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

[G3ntlemanJ]

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!

@rainbowthoughts

Give over being so dramatic 🙄

I'm not being dramatic. You vent pass your penalty points on to your mum

I didn’t mean they would literally say ‘ah ok no bother’, but to illustrate that her mam takes responsibility, so more of a gesture than it actually happening!

As has already been pointed out, the magistrates might decide not to prosecute the daughter

I didn’t mean they would literally say ‘ah ok no bother’, but to illustrate that her mam takes responsibility, so more of a gesture than it actually happening!

And I'm supposed to know you didn't mean what you posted? Come on now. That's ridiculous. I took your post at face value. If you can't stand by it that's fair enough, but calling me dramatic and coming back at me again when I respond isn't necessary.

Sorry but you and your daughter have been very irresponsible. Your excuses are terrible. Don't you check your bank account?

@murbblurb

You may pay for it but if she's adult enough to drive, she needs to do her own admin. Does the car have an MOT and tax?

Btw it must have been a very quiet day for the police to be doing random checks. Perchance her driving attracted attention?

No one harmed, lessons learned, suck up consequences. This stuff is important.

The police cars have computers and cameras that read your number plate as you drive passed and hers popped up as not insured that’s why they stopped her. It isn’t random anymore.

@rainbowthoughts

I didn’t mean they would literally say ‘ah ok no bother’, but to illustrate that her mam takes responsibility, so more of a gesture than it actually happening!

And I'm supposed to know you didn't mean what you posted? Come on now. That's ridiculous. I took your post at face value. If you can't stand by it that's fair enough, but calling me dramatic and coming back at me again when I respond isn't necessary.

I’m ever so sorry

@fuzzyduck1 there's capacity to do that? Great news to get the uninsured off the road. I only wondered because in this rural area the police report stopping bad drivers, and then finding that they haven't bothered with any of the legals. Sounds like motorways are better monitored. Good.

@GingerGoose

At 19 I had my own house, a career and paid my own bills, no way would my mother have continued to baby me

What year was that? Where did you get deposit from aged 19? How did you get a mortgage?

As it is, we've decided to just accept the charge and the consequences. Before anyone jumps on the 'we', it was a discussion had with me, her and her father. She made the ultimate choice.

Can see how it happened, but you have no defence.

Just be grateful you didn't find out when the insurance was needed and you would be going to court for someone's car/personal injuries!

We plan to pay for ds's insurance when (if!) he passes as he will still be 17 and at school. How to manage insurance and the consequences of not being insured will be spelled out to him, he can find the best quote, then we will transfer the cash to his account, but he will be arranging the insurance and paying the direct debit from his account. Might be better doing it this way in the future so she is taking responsibility for it and more aware when it is due for renewal.

I was insured but moved house whilst the policy was in place.

I updated them with my new address which wasn’t far from where I used to live.

Unknown to me my new address required a higher premium price of £8.00!

Apparently they wrote to me whilst I was spending ten days in hospital to inform me that I needed to pay the extra £8.00.

No such letter ever arrived at my house and so I never paid this extra amount.

They cancelled my insurance and claim they sent me a letter to inform me which funny enough also was never delivered to me!

A couple of months after I left hospital I was driving with my daughter when a police car pulled me over and said I had no insurance.

I was most indignant and duly showed him my insurance documents that were stored on my phone.

He ran another check but of course it came back that I was uninsured.

The insurance company had my new address, my email and my phone number.

The policeman was very charming and agreed to take my daughter and I home after we waited for a tow truck to come and take my car away to the pound!

This was in the evening so I duly phoned up the insurance company the next day and discovered what had happened.

I believe they made an error in sending me the two separate pieces of correspondence which I did not receive and that they sent them to my old address.

However, they would not admit it so I was left to pay the cost of not having any insurance etc.

I did not use that insurance company again.

However, the onus is on the driver to always make sure they are insured and I should have double checked after I moved home that everything was in order with my insurers after I informed them of my change of address.

My mitigating circumstances were that I fell seriously ill shortly after moving and so had other things on my mind but in the eyes of the law you are either insured or you are not.

In your case you have been hapless but also your daughter should have also been checking to make sure she was always insured.

I would take the risk and go to the magistrates court. She genuinely believed that she was insured and you were paying the policy for her so they might be sympathetic. People get away with less for doing worse.

I'm not sure why people are piling on you for helping your daughter out with car insurance, jealousy perhaps? I left home at 18 but even back in 2005 that wasn't the norm. Most of my friends were supported through university by parents who could afford it and have only benefitted from the support. What 19 year old voluntarily pays for car insurance if they don't have to??