car insurane cancelled, not informed, stopped by police, help

[cambridgeblue]

Hello everyone

 

 

 

Thank you in advance for any information you can possibly provide uswith in our time of terrible stress and worry.

 

 

 

The 'scenario' and subsequent journey of events and processes we have takensince.

 

 

 

On 5th of September 2013 my wife was driving our family car with our 2children out of town in the early evening and was stopped by a marked policecar (I believe a traffic car). The officer informed my wife that they hadstopped her due to their computer registering the car as uninsured, this wasobviously at the time a complete shock, and of great concern and worry shewas apparently uninsured.

 

 

 

She explained that we had 'taken out insurance' on the 9th of May2013 with esure (via the internet search engine Moneysupermarket). Theofficer immediately asked my wife how she/we had paid for the insurance(obviously thinking we had paid one installment then cancelled the policy andcontinued to drive, guilty until proven guilty!!!) my wife informed him we hadpaid for the insurance in one single upfront payment, and asked himto please check again. He did return to his car begrudgingly andfor a good 10 minutes we can only assume spoke to the insurance company.

 

 

 

He finally came back and said the insurance policy had been cancelled andtherefore the car and thus my wife driving were no longer insured and so thecar would, (and was) immediately seized leaving my wife and 2 childrenaged 7 and 4 by the side of the road (to add to the situation it was my son’sbirthday and they were coming back from a cinema treat, both were in floods oftears and very traumatized by the whole incident) They would not take my wifeand children home but did stay with them until a neighbor could collect them.

 

 

 

Due to the lateness everyone finally returned home we couldn't do anythingthat evening regarding contacting insurance companies etc, so the following hashappened from the 6th September.

 

 

 

Due to the way esure work everything seems to be done via the internet/emailso the very first thing we have done is check all correspondence we have hadfrom them in this way.

 

We have received ONE and only one email

 

Dated

 

The first two paragraphs read

 

Thank you for choosing esure brokerfor your car insurance policy. Your cover will start from: 00:00 on 09/05/2013and your reference number is 6847 - ******-****

 

How much is my premium?

 

£***.** has been taken from your creditcard ending *****

 

Thank you

 

It then continues

 

You just need to wait half an hour sowe can create your documents, including your Certificate of motor insurance,policy schedule, policy wording and key facts. Reassuring we had hoped?

 

We have used their ‘online account viewer’ to see what documents we couldprint/download in our defense, and very worryingly they have denied access andremoved the certificate of motor insurance?

 

We then contacted them by phone and had the following (condensed for yourreading) phone conversation

 

Has our car insurance been cancelled?

 

Yes

 

Could you tell us why?

 

No

 

Why not?

 

I’m not obliged to tell you

 

Why did we not get any warning this was going to happen?

 

We did warn you via your postaladdress

 

We didn’t receive anything in the post where did you send it?

 

Answer the wrong address, they hadsomehow (and they say through moneysupermarkets information) sent it to our oldaddress which we have not lived at for over 2 years!!.

 

Why did you not contact us through any other means ie email? or phone?

 

Nothing, they then very oddly unpromptedoffered a full refund and basically didn’t want anything else to do with us andwere very very rude and aggressive towards us.

 

Theystill have our full initial one off payment, I don’t want it but I do want to stillbe insured!!

 

Everythingto do with the car I.e. V5 registration, tax and my wife’s driving license, allstate our new address. The car has been insured at our new address previously.What is very strange is the police officer told my wife she does have a golf insured, my wifecorrected him and said we did butthat was over 3 years ago??

 

We arenow without a car, my wife especially is facing a very worrying and verystressful time with police and court processes to deal with, we have aninsurance company that don’t want to talk to us and the prospect of points onher license and financial penalties now and when we try to reinsure a new car. Aboveall this it has really affected our 2 children as they witnessed were involvedin the whole procedure

 

What dowe do now? A step by step process and any information would obviously be sowelcomed we both cannot thank you in advance for your help and support

 

Cambridgeblue- Family

[BazzaS]

Send an SAR (subject access request) to the insurers, requesting all information they have on you.

 

Ensure it states your current address to return the information to.

[unclebulgaria67]

I think you also need to contact Moneysupermarket customer services about this as an urgent enquiry.

 

I think what may have happened ( a guess) is that you have been registered with Moneysupermarket for a number of years and they still had details of you having a Golf at your old address. Moneysupermarket will have sent out emails suggesting that you may want to obtain a quote from them. You have then logged into the Moneysupermarket site and updated the quote with your new car and added your new address. You then continued to take up the policy with Esure. Because you did not update your address on the 'official details' page on Moneysupermarket, Esure may have thought that you were living between two addresses and still had the Golf. Or somehow you have Insured the old Golf by mistake, using old information held by Moneysupermarket. They then cancelled, writing to your old address.

 

What many people don't realise is that Moneysupermarket is not just a comparison site, but are actually brokers in a limited way. They are regulated by the FCA and come under the FOS. They will share information with the Insurers and I expect that it is Moneysupermarket who have given information regarding the old address.

 

I think Moneysupermarket issues are behind the cancellation and you need their help to get to the bottom of what has happened here.

[cambridgeblue]

Send an SAR (subject access request) to the insurers, requesting all information they have on you.

 

Ensure it states your current address to return the information to.

 

Thank you BazzaS

Not wanting to be a cynic but will they honor this request and how do I know if the information, if any they return is genuine or just fabricated for such a demand? I assume if I click on the SAR link in blue this will take me to a 'template'/guidance page for writing such a SARs request?

 

Appreciated Cambridgeblue-family

[cambridgeblue]

Thankyou unclebulgaria67

 

I have tried to contact moneysupermarket today but lines are closed until Monday morning so just going to have to wait, which is stressful in itself!!

 

Of some interest we went back to previous quotes like you said wondering whether they still had old information held on us as a family.

I got my wife to log on with her email address and her password and surprisingly even though the car is in her name and she is the main policy holder and always has been, the welcome screen greeted me with a big Hello A*** welcome back to moneysupermarket , ODD???.

My wife then proceeded to complete another application just to see what would happen on the address section and it came up blank asking us to fill out all the necessary information, so reasonably happy it didn't input old information previously, and having lived here at our new address for over 2 years confident we know where we live and our correct address!!!!! plus we insured it before at this address through such sites possibly even moneysupermarket so no doubt really.

[BazzaS]

Thank you BazzaS

Not wanting to be a cynic but will they honor this request and how do I know if the information, if any they return is genuine or just fabricated for such a demand? I assume if I click on the SAR link in blue this will take me to a 'template'/guidance page for writing such a SARs request?

 

Appreciated Cambridgeblue-family

 

If you send a properly constructed SAR, by a recorded delivery method,the risk of them deliberately fabricating their response is too great for them : catch them in that or repeatedly failing to comply with an SAR and the ICO would savage them.

[cambridgeblue]

I have found the link to the SAR (thanks for that) and will have it filled out and ready to go Monday morning. I appreciate the information will be of use whether it confirms the details held on us are wrong, which I suspect, or it clarifies that they are not and we explore another avenue. will be disappointed especially after the phone conversation where they replied with our old address.

what is still worrying is why they felt the need to cancel what are we missing? did we not return something, sign something, press a response button as mentioned all we had was one email, if so why the wrong details and utter lack of effort to try other contact details such as email/phone?

[unclebulgaria67]

Thankyou unclebulgaria67

 

I have tried to contact moneysupermarket today but lines are closed until Monday morning so just going to have to wait, which is stressful in itself!!

 

Of some interest we went back to previous quotes like you said wondering whether they still had old information held on us as a family.

I got my wife to log on with her email address and her password and surprisingly even though the car is in her name and she is the main policy holder and always has been, the welcome screen greeted me with a big Hello A*** welcome back to moneysupermarket , ODD???.

My wife then proceeded to complete another application just to see what would happen on the address section and it came up blank asking us to fill out all the necessary information, so reasonably happy it didn't input old information previously, and having lived here at our new address for over 2 years confident we know where we live and our correct address!!!!! plus we insured it before at this address through such sites possibly even moneysupermarket so no doubt really.

 

I would not rule out IT issues at Moneysupermarket being an issue, as I have read of other people having such issues going via them. Coicidence ?

 

Why did you still have a live policy for the Golf ?

[Conniff]

I have tried to contact moneysupermarket today but lines are closed until Monday morning

 

I would strongly advise recording the phone call. If your mobile has this facility, then use that. You do not have to tell them you are recording the call.

[lookinforinfo]

Cambridgeblue there are a number of worrying factors in your case.

 

1] why did they cancel your insurance

 

2] why did they not try harder to let you know that they hadn't accepted your policy. They must have known that you hadn't received their cancellation otherwise they would have had you on the

phone asking why the cancellation and give me my money back soon after the letter was sent

3] you paid the premium by credit card. Seems strange that they asked you the other day where you wanted the refund to go when it should have been

returned to your credit card provider already. Seeing the money come back into your account might also have alerted you to the problem.

Surely when an Insurance Company does some thing as potentially dangerous as to cancel a motor policy that they have confirmed has been accepted they have a duty to ensure that you were told. After all you were lucky that the Police stopped you rather than finding out after having been involved in a serious accident leaving you liable to pay out thousands of pounds.

 

4] why did they use your old address especially when it wouldn't have been on your application

 

After reading your first post again I notice that the Police said your Golf was insured! Has Esure made a mistake and insured you for that car. It would perhaps explain why they didn't return your premium.

 

While waiting for the SAR results, I think you should write a strong letter of complaint to Esure asking for an explanation for the whole saga and how they intend to make amends for the situation that

your wife, through no fault of her own, now finds herself in.

[Surfer01]

The above issue seems to be happening on a regular basis with people not being informed that their insurance has been cancelled. If we take it into perspective statistics dictate that probably only a small number of those people affected are actually raising a complaint on this forum and that is frightening!

[Kiki1]

If you have a bank statement from May confirming the one off payment for the full amount was taken, and no subsequent refunds into the account up to the point your wife was stopped, then you have a legal and binding conrtract with the broker, and therefore the insurance company.

 

It would be useful to have a copy of the insurance policy issued at the time (and downloaded exactly as it was presented on the day of commencement of the policy), just so you can check all detail given to the brokers was correct , and you have abided by the terms and conditions.

[lookinforinfo]

I expect that you will have to pay a slightly higher premium to insure your car as your Insurer has refused to insure you. It would obviously help if you knew why of course-perhaps you didn't send in

a proof of No claims discount for instance.

 

As far as the Court is concerned, you can truthfully state that you believed you had insurance as you have the confirmation from your insurers and they still had your premium on the day the Police stopped you.

As you are not one of those drivers who knowingly drive without insurance, the Court will take that into account. I think therefore that any penalty levied by the Court would be unduly harsh.

I suggest you inform the Police of the situation and see if they will drop the charge.

[TD27]

This is one offence which is absolute, you either have it or you don't. So from the Police's standpoint, you didn't. Their job is to then report that matter and prevent the offence from continuing, usually by seizing the car.

 

Have a look at this link - in particular part 3, which seems to best fit what you are describing.

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/part/VI/crossheading/compulsory-insurance-or-security-against-thirdparty-risks

 

It might be worth your while consulting a motoring solicitor to get their perspective. What goes in your favour is the fact the company still had your money. But ultimately it will be for the court to decide.

 

I cannot see the Police dropping the matter.

[queensclose]

i think that you clicked to have the quote search under your old details. it does give you the option of correcting this. but even after that on the esure site you have to check the details are correct. how did it allow you to make one initial payment and then return to make a full payment. your now on the list ( have you ever had insurance declined or cancelled list).

 

i would have do the SAR but insurance companies are not easy to work with if they think there maybe a claim against them down the line