Absolutely there is a case.
Motor Chill supplied disc and certificate but Gardai said no insurance in place
- Thread starter Leo
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Chill thought the policy was valid, they were unaware that the underwriter had reached out in advance of the policy coming into effect looking for further information.
Chill admitted that all communications with the underwriter was conducted via an individual email address associated with an employee who had recently left. It was only after it was pointed out that the central DB said there was no policy in place that they dug deeper and admitted the underwriter had reached out looking for further information, and then again stating they wouldn't initiate the policy until they received same.
It was issued by Chill who thought the underwriters had accepted the policy.
Annieindublin
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Im trying to see how the motorist would have any knowledge of this background failure. Short of asking the broker regularly to confirm they haven’t had anything more from the insurer I can’t see how. They paid and had not heard anything about it being cancelled.
The underwriter initiated an email exchange and didn’t get a reply and didn’t follow up. S/he should probably have reminded the broker of the outstanding matter. The departing employee should have had a handover list with all open items listed and an OOO message giving a new contact. If they left in a hurry you can see how it might fall through the cracks.
I recently emailed someone who had retired from the civil service. I did not know they had retired, I got no reply, no bounce back and no OOO message with an alternate contact. I thought that was pretty poor. I happened to meet them and learned of their retirement. No one ever followed up my email.
The underwriter initiated an email exchange and didn’t get a reply and didn’t follow up. S/he should probably have reminded the broker of the outstanding matter. The departing employee should have had a handover list with all open items listed and an OOO message giving a new contact. If they left in a hurry you can see how it might fall through the cracks.
I recently emailed someone who had retired from the civil service. I did not know they had retired, I got no reply, no bounce back and no OOO message with an alternate contact. I thought that was pretty poor. I happened to meet them and learned of their retirement. No one ever followed up my email.
Is that not their fault though for not setting an automatic out of office reply rather than relying on someone to pick up messages.
Annieindublin
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A failure to deliver would have alerted me, a decent OOO message nominating an alternate would make more sense,
Or maybe forwarding all mail to a new address for someone else to deal with.
But none of those happened. It just didn’t do anything. I asked her about why she hadn’t left an OOO and she said it was policy not to, her mailbox was shut down,
If the email box was shut down I would have expected a bouncback or a failed to deliver message. Which makes me think the mail is just sitting there and no one has assumed responsibility.
Anyway it didn’t matter much but it was an odd policy.
Or maybe forwarding all mail to a new address for someone else to deal with.
But none of those happened. It just didn’t do anything. I asked her about why she hadn’t left an OOO and she said it was policy not to, her mailbox was shut down,
If the email box was shut down I would have expected a bouncback or a failed to deliver message. Which makes me think the mail is just sitting there and no one has assumed responsibility.
Anyway it didn’t matter much but it was an odd policy.
Sarah Ryan
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The company as a whole need to take responsibility for the leaving process of the leaver to ensure all future correspondence is captured and taken care of.
The person's employment could have been terminated without notice, if that's the case they would have no time to set one, they could have died on leave / in service, there are so many reasons the company needs to be responsible.
Exactly. A company should never rely on important communications just going to a single individual. It's simple to set up shared mailboxes that multiple staff members can access as required, and that makes working around planned and unplanned leave much simpler for all involved.
Sarah Ryan
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I am very certain under the Duty of Care part of the CPC code there is a provision for continuity of services for customers when staff members leave.
I don't want to get into any arguments, but was this quote from my initial response, not a bit selective?
Chill have confirmed there was no policy in place but said 'sure it's all grand, we would have taken care if anything happened', the Garda involved suggested they might not actually be so forthcoming in the event of a claim. There was no claim, so all we can do is speculate.
I'll report back once this all wraps up, not sure if they are interested in chasing compensation or anything but there's no point sending anything to the Gardai, they have been very reasonable to deal with and understand what has happened, but have said the evidence available to them clearly shows there was no policy in place so their hands are tied and it must proceed.
This sentence covered my thoughts re holding certificate and disc on cancelled policies.
However, if you are paying by instalments and you have defaulted, then once the insurer cancels the policy correctly, as per Policy terms and conditions, you are not insured, even though you have cert and disc, which by the way, should be returned to insurer.
However, there is something not right in this query as no insurance employee, insurer or broker, would use a personal email address to contact the insurer/insured. All emails should come from the broker or insurer email.
As far as the law is concerned, you are only insured if there is an active policy in place which is registered on the database. The existence of a disc and certificate is not proof of the existence of insurance cover, policies get cancelled all the time and the certs don't self-destruct when that happens. .
Chill have confirmed there was no policy in place but said 'sure it's all grand, we would have taken care if anything happened', the Garda involved suggested they might not actually be so forthcoming in the event of a claim. There was no claim, so all we can do is speculate.
I'll report back once this all wraps up, not sure if they are interested in chasing compensation or anything but there's no point sending anything to the Gardai, they have been very reasonable to deal with and understand what has happened, but have said the evidence available to them clearly shows there was no policy in place so their hands are tied and it must proceed.
This sentence covered my thoughts re holding certificate and disc on cancelled policies.
However, if you are paying by instalments and you have defaulted, then once the insurer cancels the policy correctly, as per Policy terms and conditions, you are not insured, even though you have cert and disc, which by the way, should be returned to insurer.
However, there is something not right in this query as no insurance employee, insurer or broker, would use a personal email address to contact the insurer/insured. All emails should come from the broker or insurer email.
This is a worrying development. Bear with me here.
I have just taxed my car online. I have a receipt, which I've printed, from the motor tax.ie web-site, the money has been debited from my bank account and within 4 working days they say they'll send me a tax disc in the post which I will display on my windscreen. If, despite all this, some database somewhere in government admin-land tells some enforcement officer that my car isn't taxed, what do posters think will happen? What if An Post don't deliver on time and I have to drive around without an in-date disc to display? Should I print out a bank statement to carry around in the car as proof of the money being taken from my account?
Has anyone ever been subjected car-tax problems like the insurance problem in the OP?
I have just taxed my car online. I have a receipt, which I've printed, from the motor tax.ie web-site, the money has been debited from my bank account and within 4 working days they say they'll send me a tax disc in the post which I will display on my windscreen. If, despite all this, some database somewhere in government admin-land tells some enforcement officer that my car isn't taxed, what do posters think will happen? What if An Post don't deliver on time and I have to drive around without an in-date disc to display? Should I print out a bank statement to carry around in the car as proof of the money being taken from my account?
Has anyone ever been subjected car-tax problems like the insurance problem in the OP?
Sarah Ryan
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Ummm you would have paid a premium to their bank account, once you do that, you have entered into a contract with them even if you do not get something / contract from them in writing.
The intention was there from you even if it fails on their side. That's not your problem.
Now in terms of having your car parked in a public place and non display of tax...... I'd go to court and state my case with my evidence.
For what it's worth, legislation is still in the works to eliminate the requirement to display a paper motor tax disc but that is still a requirement as far as I know.
www.gov.ie
New legislation to facilitate increased sharing of collision data and end the need for paper motor tax discs
The Bill will provide the necessary legislative basis to facilitate the flow of information so that local authorities, in their role as road authorities, may request, receive and process road collision data from both the Road Safety Authority and An Garda Síochána
www.gov.ie
Legislative Measures
Legislative Measures Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 October 2025
www.oireachtas.ie
In this day and age, should their be any reason to display any little bits of paper in the windscreen in order to indicate compliance with laws? I'd hope they would be more ambitious and do away with insurance and NCT discs also. There may be need to have a numberplate scanner at Garda checkpoints in the future.
No. Which is presumably why that legislation is in the pipeline. I think that there was also talk of changing the legislation to obviate the need for paper insurance and NCT discs too but that doesn't seem to be in the aforementioned bill.