Car insurance cancelled!

[InsuranceQuestion]

Hello have name changed and shamelessly posting for traffic!

DP has had his car insurance cancelled as he didn’t tell them that I’d had a no fault claim (I’m a named driver) when it auto renewed. No deceit intended, he just didn’t realise it was needed.

They wrote to him saying it was being cancelled and he wouldn’t have cover on date x. When he rang them up they actually advised him that he could cancel the policy himself before this date, and then he wouldn’t need to declare the cancellation when getting new quotes from other providers.

This sounds wrong to me and I’m worried that if he does this his next insurer could find out and treat it as a non disclosure and unless I take him off my car insurance I need to decide whether I need to tell my insurer about this.

Any mumsnetters who have experience of this / know the answer?

@PinkCookie11

Why don’t you just ring a company up and ask?? Save the stress of trying to find something in writing. All they’ll say is yes or no then you know what to do next

Because if you ask they say yes, you do have to disclose to be on the safe side. That’s my view but it will cost us more.

Whereas there are a lot of posters on this thread who are saying we obviously don’t have to.

Lesson learnt, declare your stuff 😂

@TakeYourFinalPosition

Did they cancel, or was it voided?

I believe that's the important bit, and the fact that they've given him notice and allowed him to cancel himself before that suggests that it was voided...

But if they've cancelled it due to non-disclosure, he'll need to declare it. They will.

It's probably worth calling them back, confirming what has happened, and asking for them to confirm via email/letter whether they are classing this as a policy that he has cancelled or that they have cancelled, and whether they'll be reporting it as a cancelled policy.

Or in short, it's vital that you know if this is being reported as a cancelled policy on the database or not. You've got no way of knowing other than from the insurer, but I'd want it in writing from them, as the person who has suggested it won't be reported if he cancels first won't be the person responsible for reporting it to the database.

Ah this is really helpful and clarifies my thinking. Asked a broker and they said that there might be something on the database saying it was cancelled, so if we didn’t disclose it we risk this being flagged in future.

I guess this could still happen even if the previous insurer told us they aren’t treating it as a cancellation as all it would take would be for someone to press the wrong button despite what we’ve been told.

So we are going to just declare it for safety’s sake (and because Dps head may explode if he is forced to spend any more time thinking about this)

@PinkCookie11

Lesson learnt, declare your stuff 😂

Christ yes, this was an expensive mistake!

Final question! He is named on my policy for my car so do I now need to call them and tell them about this, or do I just have to declare it when it’s time to renew?

I work in Insurance, you do not have to disclose that the Insurers gave you notice of cancellation as you cancelled however you will need to disclose the no fault claim when arranging new Insurance. Most likely Insurers will notice the renewal dates don’t tally and ask though so in my opinion it’s better to be upfront re intention to cancel but not necessarily a requirement.

It’s no different from handing in your notice before you get sacked. Same loop hole.

Thing is with loop holes is they aren’t advertised.

Cancel and no need to declare as having been refused

When taking out insurance, the question is: have you ever had insurance cancelled? As you have not had insurance cancelled then the answer is no.

There are no nearly or almost cancelled. The answer is NO.

stop freaking out.

Previous insurance worker. He doesn’t have to state that he cancelled the policy. He does have to tell them about the non fault claim. You have to tell them about ANY claim. But if they have cancelled the policy, then yes, he will struggle to find insurance.

@Moooooooooooooooooo

When taking out insurance, the question is: have you ever had insurance cancelled? As you have not had insurance cancelled then the answer is no.

There are no nearly or almost cancelled. The answer is NO.

stop freaking out.

Um. Thanks but I’m not freaking out. I was just trying to make the correct decision to protect my interests going forwards.

For those who are convinced it’s fine, you may be right but it’s really really not the same as an employment contract. Insurance contracts have a higher duty of disclosure.

The letter said ‘we have cancelled your insurance with effect from...’ so on a normal reading of those words he arguably didn’t cancel before they cancelled, he cancelled after they had cancelled, during the run off period.

Anyway I’m sure many would still take the risk and decide not to disclose, I’m happy with my choice.

I agreed with it’s like quitting before being sacked. You keep saying insurance has a higher duty of disclosure yet you didn’t disclose it.
What date did they give for the cancellation and what date did he cancel?
If he still cancelled prior to that date then it was still him who cancelled as he would still be showing on MID until the date they had provided.

Insurance worker here.
It seems pretty harsh that they cancelled the policy. They could have just added the claim on and charged you the extra premium. Hardly trying to defraud them and a genuine mistake should have been taken into consideration. Insurers add all sorts on to policies mid term without cancelling. When the policy was taken up it should have flagged on the CUE database there was a claim anyway. Alternatively they could have just removed you from the policy if they weren't happy with a previous accident.

You don't need to declare the cancellation as they didn't refuse or cancel the policy. If they've told you you're better off cancelling they haven't flagged it as a refusal.
Use someone like confused etc and add your details there.