[MelNay80]

Hi, I wonder if someone could offer advice.

My son paid upfront in full for his car insurance Jan 24.
He was involved in a car accident in April, and Churchill wrote-off the car the following day. Few days after, he bought another car and called to switch the insurance on to the new car.he was advised to take out a 1 month temporary insurance while the claim was settled to which they would move the new car onto the existing insurance. He even had the guy repeat this back to him. This was all done on the same policy ref.
fast forward to Dec24, he was pulled over by the police for driving without insurance, and subsequently received his offer of appeal. The day he was pulled he check the portal and saw that they were still insuring the written-off car. He immediately updated the portal while he looked into what happened. He requester a DSAR from Churchil and over 30 days he had to keep chasing them for missing calls three times by which point the appeal window was running out. He sent off the appeal with what evidence he had and since then, received the call stating they would automatically change it over.

He's paid the fine but can we claim this back from Churchill or raise a complaint. He is potentially going to be paying higher premiums for the next 5 years now. Is there anything he can do?

[Nick]

Hi @MelNay80 , welcome to the RAC Community and thanks for posting, although I'm sorry to hear of your predicament.

My main advice here is to speak with Churchill - without being party to the exact situation from either end of the scale it's difficult to really comment and advise.

My instinct tells me that the onus is on the vehicle owner to make sure the details change over when needed, not the insurer - but again, the conversation between Churchill and your son at the time is where a lot of this may hinge. I would definitely reach out to them and maybe get them to check on the call recording as to what exactly was discussed at the time.

Sorry I can't really be of more help. Do let us know how it turns out though when you get any kind of solution.

[MelNay80]

@Nick Thank you for your reply.

He does now have the call recording of the adviser telling him it will be switched over automatically.
He has also paid the £300 fine but has appealed the points as he believed he was covered. He supplied evidence of the insurance cover on the old car as well as the write off date showing they continued to insure a car that was a total loss . He spoke to another Churchill advisor a few weeks back who also said he could not understand why they made my son buy temporary insurance when they should have transferred it straight over. He was going to look into it but then never came back to us.

Hopefully we will hear back from the appeal but if he has to go to court we just wanted to make sure we have everything possible ready.

Thank you

[Nick]

I must admit the advice about getting separate, temporary cover for the new car seems a bit odd - additional cars can be added temporarily to the existing policy - at least it could when I worked in the industry - it was known as a TAV (Temporary Additional Vehicle).

Fingers crossed for you, keep us updated with how you get on @MelNay80

[olduser]

Don't forget the Financial Services Authority;
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org....help/insurance

In the past, when having trouble with insurers, I have asked the insurers for an address for the FSA, and then they start to pay attention.

If the FSA can be got involved, and sort out Churchill, the letter from the FSA could be used to unwind the points.

CAB may help on the points, once you are able to prove the car was insured.

Good Luck