Found out DS taken out insurance in my name, and defaulting on payment

[Snowyscapes]

DS aged 21, doesn't live at home. He has debt issues through over spending. I paid off significant credit card debt for him earlier this year on the basis he was living back home, earning good wage, and would pay back lump sum each month. He instead moved out, has taken on a high rent flat, and paid nothing back. He has written off 2 cars this year and I presume on his latest car (which he took out on finance in oct) he has been unable to get insurance or it was very high. Anyway, over last week I have had letters from insurance company addressed to me saying I have defaulted on payment. Thought it was their error at first as didn't recognise number plate, but then dawned on me it is his car. I absolutely cannot believe he has done this. Which I presume is fraud. DS appears to be currently going no contact with me, I cannot get hold of him last few weeks. His phone contract is cut as I was paying his bill for 3 years and he wasn't paying me back (he was on good wage no living costs), so I can't phone him. I don't know his new address. Whatsapp messages are being delivered, but unread. Whatsapp calls, some declined or unanswered. I have really good credit rating which I need to maintain. Me knowing he is fraudulently using my name and doing nothing about it could have professional repercussions for me. I wanted to give it a week and tell him unless he cancels the policy immediately that I will phone them myself and tell them. But I can't tell him this if he is not reading messages and just had another default letter through.

If I contact the insurance co and say it is not me, firstly he could be done for fraud, and he could become uninsurable, which would mean no way getting to work and could lose his job. I worry about if this happens him taking his life, which he has never stated to me, or shown indications of, but its something I always worry about as sadly I see it far too regularly through my work.

So if I contact insurer and tell them I know nothing of policy and its not mine
AIBU?

OP is not responsible for her adult son's behaviour, he is.

She is responsible for protecting herself and has an obligation to herself to make sure she separates herself from becoming involved in his actions. OP you are in a horrible situation and sounds like you are doing what you can given what little information you have to go on.

I had financial issues with exH following my divorce and was able to register with credit expert /experian an official financial dissociation which stops this sort of thing happening. I also get alerts now if any changes occur on my record as reassurance for fraud prevention. I have been with them for years and they are very helpful, perhaps call and see if they have any advice on how to protect your credit record.

I am sorry you are having to deal with this. @Snowyscapes

You probably cannot give him any time. You have been contacted directly. They would be within their rights to take any delay in responding as you colluding in the fraud, or worse if he has an accident

Reply, that is not my policy, nit my car. He is old enough to make these decisions, including the decision to fuck up your insurance, credit etc. So allow him to be old enough to deal with the consequences if his choices.

Or just accept that you will have to., no matter how far those consequences might reach.

Did he pretend you were the policyholder and main driver of his car, to get cheaper insurance?

This. Email them though so it shows you have attempted to rectify this.

Sorry you are in this situation OP. Its very hard and it isn't your fault. He won't thank you for it now but it may be the tipping point for him to change his ways. Even if he doesn't change, you are doing the right thing morally.

OP states clearly he's not struggling with money.

No you ANBU. My partner had to do this when his son insured his vehicle in my partners name & then the son defaulted on the payment plan. As my partner needs a vehicle for work it really was a no brainer that he would report it to the insurance company. A couple of phone calls later & it was all sorted and there has been no repercussions for my partner.

Absolutely right; there is no middle ground. Think of others.

@Snowyscapes Lots of sympathy to you, but be strong. X

All you can do with children is do your level best for them to come out as responsible adults. Sometimes it doesn’t work. The worst most PITA obnoxious young person I have ever known on a personal level was my friends DS. When both our sons were gaming too much I removed my DS console, he hated me. Sometimes parents have to cope with their children not liking them. She would never reprimand that lad for anything.

I would check on several different agencies, as some companies only report to one agency. It could be the the insurance company just doesn't use the credit reference agency you're checking with. I'd also be concerned he hasn't either bought the new car, or obtained credit in your name. Otherwise, I don't understand how a 21 year old can afford to write off 2 cars, and buy yet another?

You may have been lucky with your credit file so far, but I'd get it reported before any kind of default is noted, as they are notoriously difficult to remove once there. Also, you don't want to get into trouble by knowing he was driving on fraudulently obtained insurance if anything happens, as you may end up in trouble yourself.

Good luck!

I’m sorry OP. You’ve done the right thing. He needs to grow up, quickly.

@Neriah I’m so sorry for your loss.

I believe you can get a marker put on your name that means they have to do extra checks for anything involving credit (or opening new bank accounts etc). It would be a pain but it might be worth contacting your bank about it. If he has done this once he could do it again.

Disclaimer: all I know about this is a vague memory of another MN thread. I could be completely wrong!

You don’t end up with CCJs for not paying car insurance. The insurance is just cancelled by the insurance company but if the letters are coming addressed to you that would mean you are the insured driver and not him so I don’t see what he would have been gaining by insuring it in your name

Report him and let him burn. He needs to learn.

It’s called ‘fronting’ and it’s a fairly common fraud.

https://www.gocompare.com/car-insurance/guide/fronting/

If the OP hadn’t done the fraud report, they would have assumed she was in on it.

Fronting, according to the link you posted, is when a low risk driver takes out a policy with the higher risk driver as a named driver, but falsely stating that they are the main driver when they’re not.

Thats not what has happened here. OP’s son appears to have taken out a policy in her name, presumably listing himself as a named driver. It’s entirely his doing. He has committed application fraud and identity theft.

I imagine if OP had not decided to report him, she would be guilty of something, but not sure what. And in order to protect her credit rating, she’d have had to pay for the policy, cos he certainly isn’t going to.

As an aside just for info as someone has posted about fronting. What we did was the opposite, our son was the main driver but added me & his dad as additional drivers which actually reduced the premiums. His dad would use the car for golf etc on a weekend if I needed our main car but very rarely but at least we were covered if needs be. We didn’t add him onto our policy, added us onto his policy. I tried it just to see if it made a difference not expecting it to but it dropped it quite a bit. This was with Tesco, not sure if all insurance companies do this though

Well done for calling the insurers

this is really really hard but your ds has done an awful thing and needs to face the consequences.

You did the right thing OP.

I suspect you also have a professional registration to uphold also and I can tell you fraud is fraud in these hearings. You know what is going on and you had to address it. You’re very brave and I don’t envy you one bit but you did the right thing.

Bizarrely he is not a named driver on it (which I presumed he was), I was the only person named on it. It was coming out his bank account, they checked. All purchased online.

Did it include third party for other drivers with owner's permission? He may end up on a blacklist or have to declare that he has had insurance cancelled.

I'm sorry you are having to deal with this crap OP

That is certainly bizarre. Insurance that is bought fraudulently is invalid and will never pay out so is a total waste of money. You might as well drive uninsured. I can only imagine that in the event of an accident he was planning to put in the claim as if you were the driver.