge for 3 points and 300 pounds by the police which he has obviously declined and case has now gone to court but we are still waiting to hear from them. In the meantime, options for insurance have obviously narrowed as he is now considered to have this 'conviction' despite the case still ongoing. He had to pay 1500 pounds for insurance premium, more than double to what he was paying previously.
I also wasn't aware the 'Driving without insurance' is considered an absolute offense. As a matter of fact, I also drove his car few times as my insurance covers me to drive other cars. Apparently both of us would have got penalties, in case I was stopped by police at the time.
I am so surprised that such an simple error on his part has ended up wasting so much money and he might end up with a criminal record because of this! He did make some calls to the insurance company about not contacting him before cancellation but they simply washed off their hands by saying that it's company policy not to call/email people in such a situation.
I was wondering, if any other members have been in a similar situation or heard about outcome of such a case from court?
Could someone share their suggestions as to the responsibilities of insurance company in contacting him, when they had all his details? How should he proceed with regards to court hearing, when he eventually gets a date?
Looking forward to some helpful advice.
Thanks in advance.
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