I Did Renew My Insurance

Question:

Driving without insurance

I was stopped by the police last week whilst driving my car and they told me that I was not insured. I argued that I was as I renewed my car insurance in x of this year. However, when I contacted my insurance company they at first said that my insurance had not been renewed.

I pointed out to them that I had at first said that I did not wish to renew as I had received a better quote elsewhere and I advised them that I had cancelled my direct debit.

My insurance company then offered a better quote and I accepted this. The insurance company later came back to me saying they had listened to the recording of my conversation and they agreed that I had accepted the renewal but they than told me that they had not received any payments as I had not given them my direct debit details.

I was advised by the lady I spoke to of the installments that I would pay and she said that these payments would be taken on a monthly basis by direct debit.

I had already advised the company that I had cancelled the original direct debit instruction and she at no time did she request any further bank details from me. I did not question this as I assumed that they would use my existing details. When I pointed this out to the lady on the phone she admitted that they were at fault for not checking/requesting my details not mine.

She went on to say that they had written to me on two separate occasions regarding lack of payment but I did not receive any such correspondence from them – if I had I would certainly have taken steps to resolve the issue. I later spoke to a friend who suggested I telephone the insurance company and request copies of all correspondence they said they had sent to me.

The lady I spoke to on the phone said that she would need to speak to someone and come back to me and that they would send me copies of the letters but could not guarantee that they would not have the current date (i.e. the date I was speaking to her) on. She said she would see if they would back date the insurance and call me back.

However, when they called me back they said there was nothing they could do as my case had now been passed to collections.

Two days later I received copies of letters in the post which were dated at varying intervals and were sent “yours sincerely” by the same lady I had been speaking to throughout. This leads me to believe that these letters were not sent out to me as stated in the first place and I think that the lady I have spoken to one the phone has simply printed off standard letters and back-dated them.

I appreciate I cannot prove that this is the case but it seems to me that I received my insurance renewal documents and these copy letters through the post without any problems so why would the originals just not show up?

Needless to say I will be receiving a Court date shortly and would be grateful for any advice you could give me.

Paula Says:

You have a special reasons argument to try and avoid the points based on what you have said. Make sure you get the insurance company to preserve the tape recording or at least put their findings in writing to you. You will need this evidence when you get to court.

A special reasons argument is like a mini-trial. You will have to give evidence to the effect that you were driving under the genuine and reasonable misapprehension that you were insured and I think that you have a strong argument. We have won many similar arguments.

Have you got any penalty points on your licence already? If so, how many? Unfortunately the insurance company will not be able to back date the insurance – its illegal for them to do this – but if they will confirm that they would have covered you then this will be rally useful.

Tell me more and I will be happy to assist further.