Insurance companies wtf

B

Bluecat

Member
Just had my insurance cancelled by the AA as a non fault claim put in on my policy should be a fault claim. This relates to a claim arising from 4 years ago where my car which was parked in a supermarket car park was damaged by someone else who left no details. The claim was for a scrape on a wheel arch/rear wing. I put this down as a no fault claim as we were not in the car and it was parked in a designated space. Despite approaching the supermarket for cctv we were told it was not available to the public, so unable to trace the responsible party. No communication at all from the insurance company at the time as to this being a fault claim, but 4 years later it pops up on the Underwriting exchange database. Very generously we have been offerred a new policy from another AA recommended insurer at more than twice the old premium and that they regrettably advise us that they will no longer provide cover. As a result we now have to tick the box have you evr had insurance declined cancelled etc. :headbang:
 
Sadly if your insurer at the time of the scrape didn't get their money back from the person who did it, so far as the insurance industry is concerned it is a "fault" claim. :headbang:

At least the AA have found an alternative - albeit at a price! Your only other option is to try the meerkats or similar. :(
 
Tried the meerkats about £150 more so a better quote thanks,
but cancelling my policy is a bit harsh, like most people I would expect a fault claim to be exactly that.
 
Problem is without another party involved it’s is only your word they have to go on.

You could have scraped yourself, hence the fault claim.
 
A sad situation for sure. :(

Cancellation is probably rather harsh, especially so long after the event - I'd ask them why it took 4 years for them to identify why this only came to their attention now. It must have been on the database long before that! And I wouldn't make my request by phone, unless they agreed to record the call and send you a transcript - otherwise use snail-mail or E-mail so you have a written record!

How did you deal with AA Ins when you declared the "incident" - 'phone or E-mail? Do you have a specific record of what they asked and your answers? Or can you get them to provide a recording of the conversation?

There is an onus on you to provide honest answers to questions asked, but also an onus on insurers to ask specific questions regarding things that will definitely influence their decision.

Sadly with AA Insurance you are only dealing with an intermediary rather than an insurer so it could be that AA Ins didn't ask the questions that the insurer wanted answers to, didn't phrase them correctly or even didn't ask for the right level of detail. If that is the case you MAY have a case against AA Ins. but to support that you would need to be in direct contact with the insurer and to determine what information they required, what they were given and how that aligned with what you told AA Ins.

Sorry if this seems to be getting complicated, but this sort of stuff really is painful!

Back in the late 80s I used to handle insurance claims on a household insurance scheme that a certain "breakdown and recovery" firm used to sell!

Typical issue would be a claim for a stolen bicycle or piece of jewellery away from the home like outside/in a shop/pub, etc.

Policyholder would say they asked if they were insured for jewellery or pedal cycles, intermediary would say "Yes" (as it was covered in the home) but wouldn't specify where! (Although cover anywhere was an option, albeit at additional cost).

But said intermediary offered incentives like holidays abroad to sales staff with the highest level of sales, so they didn't want to put potential impediments in place. :headbang:

As the insurer we just got left to pick up the pieces - stolen bicycle from outside a shop. Not covered, but as the claim for the bicycle was about £100 it was cheaper to pay than have a referral to the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau as it cost the insurer about £140 at the time. :x

Anyway that employer went broke in a big way and I ended up redundant for a couple of months, but looking back it probably did me a favour as I ended up somewhere so much better!

So now I tell my bank I'll accept their "advice" on insurance when my insurer offers me a current account! :P
 
I dealt with the AA via the meerkat website which does not give any advice, so I put the claim down as other persons fault, as I had done for the previous 3 years. What hacks me off the most is that they contacted me by letter ie the standard AA one with their logo on it and Important information enclosed. As I had recently changed breakdown suppliers and had been bombarded with offers from the AA I almost just chucked the letter in the bin, as they are cancelling my insurance and have all my email mobile details etc surely they should have contacted me this way. Also having now looked it up this seems the most common complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman, that 99% of people when asked if a third party hits their empty car in a car park and drives off they would put it down as other parties fault. I tried getting CCTV from the supermarket but was fobbed off by data protection, and Im sure if I rang the Police, I would still be waiting in the car park for them to turn up :tumbleweed:
 
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