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Original poster

Any car insurance experts? I've fucked up massively :(

161 replies

G3ntlemanJ · 23/04/2021 11:44

And it's not me that's affected, it's my dd.

She's had her licence for 18m and from the very start I was in charge of her insurance, organising and paying for it. Direct debit set up for monthly payments.

Dd (19) was stopped on the motorway by police two days ago for not having insurance. Apparently the policy ended in January!! It didn't auto renew, which is what I had assumed. Stupid, I know.

After searching my email account I found one email from them saying there was a number to call to renew the policy, but it had gone into my spam and I'd totally missed it. We have otherwise had absolutely no communication from them. No letter to say it was going to be cancelled, no letter confirming it had been cancelled.

Because dd has had her licence for under two years she now faces 6 points on her licence and it being revoked and then taking her test again.

I am absolutely devastated to have done this to her and I feel so, so guilty.

But I can't help thinking that the insurance company are at fault too? Surely we should have had some further communication from them? From what I've read online they have to take 'reasonable steps' to notify the policyholder and this doesn't seem to have been done here, so we were reasonable to think it auto-renewed.

Does anyone have any advice at all??

Massive TIA!

OP posts:
SandysMam · 23/04/2021 11:48

She is an adult who can drive a car, it is up to her to ensure she is adequately insured, not her parents. Might be a good lesson for her?

SoAnn0yed393 · 23/04/2021 11:49

Both have a diary & write the renewal date in it the month before ?
Also for tax & MOT

TheQueef · 23/04/2021 11:50

I think you need reliable advice not anecdotal from the internet.
Annual policies are annual so it not auto renewing is a pretty poor excuse.

Xboxstolemychildren · 23/04/2021 11:50

I actually had this happen to me, my aunt had two cars so she insured me on one of them, but she sold the one she was driving and the insurance company took the wrong vehicle off, we were both driving around in it for months unfortunately it was me that got stopped and had 6 points added to my license.
I appealed but there wasnt much I could do about it. Did you not notice that there hadn't been any payments being made?

idontlikealdi · 23/04/2021 11:51

I'd be very surprised not to get a renewal letter / email, they want to keep your business. Have you checked junk email etc did you register it to her email?

FlibbertyGiblets · 23/04/2021 11:52

Did the insurance certificate not state it was for a period of 12 months from such and date and expires at midnight on such and such date?

rainbowthoughts · 23/04/2021 11:52

But I can't help thinking that the insurance company are at fault too?

Bollocks they are.

Between you and your adult DD not one of you thought to deal with the car insurance after a year?

Nah it's on you and your DD I'm afraid.

SimonJT · 23/04/2021 11:57

If the policy was set to auto renew this would be written in the policy documents.

Even if a policy auto renews you are informed of the renewal price and given x days to cancel the policy if you aren’t happy with the price.

What did the insurance company say when you informed them that they had failed to take the direct debit for the last few months?

anon12345678901 · 23/04/2021 11:57

So they did send you communication, but you don't check your spam email account. That'll fall down to you, not them. They can prove they sent notification, it's not their fault it went into Spam. You also should have noticed money did not leave your account.
You or your daughter should have been aware when the year was up and double checked also. In future I'd suggest writing these dates on a calendar or in your phone calendar.

anon12345678901 · 23/04/2021 11:58

*email account spam folder I meant

purpleme12 · 23/04/2021 12:00

I can't see they're at fault no.
They normally send a renewal invite out and a renewal reminder and a letter confirming it's lapsed (these could have been by email or letter)
But it sounds like you've received at least one communication from them. And you can really blame it on them anyway

tuttifuckinfruity · 23/04/2021 12:02

No real advice, but I do sympathise with you. Easy mistake to make.

Is it going to court? If so hopefully you can explain and they may go easy on her.

It's shit but it's not the end of the world. Don't beat yourself up over it.

SteveArnottsCodeine · 23/04/2021 12:02

I think you’re getting a hard time here- I can see in a busy life how this might happen. Might be worth seeking legal advice as it was an honest mistake but could just be one of those (shit) things that isn’t logically fair but that you have to live with.

purpleme12 · 23/04/2021 12:03

#can't not can

YesItsAPeacock · 23/04/2021 12:03

Does anyone have any advice at all??

Yeah, don't coddle your 19 year old, adult, daughter. Especially if you're not actually that organised anyway.

felineflutter · 23/04/2021 12:03

I sympathise. This happened to me. I changed from paying a monthly DD which auto renewed to an annual payment. I presumed(wrongly) that it would renew automatically. Luckily I realised the error of my ways before too long. I was indeed mortified. My insurance company have now set it to auto renew.

Pamelaaaaa · 23/04/2021 12:06

The policy ended, it wasn't cancelled, completely your fault.

Also a horrible lesson for your daughter to realise that she is now an adult and shouldn't rely on anyone else to organise her life for her.

Ohdoleavemealone · 23/04/2021 12:08

We got letters when ours didn't auto-renew.

I don't think you can say they are at fault though and even if they were I don't think it would change the outcome.

SallyMcNally · 23/04/2021 12:08

A similar thing happened to me although in my case it transpired that my dads insurance broker had cancelled my policy by mistake. I went to magistrates court where they did let me off although I got told off as they said the fact my dad paid was no excuse. It helped that the broker accepted full liability though and managed to reinstate my policy backdated as was their error.

I would think you would have a chance of going to the magistrates court, accepting full responsibility but explaining not your daughters fault and asking for 3 points only?

FortunesFavour · 23/04/2021 12:09

Sorry that is pretty rubbish on the part of the insurer, but can’t be used as a defence I’m afraid....it is DD’s responsibility to ensure she has valid insurance, not the insurer and not you. It’s a tough life lesson to learn unfortunately

rainbowthoughts · 23/04/2021 12:10

I would think you would have a chance of going to the magistrates court, accepting full responsibility but explaining not your daughters fault and asking for 3 points only?

And how could they explain it's not the daughters fault? Becaue it absolutely is the responsibility of the driver to make sure they are adequately insured

Aimee1987 · 23/04/2021 12:10

@SoAnn0yed393

Both have a diary & write the renewal date in it the month before ? Also for tax & MOT
This is good advice. I have a note in my diary in my phone with a reminder 2 weeks before each of these is due.

I missed my first MOT and realised it had expired a week previously. Luckily I wasnt stopped by police and got a pretty quick appointment to get it sorted but i was in the same boat of within 2 years of getting my lisence so petrified of losing it.

Emelene · 23/04/2021 12:11

Empathy but I don’t think you’ll get anywhere on appeal. This happened to my mum, joint policy with my Dad and he usually renewed and presumed it had done it automatically. Mum was driving and she was arrested, she had to go to the police station and everything. We were lucky they didn’t crush the cars, but this was some years ago and police policy might have changed.

NicolaDunsire · 23/04/2021 12:12

Hmm, I think since the policy wasn't an automatic renewal policy, the insurer did contact you, even though you didn't see the email, and they stopped taking payments, it wouldn't stand up as a defense.

FlyingBurrito · 23/04/2021 12:13

You should know better than to ask advice from the perfect members of MN Grin

I'm not an insurance expert but exactly the same thing happened to someone I know, I don't know if it was spam box related but the first he knew about not being insured was when he was stopped by the police.

He also assumed it had been auto renewed, it was a little while ago and he wasn't a new driver but I think he got 6 points and an increase in premium straight away because of that. It didn't go to court.

This was a fully capable adult who simply missed the fact that the renewal premium hadn't been taken, normal people stuff up sometimes

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