Home insurance, direct debit failed, do I owe money?

S

seven stars

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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...
 
Re: Help Needed: Do I Owe Money For Insurance?

Technically you were not on cover as they did not receive payment for the cover.

If you could prove that you provided debit and your account was in funds and they couldnt prove that they had written out to you to tell you that there was no payment I believe you would have had a good case in the event of having to make a claim.

Do you have to pay ? Well I suppose the question is whether they would have paid out in event of claim or not. If they are not prepared to provide a letter stating that you were on cover - a precedent - then perhaps not. Maybe they are not the cheapest anyhow but be aware what goes around........
 
Re: Help Needed: Do I Owe Money For Insurance?

harvey said:
If they are not prepared to provide a letter stating that you were on cover - a precedent - then perhaps not.
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Thanks Harvey.

My guess is that they would provide a letter now stating that I was on cover for the last year - but only because they want paid for the period in question and nothing actually happened to our house in the last year.

harvey said:
Maybe they are not the cheapest anyhow but be aware what goes around........
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You're right - they're not the cheapest at all. What do you mean about "what goes around..."?
 
Re: Help Needed: Do I Owe Money For Insurance?

I think Harvey's point is that they may not want to provide a letter as it could be used against them by someone whose direct debits failed and then their house burned down. I would write to them asking them to confirm you would have been on cover despite not having paid premiums and that this is always their stance with all unpaid premiums.
 
Re: Help Needed: Do I Owe Money For Insurance?

seven stars said:
You're right - they're not the cheapest at all. What do you mean about "what goes around..."?
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If you don't pay them and leave them, one day you might go back to them , maybe when they are the cheapest and look for a quote and they may not give you a quote if you get my drift.
 
Re: Help Needed: Do I Owe Money For Insurance?

what are/were the potential implications of this from his mortgage providers point of view?
 
Re: Help Needed: Do I Owe Money For Insurance?

wiggzie said:
what are/were the potential implications of this from his mortgage providers point of view?
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This is a very good point. Earlier this year I changed insurance company and paid through a broker. The first indication I had that things were not quite right, was a letter from my bank saying they would call in the mortgage if insurance was not put in place immediately!:eek: It was only a matter of a phone call to put the situation right but nevertheless, it had my heart racing for a time.

If anything had happened to necessitate making an insurance claim during the time the payments were not made, I'm sure the insurance company would have told you that the policy had lapsed.
 
Re: Help Needed: Do I Owe Money For Insurance?

Change insurers now, and let them sing for their back premiums. Tell them (if you need to) that you do not believe you were on cover.

They should have contacted you, when the debit bounced.

You really should have noticed the payment not going out however.
 
Re: Help Needed: Do I Owe Money For Insurance?

Cheers for all the replies. I've decided to follow your advice RS2K.

Appallingly, after me sending them a letter telling them how poor their correspondence is, they haven't got in touch. That's nearly two weeks now, and no phone calls or letters or anything.

You're bang-on though RS2K - I should have noticed the payment not going out, but I have a tendency to only look for things that are on my statement rather than things that aren't.

Thanks again.
 
So. Let me get this right.

You pay by DD but they hadn't set this up.

Now the cynical person might suggest that you knew this all along as surely you check your statements. You thought it was great, insured and not paying for it. The fun would start when you went to pay them.

Now you were under the impression that you were insured. So why exactly are you trying to avoid paying them?
 
Smi1er said:
So. Let me get this right.

You pay by DD but they hadn't set this up.

Now the cynical person might suggest that you knew this all along as surely you check your statements. You thought it was great, insured and not paying for it. The fun would start when you went to pay them.

Now you were under the impression that you were insured. So why exactly are you trying to avoid paying them?
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Re-read my initial post, Smiler. I'm under the impression that I wasn't insured. I dunno about you, but I'm disinclined to pay a shower of incompetents for insurance that I never had.

Maybe a cynical person would suggest that I knew this all along and was checking my statements and all that. As it happens, I genuinely didn't know - and if I did I certainly wouldn't have risked being uninsured, and I don't know anyone who would.
 
seven stars said:
My question is this: 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.
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seven stars said:
I'm under the impression that I wasn't insured.
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1- Does it matter if you were or not? this time is past and i take it reading your post that you did not have any claim anyway..

2- i am ready to bet that if you had had a claim, they will have told you that you were not insured as no payments (their fault and yours as well for not having spotted it ;)) were made... so fully agree with you and R2K on this one...
Change insurance company, that's if you can ....as new company will certainly ask you for document from former company and they are unlikely to send it to you until you pay..
 
bacchus said:
Change insurance company, that's if you can ....as new company will certainly ask you for document from former company and they are unlikely to send it to you until you pay..
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We switched companies for our house insurance policy this year. We weren't asked for policy document from last year.
 
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