I was wondering if anyone has had this happen to them.
This happened to me a few years ago.
I had a renewal for car insurance with company A.
A few days before it expires I contact them to say I will not be renewing (NOT cancelling).
So at this point I assume I have a few days left, so that I can arrange new cover.
But no the friendly chap from Company A have actually cancelled my insurance there and then (but I did not know this at the time and nothing mentioned to me).
I organised new cover with Company B to start from the date that Companies A insurance would have ran out.
A week later I get the relevant details through the post to acknowledge I had cancelled (not that it had ran out).
So for two days I had been driving with out insurance.
Fortunately I was lucky but if I were nicked would I have unknowingly been banged to rights ?
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You could have been inconvenienced, possibly quite badly. Then there's the stress etc. but nothing bad would eventually happen (provided you did nothing silly in handling the matter!)
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Just make sure you send a SORN thing off to cover the few days, just in case the DVLA think you were actually on the road when you were not insured and send you a fine! That lot are looking to raise money anyway they can!
Last edited by: zippy on Tue 6 Sep 11 at 17:20
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Maybe you'd do that now - but the OP did say: "This happened to me a few years ago."
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>>>Maybe you'd do that now - but the OP did say: "This happened to me a few years ago."
Them folk have long memories!
;-)
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They are getting stricter with discounts too. A colleague had to email her insurer a picture of her car in her garage to prove that it was garaged overnight.
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>> Just make sure you send a SORN thing off to cover the few days,
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Can you do that - back-date a period of SORN that has already ended because the car is taxed, insured and back on the road?
Dear Mr DVLA, I'd like to SORN my car for 5 days last month, just in case.
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Nowadays the "Calls may be monitored and are recorded for your/our protection and for staff training" would prove that you had not mentioned cancellation. I always make a note of the date/time and name of the call handler when I have conversations of this sort. Never had to use the information but the day I don't note the details there will some major problem
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When I change companies, as now happens most years, I am always careful to say I do not wish to renew the policy when it expires.
I never use the word 'cancel'.
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To be honest i did not mention cancel at all. I stressed i would let it exspire.
But it still was cancelled there and then but not mentioned to me.
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Switched my daughter's car insurance to a very well known and respected company last year - I use them for both of our cars but they're not good with younger drivers.
Anyway, as she aged I finally got an acceptable price and swtiched to them. Was slightly mystified that the price was a little cheaper than the online quote but ran through all the details and all OK.
This was on a Saturday, and the new policy needed to start on Tuesday. I expected the docs on Wed or Thurs and wasn't too worried when the car wasn't on the MIB database immediately.
On Thursday evening she arrives home and there's a letter from the new insurer telling her that the policy had expired! They'd set up for the previous year (hence the lower price) and she'd been going back and to work without insurance. Of course they said they'd have been held liable but if she'd been pulled she'd have had to plead guilty to no insurance and thrown herself at the mercy of the court. In her job (teacher) a conviction for no insurance could be quite detrimental.
Moral of this story is, there's a good reason why it says in the Road Traffic Act that you're not insured until the certificate is in your hand.
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>> it says in the Road
>> Traffic Act that you're not insured until the certificate is in your hand.
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You might still have it in your hand but not know they had cancelled it.
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>> You might still have it in your hand but not know they had cancelled it.
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So when you go to court you ask the Magistrate if he/she would call their insurance company before every trip to check the policy was still in force.
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>> >> it says in the Road
>> >> Traffic Act that you're not insured until the certificate is in your hand.
It may seem a fine point but it doesn't actually say that. In says a policy of insurance shall be of no effect for the purposes of the act until the certificate of insurance has been delivered.
Effectively in the circumstances described the insurance company has entered into a contract and would legally have to meet its obligations under that contract. As you say however the driver would technically be breaking the law in not having a valid certificate.
Many years ago I worked in motor insurance and in those days we used to issue a temporary 30 day cover note for new business. In that 30 days we would prepare and type the policy and certificate. If we had a backlog and our diary system failed on rare occasions (me going through a filing cabinet!) we could end up with a period for which no certificate could be issued. If necessary we would issue a letter to the insured confirming that a valid policy of insurance was in force and that the lack of certificate was due to our error. This would be enough to satisfy the police
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The call will have been recorded should you wish to raise a complaint.
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Insurance companies are a law unto themselves - Skoda
