Specific Insurance relted Question - Declarations.....

[owl10]

Hi all... Seeking advice fro those very knowledgeable about insurance.

This is specifically relating to my car, as its up for renewal this month, but will be the same for the bike as well when its up in a couple of months time.

Okay, a few years ago a twonk in a stolen car wrote off a car of mine.

For reasons I wont go into (long & not interesting) my then insurer (Elephant / Admiral) refused to pay out and cancelled policy, and cancelled all my no claims bonus (5 years) as well saying the policy was void from inception.

After a bit of arguing they allowed the no claims minus the half year, and simply didn't pay out, in effect cancelling the final yer of insurance.


Last year upon renewal I told my new insurer Adrian flux, about all of this. . They seemed to suggest that there is nothing on the Claims underwriting exchange about a cancelled policy so didn't include it. They insured me through Aviva all ok.


So... recently I sent off for a report of all my personal information to the Claims Underwriting Exchange (CUE - the database insurers use to swap information about you)

It records a non fault claim. It doesn't say anything about a cancelled policy.

My question - Do I need to tell my new insurers about a cancelled policy? Assuming I use insurers who don't use admiral as underwriters then I have no issues? or do insurers use other databases for this?

Id like a professional opinion, obviously I cant ask my new insurer as they will simply put the price up anyway, regardless.

So, what do you think? Please say if you are just giving me a hungover opinion, or you actually know about this stuff!


Many thanks and a happy new year!
____________________
DanceLikeAMonkey says: "An infinte amount of web pages available
Yet I still end up reading crap like that"

[LockyUK]

just be honest, they will hold ANYTHING against you in the event of a claim to avoid paying out

[arry]

In essence, as long as you're not insuring with Bell / Elephant / Admiral then there's no way of other companies knowing that you've had a policy voided ab initio (by the way, they didn't cancel the policy, they voided it - important distinction, so watch for the terminology in the question...). It's recorded no-where else.

Obviously this is dependent on you not having recorded it yourself, so to speak, by applying for quotes with various companies and making this declaration - as that may still be on some of their records held.

The only other way it would come to light is if you have an incident for which the same loss adjuster is appointed and the L/A checks their back history and informs the new insurer.

[arry]

Oh, and your bonus that you submitted to Elephant in the first instance would still be valid as there was not a claim against a valid policy. So if you had 5 years, then they should have sent you back that bonus proof and you'd remain at 5 years - which you'd then have 2 years to put back into action.

[J.M.]

[arry]