Ok here is the situation as far as I can tell

a year ago I took out personal finance to buy a car for my mum so that she could drive around looking for jobs etc as she recently moved back to the UK.

When she took at an insurance policy with the Post office (who are the brokers for Co-op insurance) she stated that the registered keeper was her son (me) and asked if that would be a problem, they told her no and insured her as the first driver then me as the second.

She had an accident 2 months ago and the car, even though she could drive it was taken by the insurance company who took the car away to be assessed and gave her a courtesy car. They asked her for the log book etc and she posted it off to them. A short while after that they called and said the car was written off and they were going to send me a settlement check.

After a short while after that the wrote and called saying that they were misinformed about the policy, co-op said that after speaking with their brokers (the post office), who we got the insurance out with to begin with, that they had they been aware that she was not the registered keeper of the car that they would have never insured her. So they are making it quite difficult and have given us 28 days to reply to them as to why she is insuring a car for which does not belong to her.....

we have written a letter to them below:

Dear xxxxx,

In regards to your last letter inquiring as to why I have insured the car in my name and not my son’s is simply that my son, XXXXX has his own insurance for his own car (ford fiesta).

I would like to take this opportunity to state that I am the sole driver of the car in question (Peugeot Reg: XXXXX) , my son has never driven this car once. The car is essentially mine, my son paid for the car via finance and I pay him back in monthly installments, he asked to keep the ownership in his name until I pay him back. So in effect he has bought me the car, I pay him for it monthly and he keeps the car in his name until I have paid the majority of the car off and then it would be transferred into my name.

The broker (Post office) were informed of all this when I took out the policy over the phone last year and were quite happy for me to take out a car insurance policy with them in my namein. It has been over a month now, where I have had to rent cars and get around with difficulty thanks to this issue not being resolved.

If this matter can be sorted out the next seven days I will have to seek professional advice

Yours faithfully

Ms X

This letter was sent a week and a half ago and I fear they might not have gotten it as we havent heard from them, so I was going to get it sent via recorded mail. But i thought I'd see what my options were and whether or not I was penalised...

My question to anyone is what can I do=, what is the worst case scenario? They give my mum back the car in the state it was left in "written off" while my mum continues to pay the monthly installments until its paid off in full

Please could someone give me some stern advice. I would be most grateful to you!

Hello. I'm sorry that you and your mum have probems. What do you mean by stern advice please? HB

I suspect the Insurers are making enquiries with the Post Office. I believe the Post Offices Car Insurance is handled by BISL, who have placed the risk with the Coop in this instance. The Coop will ask BISL for a copy of the phone call to see if the ownership of the car was declared, as has been stated. If the Coop find that the owership was declared a being yours, but your mum had some financial interest, as she was paying you back, they may accept the claim and pay the market value for the car. If they find that the ownership was not advised correctly or they cannot find a copy of the phone call, the Coop may decline the claim and void the Insurance.

I would suggest that your mum sends a copy of the letter, chasing this up by recorded delivery. This may not be quickly resolved. Be careful about the hire car that has been provided. If the claim is declined, your mum will have to pay for this.

Thanks for the advice so far, I will send that letter off first thing tomorrow to make sure I get it to them before the 28 days is up, (they gave me a time frame before going to the underwriters).

A mate of mine suggested I go to a lawyer as he reckons we won't get a thing otherwise. Problem is I don't have the money at the moment, and time is ticking, mum went to the CAB and they referred her to some insurance lawyers down in slough for 60 an hour.

Guess I'll have to cross my fingers and see

one again thanks for replying