S
seven stars
Guest
Help needed please!
We arranged a direct debit (monthly payments) for home insurance this time last year. Last week the insurance company sent us a new premium for the coming year, as we expected them to do. It said that we didn't have to take any action, since the payments were by direct debit.
NOW they've sent a letter demanding the total amount for last year together with the new amount for the coming year (with no further explanation!)
I rang them up, and they told me that the initial direct debit (a year ago) had failed for some reason, so we haven't paid a thing so far. I was told that I should have spotted this myself by checking my bank statements. They didn't let us know at the time that it had failed, they didn't let us know when it failed a second time, and not even when the policy was due for renewal a full year later - they never got in touch or gave us any indication there was a problem!
My question is this: do we still have to pay last year's premium? Were we covered? I'm assuming that if anything happened to the house they wouldn't have forked out, since we hadn't paid any money to them. Should we still have to pay? Does anyone know where we stand legally?
Thanks in advance...
We arranged a direct debit (monthly payments) for home insurance this time last year. Last week the insurance company sent us a new premium for the coming year, as we expected them to do. It said that we didn't have to take any action, since the payments were by direct debit.
NOW they've sent a letter demanding the total amount for last year together with the new amount for the coming year (with no further explanation!)
I rang them up, and they told me that the initial direct debit (a year ago) had failed for some reason, so we haven't paid a thing so far. I was told that I should have spotted this myself by checking my bank statements. They didn't let us know at the time that it had failed, they didn't let us know when it failed a second time, and not even when the policy was due for renewal a full year later - they never got in touch or gave us any indication there was a problem!
My question is this: do we still have to pay last year's premium? Were we covered? I'm assuming that if anything happened to the house they wouldn't have forked out, since we hadn't paid any money to them. Should we still have to pay? Does anyone know where we stand legally?
Thanks in advance...