Hi all,

I am having a nightmare situation and I really need some advice if possible.

I had an accident last night and manage to damage two stationary cars that were parked (I skidded on ice and collided with the cars).

I gave the owners all my insurance details and thought everything would be okay. I then rang More Than to make a claim only to be told my policy was cancelled on the 5th November due to non payment!

I took out the policy and paid in full on the phone in september, I was told everything had "gone through" and thats all I needed to do. I recieved the certificate and was not told of any problem with payment. I even rang up in october when I changed my car and they sent me a letter with a new certifcate and informed me that because my new car was cheaper for the insurance they were refunding me the difference! again-no indication that there was any problem. I have recieved absolutely no notification of cancellation or even any contact to say I haven't paid.

I have gone onto my bank account and I can see they never took a payment, despite having the money available in the account.

I hit an audi and a bmw and I am looking at 1000's of pounds of damage and More Than are saying they can't get any informaton up on the screen and I need to ring back on monday. As you can imagine I now have two car owners that are expecting to have their cars repaired and I am assuming I could also be taken to court for driving without a licence if they contact the police??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.I know more than have a duty to inform me of any changes to my policy so how do I go about taking action against them-bearing in mind it needs to be speedy because those cars are not driveable and need to be repaired ASAP!

Thankyou in advance.

Driving without a licence?

Driving without a licence?

if thats so your ins is null and void.

doh!

dx

The third paties will claim on their own insurance if they are fully comp, but their insurers will then come after you. You need to sort out with More Than pretty Quick!

sorry!

sorry just re-read my original post and realised I put the police will charged with driving without a licence! I meant driving without insurance! sorry as you can imagine I was a bit panicked writing that post.

hehe never mind no harm done.

ok back to your org question then.

i would be inclined to phone more and enquire why the payments were not taken.

there seems to be something amiss their way here, as you say you changed cars and still got a cover note etc, so you need to get to the bottom of it.

if it turns out to be their mistook, then i would expect them to allow you to pay the outstanding and they will honour the claims coming through, if not then i dont know what you can do.

dx

try typing your reg number here

just a chance

ASKMID

At the moment, don't worry about the other cars, that is truthfully the least of your worries.

The fact MT have sent you a certificate of insurance etc... indicates that you are insured. Full stop. If they then have made a mistake and not taken the money for it, that's their problem, not yours. It isn't up to you to check how their accounts dept do their job.

Your stance in the matter should be: I have given you the means to take payment. You have sent me confirmation of insurance. You have not at any point indicated that you had declined or cancelled cover, therefore it is your responsability to honour this policy.

hi,

fantastic, thankyou so much for all your advice, esp bookworm because I just got some advice from a solicitor and that was exactly what he said to do aswell! More Than are now saying that they sent a letter a few days after sending out the amended certificate (with the new car details) saying that they checked their records and realised they hadn't received payment.

I never got that letter and to be honest i really dont think there ever was such a letter. More Than are refusing to budge but i managed to get the women to admit on the phone that they didnt know payment had not been taken by them. However they are saying they gave me the required notice of cancellation when they did eventually realise their mistake.

Are they going to beable to literally print off a back dated letter and use this as evidence?

I know I did not get this supposed letter even though I have had no problems receiving all other correspondence such as the schedules and certificates!

I feel terrible for the car owners vehicles. I don't know whether to contact them and let them know whats happening? The solicitor told me to write to More Than putting exactly what Bookworm put in his post and if they still say I am not insured then he will take on my case?

Even on a point of principle I want to take action against More Than, my girlfriend is a named driver on the policy and we have been potentially driving with no insurance since they are saying they cancelled it back in November, as a student on the LPC and becoming a trainee solicitor next year, she says that if she had been stopped while driving my car then this could of potentially affected her career!

Im sorry to bombard you all with messgages but I thought I should just mention that I put my reg number into MID as postggj suggested and it came back saying it wasnt on there.

However, out of curiousity I put in my old reg number (for the car i originally took the policy out on in september) and it has come up saying that it is on the Motor Insurance Database?! what does this mean-that More Than didnt transfer the vehicle despite sending a new certificate with the new car details on?!

i am getting very confused now, can anyone shed any light on this?!

However, out of curiousity I put in my old reg number (for the car i originally took the policy out on in september) and it has come up saying that it is on the Motor Insurance Database?!

It is up to More Than to prove that they had notified you that the policy had been cancelled. It is not enough for them to re-print a copy of a letter and claim they sent it to you, as often these letters are from a standard template and just because the system flagged up and printed a letter to be sent to you does not prove that it actually was sent. Although many of these systems are automated, it still takes a physical person to put the letter in the envelope and then in the Mail Out box (etc).

If they had your signature for the letter having been sent by recorded mail then that would be enough to prove you received it. In truth lots of mail goes 'missing' either through the postal system or because the company never sent it (because they have to send a LOT of mail). As these companies don't use recorded / signed for mail (as it would be too expensive) then they have no way to prove you received it - and even if they did as you have not received it then there would not be a record of you having received it.

More Than can bitch all they like but there is no way that they have properly informed you the policy was cancelled. If the policy was cancelled they should also have asked for you to send your insurance certificate back, and then followed up when they did not get it. Basically they have had a system error in processing your payment and are now trying to lay the blame on you.

Inform More Than that you did not receive any notice of cancellation, and the onus is on them to process the payment. Offer to send them a cheque / postal order of the insurance premium if they are having trouble processing it, but state that at no time have you withheld payment from them, and thus you expect them to honour the contract that you have agreed upon. State that unless they agree to process your claim immediately then you will be forced to take legal action, and inform them that if you are successful then they are liable not only for the claim but for all of your legal costs.

As I have said elsewhere I do not like to give guarantees, but there is no way a court would see in favour of More Than on this. A contract was agreed and you made the cash available. If they can't get their act together to take payment then that is not your problem, they still have to uphold their end of the deal.

Thankyou so much for all the help,

As for whether the old car was re-insured by the new owner, the car was sold to someone we know and up until last week it was still in their garage not being driven but there may be a chance that theyve taxed and insured it in the last week,i will have to check with them.

After all of your advice I feel confident to go ahead and try to take legal action against More Than so thank you again and I will post with any updates.

I had a very similar problem not too long ago, I just waited and watched what would/could happen before making any decisions

just because the system flagged up and printed a letter to be sent to you does not prove that it actually was sent. Although many of these systems are automated, it still takes a physical person to put the letter in the envelope and then in the Mail Out box (etc).

 

 

No, I'm afraid that it doesn't need any human intervention as you describe.

For a company with the amount of mailing that More Than has, they will only use a human being to move several hundred printed pages into the input of an envelope stuffer - which folds the letter, stuffs into an envelope, seals the envelope and outputs straight into a Royal Mail sack. If pre-paid postage envelopes are not used, it is possible for the envelope stuffing machine to weigh and frank the envelope.

What may have happened is that the letter was printed, but was subject to a wreck or jam in the envelope machine (as you can imaging, these aren't infrequent), This would have required manual intervention and should have triggered a subsequent reprint (probably the following day's print run).

To send the letter recorded or registered would be a totally manual operation

correct me if wrong

a good pal pf mine is an insurance broker

he told me , to cover them selves, when a policy is cancelled a letter is sent by recorded delievery to confirm this.

i would look into this with more than