Depends if Merv made a claim on his policy or claimed directly with the third party. Full premium would be due if a total loss claim was made on the policy, but it's not clear from the OP what happened. Just the vehicle being written off doesn't make the full premium due if that policy didn't pay out anything. Even if it did, I think Autonet are being harsh if all costs were recovered from the third party.

FoI doesn't apply to private companies. Not convinced this is even a Data Protection Act issue - it's just a copy of the general T&Cs at the time which will tell you what you signed up to.

Yes No, you agreed to the T&Cs and they're not illegal/unfair. Why are you cancelling now when you've only just renewed?

If the £60 is their cancellation fee then I'd expect so. Suspending a policy is just that, suspending it in time. Your policy will still be a month old and subject to cancellation, not lapse. You can't suspend a policy forever to avoid it. Did your daughter never get a replacement car?

So stationary, saw space was tight, but still managed to go past fast enough to knock a door mirror clean off? How old was the car? Whilst he may be trying to profit from this, if he got a quote from a Mercedes garage and any electric controls or the casing were damaged or needed replacing, I could imagine with labour it could be more than you think if he's trying to get the whole thing done. Only agree to pay for a provided invoice for work carried out, not hand over cash.

The type of enquiry made at quote stage does not signify obtaining credit, and shouldn't affect a credit score.

That's more generous than most if they go up to 6. It's usually 5 years NCD which is the maximum 'real' NCD you can earn. So if you'd had 9 years and had a fault accident you'd drop 2 years from 5, not 2 years from 9, back down to 3.

The other replies seem to be assuming it's auto-renewed and they're chasing you for the new policy's premium, but I read your OP as saying you'd cancelled the DD too soon before you'd fully paid this year's policy? Which is it? If it is auto-renewal, then you would've agreed to it when you first took out the policy. Again you'll have agreed to the original terms which would've included a fee for non-payment/DD failure. Even if you pay off the premium in full that fee will still be an outstanding balance. Whether they chase it as a debt or not I don't know. Home insurance no claims isn't as formal as car. There isn't really a bonus certificate, and you wouldn't be asked to prove your NCB with written proof like a car policy.

Did you look in your passenger wing mirror before moving across? i.e. did he pull into the bus lane earlier and you just didn't look because you assumed nothing would be there, or did you look and it was clear but he made a sudden move to undertake at the same time?

How was it stolen, rather than lost? What happened? I imagine the point they're trying to get to is that if she was pickpocketed they'd expect it to be kept in a place this couldn't happen, and if that was what happened there's no way for you to prove it was pickpocketed rather than just dropped because you don't know either way.

WTF has my posting history got to do with the accuracy of the advice?

I can't see anywhere where they claim to know who caused the accident - as your solicitor says, she just says as far as she was aware there car stayed in their lane. There's no reason to ignore that - she may not have seen the accident, but she does say she saw where there car was. Don't think it really matters to you. It's a 'fault' claim if your insurer can't recover their costs from the TP, regardless of who caused the accident. If they're uninsured they won't be able to recover their costs easily. Him being on the road or not is a police matter, doesn't affect liability/costs. How do you know he was uninsured - do you know he wasn't a named driver on his grandad's insurance? Doesn't have to be anything sinister, beyond the fact he may not have been insured and so they couldn't put a claim in without lying about who was driving. Even if he was insured, they may have just wanted to avoid future premium increases by not putting a claim in, or the repair costs may have been less than his excess and he didn't want the hassle of trying to claim the excess back from you etc etc.

Answer Mossycat's questions and you'll get better advice and be better prepared for any questions.