Car Insurance - Cancelled

[redkite26]

Hi I,m new to this site and I,m hoping someone may be able to help me with a current problem regarding car insurance.
I went onto a comparison website filled in the form to obtain quotes for car insurance, I chose Dial Direct as they gave a competitive quote and car breakdown came free. I paid the deposit on 1st July, policy began 11th july however on 17th July I was told my policy was cancelled and I would no longer be covered from 26th July. I rang the company and spoke to various members of staff all of whom couldn,t tell me why the policy was cancelled other than it was the underwriters. I asked for the underwriters contact details and they told me they didn't have any for them? On July 23rd I went to my local branch of Swintons and explained to them I needed car insurance and that my previous insurer had cancelled. Swintons got me insurance I paid the full amount and was relieved to know I was covered from 27th July. On 26th July I received a phone call from Swintons notifying me that the car insurers had cancelled my insurance and that I had to contact a company called Synectics Solutions to find out why. I contacted this company and was told I needed to apply for a "Subject Access Request" and that this could take up to 40 days? I have applied for this information and I'm waiting for a response.
My main problem with my car being off the road is my job, I am a support worker and I work out in the community which covers a large area, due to my car being off the road I'm losing work/hours which I can't afford.
Has anyone had this happen to them and if so how was it resolved and how long did it take? I don't understand why this has happened as there was no change in what I needed insurance wise to last years policy!
I would be really grateful if anyone could shed some light on this, thank you Redkite26

[bluebottle]

Re: Car Insurance - Cancelled

Hi Red Kite and welcome to Legal Beagles.

What you have is a classic case of the motor insurance industry playing silly buggers. If you haven't already done so, declare your vehicle SORN (Statutory Off-Road Notification). This should solve your problem with no insurance. Make sure you keep your vehicle off the public highway. Both Dial Direct and Swintons should tell you why your motor cover was cancelled. Fobbing you off onto another company who is claiming you have to submit an SAR to find out why your cover was cancelled is, quite frankly, unacceptable.

Swintons, as your broker, are supposed to act in your best interests and have clearly failed to to do so in your case. I would go back to the local branch of Swinton and also sent a Recorded Delivery letter to Dial Direct requesting the reason the insurers gave for cancelling and don't be put off by them fobbing you off. As such, you and the insurer enter into a legal contract and if they then suddenly pull out, then, at the very least, they should give you the reason for doing so. If you withdrew from the contract, they would want to know why. That cuts both ways. There is, in any case, legislation coming into force, from 2013 that will put a stop to this sort of thing.

If you have to send an SAR to this "Solutions" company, make sure you stress to them that time is of the essence due to you requiring your vehicle in connection with your work and that you will be losing income. Hopefully, this will encourage them to pull their fingers out and get back to you with the reason quickly.

[redkite26]

Re: Car Insurance - Cancelled

Thank you Bluebottle for taking your time to read and reply to my post. I have stressed to the "Solutions" company that its urgent that this is resolved ASAP but its fallen on deaf ears so to speak!
It's on my to do list this weekend to write to Dial Direct and ask them to explain their actions regarding cancellation of my insurance policy.
Thank you once again, kind regards Redkite26

[TUTTSI]

Re: Car Insurance - Cancelled

In my my experience of working as a broker many years ago, insuers can be cancel polices mainly due to non payment of premiums is what we come up accross or where they have found that the information given by the policyholder was incorrect and they had not disclosed ceratin facts.

The sort of facts we came accross that were common that people taking insurance would say they lived say HA8 but really lived in NW7 (neighboring areas just accross the road) where they would have been rated higher as a London postal area and cheaper say in the other post code. Today this would not happen so much as everything is now governed by post code and then address. Another was not disclosing all mototring accidents and motoring convictions etc. this was the most common. Another was cars being modified and not advising insurers.

Any information given to the insurers at the time of the quotation and it turns out to be incorrect they will cancel the policy or in some cases offer a loading which in your case they did not as maybe it did not qualify in their underwriting.

Today in the insurance market it is much more sophisticated as they have tie ups with all the insurance companies and will check all details told to them. It could be the case that the person who took the information down from you, did this wrongly and it may not even be your fault, so good luck with the SAR and see why they did this.

[messimoo]

Re: Car Insurance - Cancelled

hope with the sar they didn,t make you pay the tenner for it, for what they did you should get it for free.

[bluebottle]

Re: Car Insurance - Cancelled

Thank you Bluebottle for taking your time to read and reply to my post. I have stressed to the "Solutions" company that its urgent that this is resolved ASAP but its fallen on deaf ears so to speak!
It's on my to do list this weekend to write to Dial Direct and ask them to explain their actions regarding cancellation of my insurance policy.
Thank you once again, kind regards Redkite26

If it turns out that, as Tuttsi has suggested, information was taken down wrongly, you will need to keep records of all losses incurred as a result of being unable to use your car, including loss of income, and then claim it back from the broker/insurer concerned. There is a piece of legislation called the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 which would apply in the case of a broker as they are providing a service to you. The Act requires that anyone providing a service must exercise reasonable care and skill in providing the service. It is the only piece of legislation I know of that allows a claimant to claim for consequential loss.

[TUTTSI]

Re: Car Insurance - Cancelled

Included in your SAR it would be very helpful if you requested the telephone recording of the call when they gave you the quotation based on the facts that they took from you when you were asked questions so they could calculate which was the best insurer to put you with. Being as it is now all normally done over the phone they must keep these recordings and agreed over the phone, or did they send you an application form to sign? and if they did , did you check it thoroughly before signing.

The broker has a duty of care as Bluebottle said so if the mistake is at there end by getting it terribly wrong and based on this the Insurer that they put you with would not take on this insurance this being the case the underwriters turned it down as it was not a risk they would have taken in accordance with their underwriting.

Brokers have to also have professional indemnity insurance as well so if they have made a mistake which has caused you a loss their PI insurers will pay out your losses in this respect but you will need all the evidences first to ascertain who was at fault.100% of the time as the excess for them is so high the PI insureres will pay out quickly if it falls within the excess of the broker. But this is another avenue that you can go down once all the evidence come to light and we see where the fault lies.

[EXC]

Re: Car Insurance - Cancelled

Could someome remove this spam merchant please.

[Sapphire]

Re: Car Insurance - Cancelled

What spam merchant msl:

[bluebottle]

Re: Car Insurance - Cancelled

Spam Merchant - One who sells Spam.