Insurance Nightmare after claiming through Highway

Benriz

New Member
Messages
2
Hi all

I'm new to posting and hoped it would be something nicer but after finally buying a DC5 in July, I unfortunately got stitched up on the M3 and crashed. (It's technically gone down as my fault, but a freak accident really.) It's been written off and I decided to take payout and try to replace. I was insured by Highway through the broker, Adrian Flux.

Basically, after negotiating a decent payout and buying a decent replacement, I've rung to change the vehicle on the policy and they've turned around and said Highway won't take on the risk, and the quotes they're getting for someone else are around 2.5k!

I'm screwed!

At every stage of the process, I've been clear on my intention to replace like for like. Noone at Highway warned me that they might do this. I even sent their engineer adverts for DC5's to negotiate payout. Once I received the money, I was luckily able to find another clean Teg relatively quick and bought it. I'd paid for my policy up front for the year but They told me that I HAD to add another vehicle to the policy within 21 days or risk losing it!

Can anyone offer any advice? I know I'm an idiot for buying without checking, but in my naivety, I just thought I'd be able to add the same vehicle to the policy and worry about price increase next renewal.
 

Chrismartin

Advanced Member
Messages
1,614
Id feel pretty pissed off in your scinario. Unkucky that they have given you no warning! Highway is part of LV so may be worth having a go at contacting them formally or speaking to a financial ombudsman? They should be able to assist with you knowing where you stand and what you are entitled to (in terms of progressing the matter).

Have Highway returned your part of the premium that you haven't used? Ie from mow until July next year?

I'd be doing my best to look for alternative quotes asap mate.

Try Greenlight, Brentacre, paceward, a plan to name a few. Good luck!
 

Kev.W

Advanced Member
Messages
295
This is a worrying thought as I‘m insured with Highway through Greenlight!

Surely this isn‘t right and they can‘t do this; voicing the same as Chris, I‘d go seek legal advise and speak to an ombudsman


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

carl hammond

Advanced Member
Messages
3,737
This sounds very odd, your in contract on a car and only replacing it with a replacement of the same make and model due to an accident, this is why we have insurance so how can they not cover this car for the remainder of the paid for policy...

Something here seems wrong to me and I have never heard of or experienced anything like it so wonder if someone's not got it right on their end.

I would have said they would have to do 1 of two things, 1 - refund you the remainder of the policy and pay you compensation for not telling you this and for the inconvenience, 2 - let you carry on the policy (with a slight increase maybe or a fee) for changing to the new car (as you have paid for the policy outright).

This sounds very weird and I would seek some legal advice and raise it ombudsman as already advised.
 

Neil@Greenlight

Authorised Trader
Messages
175
Highway are excellent, they are part of liverpool victoria which are 5 Star Defaqto rated (highest rating for policy cover/service you can get)

You'll probably find its down to the scheme acceptance criteria (each broker will have different schemes with Highway/LV), for example we dont place any BMW models with Highway under our particular scheme. So if a customer was with us had a total loss in his Golf GTI then decided to change vehicle to a BMW we would not be able to switch the policy over as it is outside the acceptance criteria.

The DC5 has a high insurance rating and being an Import only model does carry higher insurance terms, You may find the acceptance criteria for your brokers scheme is that all drivers must be fault claim free for 12 months to be acceptable on this model vehicle and with your recent claim that would mean you now fall outside the acceptance.

I know you are looking to change to a very similar car so My best advice would be to call your broker and ask them what the reason for the underwriter declining to offer terms is, you may find its something you can work around (ie have a higher excess or additional terms).

Im just generalising as you are not covered by us.

Kind Regards
Neil
 

MilanoChris

Advanced Member
Messages
5,649
When I binned my S2000 I was insured with Highway (through Greenlight). I didn't have any issue with them whatsoever, in fact they were brilliant.
 

Benriz

New Member
Messages
2
Thanks a lot for the advice guys.

I managed to get a (still expensive-ish but reasonably) affordable quote using Admiral multicar with my daily in the end.

I've been lazy about following up with complaints procedure etc for various reasons but I'll definitely raise it with Ombudsman and complain properly as advised.

Cheers!

I'll do a nice post with my new car soon!
 
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