Has anybody been able to continue driving after having an insurance policy cancelled? I’m in bits

[GraceyBeaker]

I’m mid 20s. Passed my test yesterday, absolutely over the moon. I have a car ready for me, my partner’s old one. It’s a 2007 Yaris. The car did fail its MOT a month ago but it’s only a small part replacement that we will get round to doing now that I’ve passed. It’s essential I drive ASAP for various reasons. It’s too far to walk to most places and I can’t do buses, within 5 minutes of being on a bus I have to get off to be sick. I have severe motion sickness on buses.

Problem is, I don’t think I can afford any insurance. When I was 18 I tried learning with my dad and used a monetary gift from my grandparents to buy a little car. We arranged learners insurance, a black box policy. When filling in the forms we said we’d be practicing 2x times a week. However, my dad never kept to his promise of practicing with me, constantly fobbing me off when I asked and so we went months without using the car. This made the insurance company think we had turned the black box off and were driving without it, which resulted in them cancelling the policy. I received notice at the time that they were cancelling the policy but being a naive 18 year old I never realised it would affect me going forward, so I just let it happen.

Now when applying for insurance I have to declare I’ve had a cancelled policy, and my quotes are all £8000+. I have no idea what to do, I feel like I’m being treated like a criminal.

Any advice?

You need to check what details are held about you op.

https://www.mib.org.uk/managing-insurance-data/requesting-your-data

Have a look here and raise a SAR to the MIB. The insurance company doesn't always 'report' cancelled insurance as being cancelled by them - there may be no record at all and you can simply stop declaring it.

Have just spoken to the old insurance company who confirmed they cancelled my policy and that I am banned with getting insurance with them until 2027. They have refused to do anything to help me, as I expected.

so I guess I’ll have to take it further and go to the financial ombudsman

The issue is that black box policies state that the device should be transmitting at all times. I have left my car unattended for a couple of months when travelling and my device was still showing as active so I am not sure why the OPs stopped sending info. The company most likely sent an email to give warning to check device or the policy would be cancelled which either got lost or ignored so they proceeded with the cancellation. The issue was not lack of driving, the issue was breaching the policy of having the device active and transmitting at all times.

19 grand on a 2007 YARIS! That would be hilarious if it wasn't so awful for you.

Can you get your partner to insure it and have you as a named driver?

That's called fronting and OP will face another voided policy.

I would get something recent in writing first from the old insurance company before you consider going to the financial ombudsman,

Perhaps write to the old one, explain the situation, ask them again if they will do anything to help and explain that you will be taking their reply to the financial ombusdmand

OP what an awful and stressful situation.

But have a look at this link because it sounds like you have grounds for complaint.

Explain the situation calmly and factually and explain what you would like to happen - which is that you want the cancellation rescinded so you don't have to declare it due to the unfair impact on your insurance premium.

This is good advice. Insurance companies don't want customers to be taken to the ombudsman, because they get charged when this happens.

It also doesn't reflect well how they run their business - they have a basic obligation to 'treat customers fairly'.

I have never hear of this!!! Could it be one for one of the money columns in a newspaper?

How long ago did this happen OP? If they've said 2027 and insurers usually want you to declare your insurance history going back about 5 years, I assume it's only 2 years ago?

The FOS will expect you to have formally complained to the insurer before you go to them (I think) so find out what their complaints procedure is, follow it and then for to the FOS (you have 6 years to go to the FOS).

I’ve written a letter of complaint. I’ve said I feel it’s unfair - I never prevented a driving risk and never attempted to defraud or misrepresent myself so I don’t see why I should be stuck with this on my record having to face paying £8000+ for insurance. Looking back as well, I think they could’ve done more to inform me. The ‘my documents’ section on my online account shows a cancellation letter but no warnings in the weeks leading up to it. I do remember getting a warning letter sent to my house, but there isn’t a record of this on my online account and there really should be.

I’ve offered 2 options to them.

1. Remove the cancellation from my record
2. Offer me another policy with themselves with the same terms and premiums that they’d typically offer to somebody of my demographic without a cancellation on their record

I’ve said if they fail to do this, I’ll be going to the Ombudsman. I also said it’s absolutely essential for me to be able to drive and therefore I won’t be letting go of this easily.

There’s nothing you can do to change this OP, it’s all factual.

You did have an insurance policy and it did get cancelled because you DID breach the conditions of the insurance, you now can absolutely drive BUT your first few years insurance are going to be very very high. To be fair even without the cancelled policy you would have been looking at 2-3k minimum for your first years insurance most likely. You can try to complain but there’s no recourse for this, you breached the conditions of insurance policy and therefore the policy was cancelled.

You’ve got absolutely nothing to bargain with OP.

Read over the insurance documents from them.

It will very clearly state the t’s and c’s of your cover, one of which you KNOW what to regularly drive. You did not do this. Therefore you breached the terms of the policy resulting in policy being cancelled.

My sister works in car insurance for the AA and this is where their conditions are absolutely water tight. Breach of insurance t’s and c’s = cancelled policy, and they did send you a warning. Very simple open and shut case for them.

You can't just 'go to' the FOS. I find it so frustrating that people throw this advice out every day and it's wrong. You'll waste weeks of your time for nothing as the FOS will be unable to review the case and you'll end up where you are right now.

You must first formally complain to the company and have their written response to your complaint OR have allowed 8 full weeks to elapse with no response, whichever is sooner.

Only then can you escalate the complaint response to the FOS, if you are unhappy with the full and final outcome to your formal complaint.

Edited - cross posted with the op. Response was to earlier posts.

No, HTH.

I understand why you are coming from but this is why I’m going to take the approach that I didn’t receive adequate warning. The ‘my documents’ section of my online account states there should be a copy on there of every letter of correspondence I received from the insurance company. There is a cancellation record there, but no warnings.

You were 18 and able to drive so you need to take some responsibility for that.

I had a warning letter to my house but can’t find any record of the warning letter on my online account.

Is it usual for it to be an insurance condition that you drive regularly? I've never come across it, but then I've probably never read a car insurance policy from cover to cover, either.

It's a bit shit if your job takes you abroad for a long spell, or you can't drive because you're ill or injured or something.

It doesn’t make any difference, when you accept the insurance policy you agree to the terms and conditions. You breached them. It really is a very very simple open & closed case for them. It’s not their responsibility to warn you repeatedly to abide by the terms and conditions that you legally agree to.

There is recourse because she can complain to the insurer and then to the FOS if needed. Point out that under the FCA's rules the insurer had a duty to communicate with you in a way that was fair clear and not misleading (taking particular account of your young age) and to treat you fairly. If you didn't understand the very serious implications at the time (years of being uninsurable) then it could be that FOS will direct them to set aside the cancellation. You've effectively been banned from driving. FOS May very well take your side and are increasingly pro-customer.

There's a lot of mis-information here.

OP - if it was the case that you simply weren't driving enough, then what evidence does the insurer have to say that you removed the black box? Presumably none.

On that basis, then, I'd definitely go to the FOS. Whether they have jurisdiction, still, after this time, I don't know, but certainly worth a try.

I had a similar (ish) issue - my insurance was arbitrarily cancelled because I'd forgotten about a complete (to me) non-incident where my car bumper was scuffed in my work carpark by a colleague, and the colleague's insurer sorted out my repair. I didn't notify my insurer because it was such a non-incident - and was resolved - that it didn't occur to me to notify. As a result of the non-notification, my policy was cancelled.

I went to the FOS, who upheld my complaint and provided a very useful letter which said that my policy has been mistakenly cancelled by the insurer. Which means I can get normal car insurance.

I’d second the suggestions to go via a broker like Chris Knott or Adrian Flux and explain the circumstances. They’re able to get more specialised policies with bespoke underwriting for your actual risk, rather than the blanket application that high street companies (understandably) use.

Is there harm in trying though? I don’t think there is.

You can try if you want, but sending an arsey email giving them “2 options” when you are completely in the wrong and without a leg to stand on isn’t the way I would have recommended going about it. 😂

Somebody now gets to take great pleasure in replying to that email with “option 3”, a copy of the terms and conditions that you agreed to, advice to read them carefully next time & good luck.

You’d be better off spending your time trying to arrange other insurance, I have a couple of friends who have had policies cancelled for similar reasons due to breaches flagging on black box. For both of them the answer was being added as an additional driver to someone else’s policy, maybe this could be an option for you?