1st Quote (Hero Insurance/MRB Insurance)

[drwigglesworth]

Is your broker 1st Quote Insurance? If so please check whether they have added 'legal protection' to your household policy - renewal notices will contain 1 sentence advising you that an extra £1 a month will be taken to cover this. If so, have you EVER been sent a policy for this so called legal protection? Their renewal notice advising of the so called cover will state that it is to be sent in a separate post.

I have used 1st Quote as a broker for my contents insurance (Folgate) since 2003. In 2005 1st Quote added legal protection at an additional £1 a month but their letter advised that the policy would be sent in a separate post. It never was. Again in 2006 the renewal advice for my contents insurance contained the same sentence regarding the legal protection and fee - also that policy would be sent in a separate post. It wasn't.

We recently had cause to make a claim against our so called legal protection (have never claimed on contents) but guess what? Not covered.Of course, 1st Quote, General Legal Protection (provider) and Groupama (underwriter) all stuck together like glue. We have established that 1st Quote did not even set up a policy for us in 2005 but they maintain that they didn't take the extra £1 a month either. This is actually quite crucial as this covered the start of the dispute we wanted to pursue legally. They maintain that they did set one up in 2006 but of course the provider has been able to argue that the incident preceded the policy. Groupama have of course got behind General Legal Protection - both of which presenting a distorted interpretations of contractual terms in order to solidify their position. Our counter argument that we were NEVER afforded the opportunity to even inspect the policy has been refuted by 1st Quote who stated in writing that they have no reason to believe that it was never sent to us. A Data Subject Access request resulted in our being able to see that the very person from 1st Quote stating this had 2 days earlier rang General Legal Protection to inform them that we had not been sent a policy!

There is more but I won't go on.

Please if you are customer of 1st Quote could you check you policy and let me know whether they have added the legal protection at an extra £1 a month but not sent you a policy.

Thanks in advance to all.