Refused insurance - help!

[scuffy]

I have recently applied for house insurance and had it refused because I gave a wrong date regarding a previous claim. It was originally accepted and the payment taken then they did their CLUE check and found that the date on the claim that I disclosed didn't match the date on the system. I was not given any opportunity to check the information before they sent a letter of refusal. The date they have is correct and the date I gave them was a genuine mistake, I never tried to hide the claim, which was for £509 and my second only claim in 15 years. The problem I now have is that the refusal stays against my name for 5 years and affects all future insurance policies and has already taken effect as the next company I tried would not insure me. What I need help with is how do I appeal against this? It seems somewhat unfair that the insurance industry can do this without some kind of process to give people a chance to check information or even accept an increase in premium. They state that because there was a previous claim within three years they wouldn't have covered me initially but rather than writing and tell me this they just cancelled the insurance resulting in a refusal. I hope this makes sense and would appreciate any help or advice. Thank you

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I can see you would be annoyed about this and for what it's worth, it doesn't sound right to me either. But I'm not one of the insurance guys, hopefully they will be along later.

 

My best, HB

[unclebulgaria67]

Did the second company you tried to obtain Insurance with tell you that you had been recorded as having Insurance cancelled/refused ? Or did you tell them and then they refused ?

 

Anyway I don't see any problem. There is no 5 year record about this is your name as far as I am aware. You just arrange new Insurance and disclose the correct claims information. Just count this problem with the company as a hiccup with a wrong year for the claim provided which meant they could not continue the policy just started, as they don't accept people with claims in the last 3 years. Go through a local Insurance broker and you will have no issue. If you speak to one of the call centres you will get Churchill the dog or a space cadet saying No.

 

If you go about it in this way, you will not have a problem. Usually where cancellations have to be disclosed and are taken seriously by Insurers, is where there has been non disclosure or fraud, usually found out when making a new claim. Your problem was that you just got the year of a claim wrong, when trying to arrange Insurance. Not a punishable offence.

[scuffy]

Thank you for replying to me. Do I have to in the future declare that I have been refused insurance as this seems to be a question that is now asked? And how do I check if it is recorded on the CLUE system that insurers now use to check information?

[unclebulgaria67]

Thank you for replying to me. Do I have to in the future declare that I have been refused insurance as this seems to be a question that is now asked? And how do I check if it is recorded on the CLUE system that insurers now use to check information?

 

CUE= Claims underwriting exchange. It only records claims details.

 

No I would not bother personally, as it was just a mistake with a date on a recent application and you have done nothing wrong. They will ask about you ever being refused Insurance. Some people will tell you that you have to answer yes, but then you will have to go into an explanation and it just gets silly. You would probably then need to get a letter from this company who cancelled the policy to forward onto future companies to explain the situation. Hence why I would answer no. It was just a slight error with a date and this particular company could not Insure you with a claim within the last 3 years.

 

If you want to declare the refusal because you think you have to, then contact this company who cancelled the policy and ask for a letter explaning the cancellation, for your future use.

[scuffy]

Just thought I would update you. The insurance company that cancelled my policy called today to confirm the details of my claim. I asked about having to declare an insurance refusal and they said that they would not register it as a refusal only a cancellation and as the policy was still being checked by them I didn't have anything to worry about in the future. They also said that had I got the date of the claim correct they would not have insured me anyway. So I feel it was a good outcome and thank you for your imput which gave me the confidence to make sure things were in order.