Hi, hope you can help. On the 10th October 2017 I took out car insurance with GA and paid in full. They asked me to send them proof of no claims bonus, so I called them to establish I would email them a copy of the letter sent to me by my previous insurer stating how many no claims bonus I had and that’s exactly what I then did. On Wednesday 15th November 2017 I received an email saying my car insurance has been cancelled due to them not receiving my proof of no claims bonus. I was put into quite a predicament because under duress I then had to buy some more car insurance. Do insurance companies have the right to do this? My car is parked on the road side so apart from the risk involved while I was searching for a new insurance company I was unable to drive my car until I was able to reinsure my car. They refunded my insurance less £90.

Thanks

I'm afraid the insurance companies tend to do whatever they want to do and the problem is that nobody challenges them despite the fact that customers insurance companies has some very powerful laws to assist them – ICOBS.

The important thing is whether the missing document is something which materially affects the risk and could be described as being more than merely administrative. In the case of a missing no claims bonus document then I think that at an early stage it is reasonable to say that it is merely an administrative problem which can be dealt with and so therefore there is no basis upon which it could be said to result in the termination of the contract.

Have you evidence of the sent no claims bonus? Have they made any attempt to contact you and to warn you that they have not received the document?

Finally, it really is a matter as to what you want to do about it. Now that you have your new insurance and presumably you are not particularly out-of-pocket – because you haven't talked about it here, and also because you have had about 45 days of insurance albeit for £90, you may well think that it is more hassle than it's worth to make trouble about it.

If this is the way you think – then fair enough. You have to evaluate what is the best use of your time but it would be precisely because of this kind of reason that insurance companies get away with it again and again and again. They are not used to being challenged and frankly they should be challenged but generally speaking no one bothers and certainly no one ever bothers to use ICOBS which really is the best way to teach insurers a very hard lesson

General Accident, do they still exist ? I thought they stopped trading years ago,?

In regard to non receipt of NCD, the reason why some Insurers cancel, is that they have no authority to collect a higher premium due, if the NCD was taken off.

The interesting question is whether you told the Insurers who you had NCD from ? Could they have obtained information in order to just allow the NCD ? For example contact the other Insurers, check the Insurers central claims database, phone or send an email/letter warning of non receipt of the NCD.

Because of the number of transactions they probably don't bother doing much and just cancel a policy if NCD proof is not received. Of course they would never do this for a VIP customer where they would make more of an effort.

General Accident, do they still exist ? I thought they stopped trading years ago,?

 

In regard to non receipt of NCD, the reason why some Insurers cancel, is that they have no authority to collect a higher premium due, if the NCD was taken off.

 

The interesting question is whether you told the Insurers who you had NCD from ? Could they have obtained information in order to just allow the NCD ? For example contact the other Insurers, check the Insurers central claims database, phone or send an email/letter warning of non receipt of the NCD.

 

GA didn't go out of business, they just merged with other insurers and ended up part of Aviva some 15 - 20 years ago from memory. 3 or 4 years ago Aviva started using General Accident again as a brand name for some policies Aviva sell though online price comparison sites.

Low admin costs is the name of the game so insurers nearly always insist that it is your responsibility to obtain and send to them proof of NCB. They won't contact other insurers and do it for you.

IThe important thing is whether the missing document is something which materially affects the risk and could be described as being more than merely administrative.

Insurers could, probably would, claim that the number of years NCB you had was an underwriting factor, not just something for the administrative calculation of premium. There are all sorts of risks that insurers will write if you have full NCB that wouldn't write if you have no NCB.