AA home insurance have given me £165 bill to cancel my home insurance, which I never wanted in the 1st place, help!

[tal]

I was with the AA the last 12 months for home insurance, I got a letter from them in Nov 08, telling me my home insurance would finish im Jan 09 and they would automatically renew it.

 

I only realised they would automatically renew the insurance, when they started taking out the DD from the bank, I cancelled the DD, then I received a letter saying they have put a £12 charge on my a/c for cancelling the DD.

 

I rang them up, saying I never wanted the insurance renewed in the 1st place and they have done this without my authorisation, I was told by the advisor that its automatically renewed if you don't tell them you don't want it 1mnth before the expiry date.

 

I told the advisor to cancell my insurance, she said it was a standard charge of £75 to cancel the insurance and then pay the insuarnce from nov 08 to jan 09, total £166

 

The advisor said it states the charges in the insurance contract, but i think she was fobbing me off, can anyone please help me.

 

I found a cheaper insurance £135 cheaper, which is why I don't want the AA

[Mossycat]

First off I don't agree with auto renewal policies but sadly it's the nrom these days.

 

IF auto renewal was part of your contract terms and conditions then you are deemed to have wanted it UNLESS you inform them otherwise, since you failed to do this the policy renewed 'with your authorisation' and payments were sought accordingly.

 

The advisor was not fobbing you off they were simply telling you what it will cost to get out of the contract, you state that you knew in Nov 08 that the policy would finish AND auto-renew in January, so you had two months in which to tell them not to auto-renew.

 

Mossy

[buzby]

WHY on earth give them a DD in the first place? This is becoming a real problem as people provide access to their bank account, and let firms take money out when they want. There is some comfort that the policy's are currently sold as an annual product, (rather than ongoing) so there is an expectation of the contract ending if you do not pay.

 

In the absence of you confirming you wished to proceed with the renewal, they cannot arbitrarily assume that you will. Their argument that the policy was in force can be ewasily challenged by stating you had arranged cover elsewhere, and as you cannot benefit from 2 insurances, theirs was not the preferred one. State in writing that you did not require their cover, and did not request it. You also are not paying for 'cancellation' of a policy that had lapsed.

 

And for goodness sake, CANCEL those DDs.

[Mossycat]

In the absence of you confirming you wished to proceed with the renewal, they cannot arbitrarily assume that you will. Their argument that the policy was in force can be ewasily challenged by stating you had arranged cover elsewhere, and as you cannot benefit from 2 insurances, theirs was not the preferred one. State in writing that you did not require their cover, and did not request it. You also are not paying for 'cancellation' of a policy that had lapsed.

 

 

That argument will not work IF an auto renewal was incorporated in the terms and conditions of the polcy that the OP accepted. It would only work if you were sent something that you hadn't requested and deemed to have accepted unless you opted out.

 

I'm afraid the OP will be paying the cancellation fee unless the Insurers decide to waive it as a gesture of goodwill

 

Mossy

[buzby]

I agree - IF auto-renewal was part of the policy, but it so often isn't, and in any regard, doesn;t work for those who refuse to pay by card or DD. More often than not the companies try it on, to the policy of denying it (auto renewal) until they can prove otherwise remains a good one!

[Bookworm]

That argument will not work IF an auto renewal was incorporated in the terms and conditions of the polcy that the OP accepted. It would only work if you were sent something that you hadn't requested and deemed to have accepted unless you opted out.

 

I'm afraid the OP will be paying the cancellation fee unless the Insurers decide to waive it as a gesture of goodwill

 

Mossy

I disagree: silence does not amount to acceptance, Felthouse v Bindley (1862), and I think that insurance companies are going to get into trouble once this behaviour (which you are quite correct is on the increase with a lot of companies) comes under scrutiny. At the moment, they are getting away with it because a lot of people don't realise that this is challengeable. The fact it may be written in the T&Cs doesn't make it lawful if it is an unfair term and the fact OP got insurance then would seen to support the fact that there was no conduct by acceptance, which would be the insco's counter-argument to Felthouse.

 

Furthermore, there is no reason for OP to be charged a cancellation fee: he didn't cancel, he simply didn't renew. Therefore, it is up to the insurance company to rectify their mistake, not for OP to get charged for it.

[Mossycat]

I disagree: silence does not amount to acceptance, Felthouse v Bindley (1862),

 

The reason I didn't quote that case was because it is fundamentally different to the OP's position and citing it will not help their case against the insurer concerned.

 

Don't get me wrong here, I think auto renewal is at best a bad idea and at worst an unfair trcik, but the OP was aware of it and let it go through.

 

I guess the moral to the story is don't have DD's that extend beyond the contract you have agreed to and if you are advised that something will happen that you don't want to then take steps to stop it happening.

 

Mossy

[Bookworm]

Actually, Felthouse is extremely relevant. The long and short of it is that you can not set terms that say: "if you don't tell us otherwise, we'll deem that you have accepted our terms" unless there is acceptance by conduct (Example: Capital1 increasing their interest rates, and advising you that if you keep on spending on the card then they will automatically adjust to the higher rate, or keeping on using a bank account even though the T&Cs have changed.)

 

When I was new on here, my first settlement was with NatWest and they sent me a cheque but wanted confidentiality, and I wrote back to them saying "thanks for the money, but no to confidentiality. Unless you tell me you want the cheque back I will deem that you accept my terms within x days", and Bankfodder had a right go at me about it and explained why I had messed up and how my terms couldn't be binding.

 

A company can not enforce silence/non-action as enforceable acceptance of a contract, unless it is accompanied by conduct which indicates that acceptance. OP having arranged insurance elsewhere would clearly indicate his conduct did NOT indicate acceptance of the first insurance contract, as he wouldn't have gone elsewhere if he had.

[tal]

Appreciate all the advice, I feel the AA have acted without my permission in renewing the policy, without my written or vocal authority.

 

My policy was renewed in Nov 08, I was sent a 'renewal letter' 2 weeks before the policy, which mentioned I had 2 weeks to cancel if I didn't want them to 'auto-renew'.

 

I only realised the AA were taking money out of my a/c in Jan 09 - 2 months later!

 

I rang the AA this week and told them to cancel the insurance, I was told I would have to pay £75 cancellation fee and then more money, to a total of £165, which is illegal and a rip off.

 

They were supposed to send me a letter stating the policy was cancelled, but that has not arrived.

 

What are my options, I feel the AA is not only ripping me off, but its doing the same thing to thousands of people every year.

[ThedaBara]

Old thread but still these insurers are trying it on... what a shame we didn't get to find out if the OP was able to challenge the insurer about the auto renewal, which is currently subject to an investigation by the FCS. TB