Car ins cancelled by email?!

[cardrama]

I've discovered my car insurance was cancelled by email. I had paid for the policy in full by direct debit auto renewal, printed the certificate off and forgotten about it for the year. They then had sent an email requesting a further £60 which I didn't read (I wasn't expecting anything from them and it wasn't marked as urgent etc) and then a further email cancelling my policy. I received no letter or phone call and had no idea they wanted more money and had cancelled my policy.

Are they not obliged to check that I knew I was now uninsured? I would have thought they would need to call or send a letter (surely by recorded delivery too)? I'm really shaken that I wasn't insured.

"They did notify you properly. It's not their problem you've not checked your junk folder or ignored their initial email. Why do you think email isn't a valid form of communication?"

@AdInfinitum12 I guess because it's easy to miss because of so much junk Mail. In most areas of law you need to show prove of notice etc. We are conditioned not to open attachments on emails and the main body of the email (not that they were read) have no indication of the urgency of the attached letter. They could be viruses. I've always had to serve notices by recorded delivery etc and I would expect such an important thing to have had had a little effort. I'm a long standing honest customer with 15 years no claims history. I'd recently contacted them to give all my move details and about the car incident and they've let me down. I'm interested to hear what the ombudsman thinks.

Why did you not know that it had not been taken out the credit card, did you husband not query when the bill was not there to be paid?

It was paid in full.

tbh if you’re getting that much junk email you need to manage your inbox better or create a separate email just for important things like policies! They did notify you and in an ever increasing digital world I don’t think saying you missed an email will cut it (generally you CAN request to get stuff via post but it’s on you to check whether this is an opt in or out system). You need to take a bit of personal responsibility for this I think.

If they can use a system that notifies them when promotional emails are read (as all companies do) they should be able to use notifications that an email as important as this one is read.

Exactly!

I disagree, I'm taking my car insurance to a company that bothers to contact me properly and uses common sense without leaving me vulnerable. I'm happy to pay for it too.

OP I know this an old post, but this is relevant to situation I am in. Did you take this to the Ombudsman in the end and, if so, what was the outcome?
Thanks!