car insurance cancelled due to unemployment.

[chelle29]

Hi all, have a query and wonder if anyone can help.

My brother had his van insurance with dial direct under written by royal sun alliance. Today he has received a phone call stating that they are canecelling his insurance policy with seven days notice as he is unemployed. Can anyone tell me if this is actually legal or would it be classed as discrimination?

 

Any advice on this will be greatly appreciated, many thanks

[Yorkyclaims]

Unfortunately it is legal, but I'm suprised they have done it, as a lot of van drivers are self employed, and "inbetween contracts".

 

Have you asked them to clarify why his occupation of "unemployed" means his insurance is cancelled?

[xrchris]

I assume that his policy is a 'Commercial Vehicle' policy and as such insurers tend to state that they will decline an unemployed proposer.

 

Dial Direct should have explained this to your brother this on the phone (assuming that is how he notified them).

[chelle29]

He will be speaking to them later on the phone so i will get him to ask the insurers to clarify their reasons. thanl you

 

also his insurance was actually set up online and in the initial forms it asks about his employment status another thing that i find difficult to understand is that he has had this policy since november last year.

 

thank you both for your views

[xrchris]

So how did they actually find out that he was unemployed?

[Darkangelsdelite]

Just a brief point, an insurance company can cancel a policy for any reason they want (they don't even have to tell you) as long as they give you at least 7 days notice in writing. So there might be another reason why they're canceling the policy.

[chelle29]

the insurance company actually told him they were cancelling his policy due to him being unemployed. When he filled the original questionnaire out online there was a section asking about his employment status he answered there he was unemployed, which is why we really can't understand why they have let his policy run this long.

[xrchris]

the insurance company actually told him they were cancelling his policy due to him being unemployed. When he filled the original questionnaire out online there was a section asking about his employment status he answered there he was unemployed, which is why we really can't understand why they have let his policy run this long.

 

How long has it been on cover now?

 

For information I just ran a fake quote on their website for someone who is unemployed with use as SDP only and they provided a quote on this basis, albeit U/written by Zenith.

 

When i changed it to Carriage of Own Goods it still quoted but gave the following warning -

 

(Subject to confirmation).

Unfortunately we will just need to check one or two details with you, and may have to contact the insurer selected to guarantee this figure.

 

Also it does NOT allow you to continue and purchase the policy so he could not have purchased the policy if it required referral or was unacceptable to them.

[chelle29]

Hi me again,

It's been on cover since the middle of november and he's had no problems with them other than this.

 

I actually done his quote for him online and paid for his deposit with my own credit card i had none of these warnings that you explained so i'm really not sure what is going on now. I still think it seems very strange that they have cancelled his policy this far in when none of his details have changed since he took the policy out.

 

Many thanks for all the help you have given

Chelle

[buggerlugs]

Just a brief point, an insurance company can cancel a policy for any reason they want (they don't even have to tell you) as long as they give you at least 7 days notice in writing. So there might be another reason why they're canceling the policy.

 

hi this is my first time here hi to all.

iam interested in this quote above, i know that car insurance companies need no reason to cancel a policy ,and they must inform you of this but should they not do this by recordeded mail?.

for example, my insurance maybe cancelled but if the letter gets lost in the post or by some other means and i did not recieve the letter, i may still be driving a vehicle with out insurance.Surley they have a responsibity not only to themselves but also to the client, that the information has been recieced by the client and is acted on.

I maybe barking up the wrong tree here if i was the insurance company i would want proof that the company had sent the letter, no good saying that we sent it ,where is the proof of postage?.

What if i had an accident, with no reason to suspect that i wasn't insured. i shudder to think.

So yes car insurance companies can cancel insurance for any reason but surley the letter must be by recorded mail as proof that the client knows he is no longer insured for the vehcle and also to protect the company on any backlash.

Sorry i seemed to gone of on a tangent

buggerlugs

[Darkangelsdelite]

Hi Buggerlugs,

I agree with your point that if they were sent recorded delivery then it would make things easier, unfortunatly this isn't the case. To be fair, its uncommon that we would get to the point where we would invoke cancelation straight away, normally we'd let the policy run until the end then just not invite renewal. If we DO invoke cancelation, its usually done verbally, i.e the customer calls in to make an ammendment and we tell them they have 7 days to find alternate cover. If we invoke it in writing then this would usually be done manually from one of our back office admin staff so would have their name and date letter sent on the accounts notes screen for future reference (as opposed to most docs which are batched off the computer system and processed automatically).

Hope this answers your query.

 

DA.