My house buildings insurance renewal has been refused due to a motoring conviction.

As far as I know houses don't have wheels or engines and aren't subject to the Road

Traffic Act.

How on earth can motoring convictions apply to houses?

Was the conviction related to motor insurance? Or involving any element of dishonesty?

What was the offence (or the endorsement code, if any)

IN10 and (LC30 or LC50) : it wouldn’t be too hard to see how they could state your risk profile was too high.

When did you pass your test?

I failed a random breath test and was disqualified from driving for 12 months.

I therefore assume I am dishonest.

When I was breath tested I had tax, insurance and MOT.

My endorsement code DR10.

I passed my test in August 1974.

Thread title amended.

Regards

Andy

When was your last house insurance renewal?

Was that prior to your disqualification? After??

I’m just trying to get a feel for the sequence of events to try and work out the why & wherefore’s.

It may be because if you were drink driving they’ll argue they still had to insure you and at a greater risk, and thus you are careless about exposing them to greater risk, and might be careless about exposing them to greater risk for your home.

The sequence (date of last house insurance renewal, date of conviction) will help clarify.

I notice you said “When I was breath tested I had tax, insurance and MOT.” You haven’t stated about a licence .... you passed your test in 2974 : did you have a valid photo card licence at the time? For a 1974 test pass: you didn’t just have your old paper licence and no photo card licence, by any chance?

How did your Home Insurers discover the conviction?

How did your Home Insurers discover the conviction?

Yup. I was getting there (hence me asking about dates!)

I bought my house in June 2017 and insured it then with no problem.

That was after my conviction.

I now have problems renewing my house insurance because I have been asked about any convictions

despite never being asked in the past.

Do you have the same Insurer for your car Insurance and home Insurance?

Did you have an accident at the same time as the drink drive conviction?

What is the exact wording of the question your Insurer asked you about "convictions" on your renewal?

Try another insurance provider that does not ask about convictions/disclosure

When was your conviction?

It may be that you were “just lucky” in June 17.

Many insurers would ask about convictions and insurance refusal as a matter of routine. Either someone deviated from their script then, or your insurer used not to ask, but if they now are asking .....

The hub / unlock may allow you to find a broker who can help

http://hub.unlock.org.uk/knowledgebase/list-insurance-brokers/

How did your Home Insurers discover the conviction?

This all came about after my bank invited me to their local branch for a house insurance quote.

One question asked "Have you ever had any criminal convictions".

I answered "yes" and then had to give them all the details.

The date of my conviction was 13/10/1987. Over 30 years ago.

The questions for the insurance quote were presented to me on the bank's computer screen

with an assistant entering my replies to each question.

Try another insurance provider that does not ask about convictions/disclosure

I have applied to several other insurance companies for a house insurance quote

However, they all asked if I have ever been refused insurance in the past.

I answer "yes" due to my recent refusal.

You can guess the rest.

Did you not try renewing with your existing insurer?

When you say that you are looking for house insurance, is this statutory third-party insurance et cetera or are you talking about home contents?

What are the rules relating to spent convictions? Surely a conviction of this calibre should have gone ages ago and you would be under no duty to disclose it.

In fact having a look around, you are not under any obligation to disclose this conviction which would have been spent years ago. Check the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

Unfortunately, now that you have done it and you have been refused insurance you have caused yourself difficulties. You can deal with them that one of the things you will have to do is you will have to you have the data erased from your bank's records. I'm sorry to say I think you should be a bit more clever about disclosing your personal life.

Please answer the question above as to whether or not you were renewing with an existing insurer. On 25 May send an SAR to your bank and find out what data they are holding, and who they have shared it with.

Stop telling people that you have been refused insurance. You are in a hole and you see don't know how to stop digging. Every time that you tell a new person that you've been refused insurance, it goes on to a database and it just becomes more more difficult to deal with.

Do you have the same Insurer for your car Insurance and home Insurance?

 

Did you have an accident at the same time as the drink drive conviction?

 

What is the exact wording of the question your Insurer asked you about "convictions" on your renewal?

My car and house insurance are with different companies. I recently discovered that my current house

insurance is with a company who has stopped trading so it might be void.

I didn't have an accident when I was breath tested.

I failed a random breath test. I wasn't pulled in due to impaired driving.

The house insurance application question asked if I have ever received any criminal convictions.

Please will you answer my question as to what kind of insurance you are trying to get

 

What are the rules relating to spent convictions? Surely a conviction of this calibre should have gone ages ago and you would be under no duty to disclose it.

In fact having a look around, you are not under any obligation to disclose this conviction which would have been spent years ago. Check the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

 

Unfortunately, now that you have done it and you have been refused insurance you have caused yourself difficulties.

http://hub.unlock.org.uk/knowledgebase/insurance-convictions-simple-guide/ confirms, that for a spent conviction it doesn't have to be declared.

Yet, the question was (apparently) "have you EVER had any criminal convictions", so I suspect the best answer would have been "none unspent that need to be declared".

Stop telling people that you have been refused insurance. You are in a hole and you see don't know how to stop digging. Every time that you tell a new person that you've been refused insurance, it goes on to a database and it just becomes more more difficult to deal with.

Yet, while the conviction is spent, they are entitled to ask about refused insurance, and that never gets 'spent'. Denying being refused when they can check on an underwriter's database isn't helpful, and may void the policy.

Best thing the OP can do is stop going through comparison websites and 'normal channels', and use a specialist broker, (the hub website link I previously posted might have helped before, but the 'refused insurance' now complicates things further).

The OP should also avoid getting caught out being untruthful or inconsistent, as it may get noticed during the application.

For example, we've established here that the OP:

a) passed their driving test in 1974, and

b) Got convicted for drink driving in 1987 (so any ban would be long gone!)

So, they may not have held a driving licence in 2017 (if they hadn't reapplied for one once their ban was over), but they certainly were eligible to apply, and wouldn't need lessons, as they had passed a test

Sure, they might not have wanted to get a photocard licence, but what if they wanted photo ID? They could get a licence (and not even a time-limited provisional!) but never use it to drive or need to take lessons (as a refresher after not driving for many years)....

Yet (details, details......), in February 2017

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?474623-Photo-ID-issues-with-house-conveyancing&p=4996568#post4996568

However, the paperwork insists that I must provide photo ID either by photo

driving licence or passport.

I don't have a driving licence or a passport so I am unable to provide photo ID.

Does this mean that I can't sell my house or is there some other way around this

issue? I don't want to apply for a passport as I never travel and I don't want to start

taking driving lessons to obtain a driving licence that I don't want or need.

Perhaps we don't have the whole story here, but it is also possible the insurers have also noted inconsistencies in the info provided to them......

Did you not try renewing with your existing insurer?

 

When you say that you are looking for house insurance, is this statutory third-party insurance et cetera or are you talking about home contents?

 

What are the rules relating to spent convictions? Surely a conviction of this calibre should have gone ages ago and you would be under no duty to disclose it.

I recently discovered that my current insurer has stopped trading and disappeared so I am unable to obtain

a renewal quote from them.

I am only looking for the basic buildings and third party house insurance, not contents insurance.

My house buildings insurance renewal has been refused due to a motoring conviction.

Thread title is : "House Insurance renewal has been refused due to a motoring conviction"

Please will you answer my question as to what kind of insurance you are trying to get

I'm guessing house insurance .......

My house buildings insurance renewal has been refused due to a motoring conviction.

I recently discovered that my current insurer has stopped trading and disappeared so I am unable to obtain

a renewal quote from them.

Strictly speaking you haven't had a renewal refused, which is what your initial post stated. Was it the insurer who has stopped trading (which insurer?), or the broker, as if it was just the broker you may have been able to get your existing policy renewed through the same insurer.

You've approached a new insurer and had a new policy refused, rather than a renewal refused.

In that case the insurance you are looking for is insurance which you obliged to have by law if you are a homeowner. This means that by not having it you are breaking the law.

The convictions which you have were disclosed despite not having any obligation to to do so. They happened 30 years ago. They are not offences of dishonesty. There is no way that they could be said to materially affect the risk which any insurer accepted as part of an insurance contract.

I think you should set about as suggested above, contacting small specialist insurance brokers and explain to them exactly what has happened. I expect that you will get insured at some point, but it may cost you a little more. However, you will need to overcome this particular problem.

You say that your existing insurer has gone out of business. Generally speaking there is some arrangement for a new insurer to take over their files. Have you investigated this? If you have an existing insurance and you can find out who has taken over the risk, then you would be entitled to renew their insurance automatically. Insurers are not allowed to refuse a renewal – except in very special circumstances.

After that, I think you need to deal with the bank. It's up to you whether you think you want to take the trouble – but frankly I would do. You now have convictions on file and you have no idea when they might crop up again. You also have an insurance refusal on file and you have no idea when that will crop up again either.

I would challenge the bank. You reposed their trust in them and I think that when trying to sell you a product they owed you a fiduciary duty to have explained exactly what it meant by disclosing convictions and to protect you from getting yourself into exactly the kind of problem that you have managed to do.

If you want to do this, we will help you. I would suggest initially a complaint to the bank and to the FOS. You may eventually consider a small action under BCOBS which would be very straightforward and you might find interesting. I'm very clear in my mind that the bank is treated you unfairly.

As I have already suggested, you should send the bank an SAR on 25 May to get all the information they hold on you in respect of the insurance and the disclosures you made. You should then insist on their records being erased in respect of these matters. After 25 May this should be a fairly straightforward matter. However, you will also discover with whom they have shared this data and you will then have to contact those people and get them to erase the data as well. I'm not sure whether I have seen that there is some duty on the sharer of data to ensure that all those people that the data has been shared with master raise as well. We had better doublecheck this. It would save you a lot of trouble – but I'm not sure that this is the case.

You sound to me as if you're someone who doesn't really like to disclose their details on social media – but it seems to me that when a bank asks you all sorts of personal details somehow or other you seem to lose your inhibitions despite the fact that they are one of the most untrustworthy self-serving organisations you could come across. I think that you have caused a lot of problems for yourself – but we can help you sort them out if you want.

Following on from the above, I can confirm that there is a duty on the bank's data controller to take all reasonable steps to make sure that Data which they have shared with others, is raised by those are the data controllers

Where the controller has made the personal data public and is obliged pursuant to paragraph 1 to erase the personal data, the controller, taking account of available technology and the cost of implementation, shall take reasonable steps, including technical measures, to inform controllers which are processing the personal data that the data subject has requested the erasure by such controllers of any links to, or copy or replication of, those personal data.

https://gdpr-info.eu/art-17-gdpr/

Powerful stuff

You may find this helpful...

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/25/25-disclosure-of-spent-motoring-convictions.htm

I foresee a nice juicy cheque as an apology coming your way from the bank