Hi

Can anyone give me some advice please? About 4 years ago I stupidly ignored requests from my car insurance company to send them some paperwork (even though i had it and could easily have done so). The end result of this was they cancelled my policy. Although I'd like to just clarify i never lied ot them or became late with any payment.

I won't bore you with details but I was going though a very difficult time then and frankly couldn't care less about the consequences. I accept i just completely buried my head in the sand becuase i couldn't face sorting out a minor issue, and take full responsibilty for it.

However, my life's now back on track and since then I've been declaring each year that i have had insurance cancelled, which has been costing me a fortune.

My question is, do i have to do this forever, or is there a time limit? It seems a bit unfair if i still have to do this in 20 years and get lumped in with people who deliberately lied to their provider.

Any help please?

Many thanks

Hi jed

Welcome to CAG

The guys will advise as soon as they are available.

Thread moved.

There is no time limit as such, which is worse than a criminal conviction which is covered by the rehab of offender act.

Without knowing the reason for cancellation, difficult to comment. If it is purely about documents not being returned, then I would not worry too much. The Insurers would have cancelled, as their procedures required this. Normally it is cases where fraud or deliberate non disclosure had been found out, where you would have a problem following a cancellation, as these would be recorded on a central database.

So my advice is to arrange cover normally, but to mention the cancellation in a way, that it was of no conseuquence i.e that documents they required did not get returned in time due to an admin oversight on your part. If you make a big deal of it, then they will deal with it in that way.

Thanks for your reply

Right ok. It does sound unfair yes. It's a shame they don't do it in categories with the most serious kinds (involving fraud and deliberate non-disclosure) getting the lifetime thing. Although i know I've only got myself to blame.

Just to make sure I've got it right then, the best way is to sort insurance out over the phone, explaining that a previous insurer cancelled a policy a few years ago because I didn't return documents in time. Is that right?

I'm concerned that if they allow it but then don't make a note they could bring it up in the event of a claim. I wouldnt want to risk them saying i hadn't told them.

I don't suppose there's any likelyhood of the original insurer revoking the decision after of a big grovely apology with official records to back up the problems I was having? I guess not but I thought it's worth asking.

I think you are worrying unnecessarily about this. Some of this is caused by totally misleading posts and comments online about having to tell Insurers of every single type of cancellation, just in case they turn around and decline a claim.

If you can answer no to this question then I would not even bother to advise of the cancellation.

Have you ever had a policy cancelled due to either non disclosure or fraudulent conduct ?

If you are really worried about this speak to the previous Insurers who cancelled the policy. Ask for them to confirm in writing that the cancellation is not of the type that needs to be disclosed when arranging future Insurances.

I don't agree. The question is usually, 'have you ever had insurance declined or cancelled?' If you say no, that is untrue. Now, you are not some villain who has tried to cheat the insurers at some point, just someone who didn't send in proof that you indeed did have.

One would not think it significant, but we must remember that insrance companies are businesses there to make a profit. In the event of a claim they will take whatever reasoanbel steps they have at their disposal to minimise losses and that will mean going through the appliaction for insurance with a fine toothcomb. If they find you omitted any information that would or could have effected their decision to offer you insurance, they will void the policy and refund your premium paid in preference to paying for the damage caused.

I am reminded of the story recently of a woman who's house burned down. She had paid for insurance without claiming for something like 20 years. When she actually needed to claim they dug and boy did they dig deep. They found she had a caution for being drunk when she was 18 (now 50 something) or something equally trivial and that she did not disclose it when she originally applied for insurance, so they cancelled her insurance and refunded all her premiums - about £5k worth rather than pay for her £200k house to be rebuilt.

I will try to find the actual story.

Dennis

Your view is shared by many, particularly brokers. I am not saying you are doing this, but some brokers post comments online about the cancellation issue, hoping to drive business down the broking route. i.e. if people believe that they have to inform of every cancellation, they are more likely to use a broker.

For the OP it is up to them what they do. If they have nothing to hide, as the cancellation was purely about documents not being returned, after the point of sale, then I can't see any Insurers using this to decline a claim. But if the OP is a cautious person then they should simply arrange cover by phone for the rest of their lives and mention that they once had a policy cancelled as they forgot to return some documents. In 5,10,20 years, this might seem a bit silly, if they have nothing to hide.

I just wanted to say a massive thank you for your help with this. I've been in touch with my present insurer and they agreed what happened didn't count as a cancellation as they meant it. So as i had to get a new policy anyway i did a quick price comparison search, called the best offer, explained the situation, and got a fantastic price!

Although I've been paying a lot extra for the last few years, I'm happy to take that on the chin as it was a stupid thing to do anyway. Regarding how i had to ring up, I think I'll do the same for the next few years just to make sure the insurance companies are happy with it. Then in maybe 4-5 years or so I'll just do it online again, providing all goes well.

In case you're interested, my original insurer was Sheila's Wheels, and the new policy with with Tesco's.

Thank you again.