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Hello,
I am hopeful that somebody will be able to give me some advice? Details as follows (sorry it goes on a bit!);
In early October I received a letter that was not addressed to me but for some other person at my address. I’ve lived at my address, a small development, since the house was built some 18 years ago, the same is true of all my neighbours, so the letter wasn’t addressed to a previous occupier. The name of the addressee was an unusual name and I couldn’t find anybody with that name within a 15mile radius. The letter was a motor insurance policy, from Privilege Insurance, for a 12 year old VW Golf and although the named drive had 9 years no claims bonus the policy was for third party, fire & theft only at a premium of £900+. I really couldn’t understand it, I had thought of identity fraud but it wasn’t my identity then it occurred to me that may be the addressee was trying to set up his identity at my address and once he had an insurance policy at my address he could perhaps get other thing such as loans etc.
Considering the above, more the idea of somebody setting up an identity at my address and obtaining cash loans and the likes, I became very concerned. Also within a few days of the letter I received more letters from Privilege explaining that they had not received any money for the policy and to make immediate payment. Consequently I contacted Privilege by telephone to explain my fears and that the addressee did not live here or anywhere near. The Privilege customer service operative agreed with me that the policy was in all probability fraudulent and they would cancel the policy immediately and write to me to confirm in the following days.
Over the next 6½ weeks I received a further 8 letters addressed to this other person, demanding payment and threats about “Falling in to arrears”, “legal action”, “the effects on credit rating” and “the difficulties this would cause in the future” but I didn’t receive anything about the policy being cancelled. In the early stages I contacted the police but they weren’t interested and said I was to contact the fraud department by telephone, an answer machine where I left a message that I never got a response to. I then wrote to the DVLA to try and find the address of the registered keeper of the VW Golf. The response from the DVLA wasn’t quite what I wanted so back to the police. This time a met with an officer who was willing to listen, and they were shocked when I explained that after I had contacted the Privilege Insurance 6½ weeks earlier that Privilege had kept sending the letters. The Police office immediately telephone Privilege and explained almost exactly what I had explained all those weeks earlier. The Police officer also explained to me about the problem of “Customer Due Diligence” and how insurance companies don’t apply it but once they have been informed of a problem such as mine then a duty of care exists and Privilege should have applied this and didn’t. Of course the letters from Privilege immediately stopped following the phone call from the police officer.
I wasn’t at all happy with how Privilege Insurance dealt with this problem and the anguish they have caused me and of course I wrote to them asking for an explanation I also sent them a bill for my time and effort together with the costs I had incurred. The response that I received wasn’t very good they just dodged about the fact that they were not required to undertake “Customer Due Diligence” checks and that at the point when I first contacted them they started and investigation, they also said they don’t pay compensation. I then sent them another letter asking why they didn’t cancel the policy as their operative had said they would and if they had truly started an investigation at that time why did they continue to send threatening letters to my home address, I also resent my bill. Of course their response was almost the same as before.
So what to do, I am certainly not happy with the behaviour of Privilege Insurance and although I am not asking for damages for the anguish they caused me I do think they should refund the costs that I incurred together with the time spent on this problem approx. 3hrs (seemed like an awful lot more but alas 3hrs). Since they refuse to play ball is this something I can claim in the small claims court? I firmly beleave that if a company does wrong then they should recognise their failings and if costs have been incurred then they should pay up!
I would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks
I am hopeful that somebody will be able to give me some advice? Details as follows (sorry it goes on a bit!);
In early October I received a letter that was not addressed to me but for some other person at my address. I’ve lived at my address, a small development, since the house was built some 18 years ago, the same is true of all my neighbours, so the letter wasn’t addressed to a previous occupier. The name of the addressee was an unusual name and I couldn’t find anybody with that name within a 15mile radius. The letter was a motor insurance policy, from Privilege Insurance, for a 12 year old VW Golf and although the named drive had 9 years no claims bonus the policy was for third party, fire & theft only at a premium of £900+. I really couldn’t understand it, I had thought of identity fraud but it wasn’t my identity then it occurred to me that may be the addressee was trying to set up his identity at my address and once he had an insurance policy at my address he could perhaps get other thing such as loans etc.
Considering the above, more the idea of somebody setting up an identity at my address and obtaining cash loans and the likes, I became very concerned. Also within a few days of the letter I received more letters from Privilege explaining that they had not received any money for the policy and to make immediate payment. Consequently I contacted Privilege by telephone to explain my fears and that the addressee did not live here or anywhere near. The Privilege customer service operative agreed with me that the policy was in all probability fraudulent and they would cancel the policy immediately and write to me to confirm in the following days.
Over the next 6½ weeks I received a further 8 letters addressed to this other person, demanding payment and threats about “Falling in to arrears”, “legal action”, “the effects on credit rating” and “the difficulties this would cause in the future” but I didn’t receive anything about the policy being cancelled. In the early stages I contacted the police but they weren’t interested and said I was to contact the fraud department by telephone, an answer machine where I left a message that I never got a response to. I then wrote to the DVLA to try and find the address of the registered keeper of the VW Golf. The response from the DVLA wasn’t quite what I wanted so back to the police. This time a met with an officer who was willing to listen, and they were shocked when I explained that after I had contacted the Privilege Insurance 6½ weeks earlier that Privilege had kept sending the letters. The Police office immediately telephone Privilege and explained almost exactly what I had explained all those weeks earlier. The Police officer also explained to me about the problem of “Customer Due Diligence” and how insurance companies don’t apply it but once they have been informed of a problem such as mine then a duty of care exists and Privilege should have applied this and didn’t. Of course the letters from Privilege immediately stopped following the phone call from the police officer.
I wasn’t at all happy with how Privilege Insurance dealt with this problem and the anguish they have caused me and of course I wrote to them asking for an explanation I also sent them a bill for my time and effort together with the costs I had incurred. The response that I received wasn’t very good they just dodged about the fact that they were not required to undertake “Customer Due Diligence” checks and that at the point when I first contacted them they started and investigation, they also said they don’t pay compensation. I then sent them another letter asking why they didn’t cancel the policy as their operative had said they would and if they had truly started an investigation at that time why did they continue to send threatening letters to my home address, I also resent my bill. Of course their response was almost the same as before.
So what to do, I am certainly not happy with the behaviour of Privilege Insurance and although I am not asking for damages for the anguish they caused me I do think they should refund the costs that I incurred together with the time spent on this problem approx. 3hrs (seemed like an awful lot more but alas 3hrs). Since they refuse to play ball is this something I can claim in the small claims court? I firmly beleave that if a company does wrong then they should recognise their failings and if costs have been incurred then they should pay up!
I would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks
