hi Tim
the date on the contract is 20th Nov so they have printed & created the policy then sat on it for over a week !
are we allowed to use profanities ?????????
makes my blood boil having paid around 2000e per year to get shoddy service
Steve
The proof of the pudding Steve! Guilty as charged.
So you have 20 days from the 29/11/2012 to cancel under the Loi Chatel. Don't miss that and remember to send Recommandé avec avis de réception and keep both the receipts.
One further point, just check your policy to see if the address given for cancelling - in the small print of the policy - is the same as the address on the renewal notice. That is another trick some companies have pulled in the past - "Oh! what a shame, you sent it to the wrong address so it is not valid".
As a matter of interest what is the renewal date of your policy?
Hi Tim
the company is groupama and i have noticed them pull this trick in previous years.
the envelope is dated 29/11/2012
but the letter is dated 20/11/12
SWINES !!!!!!!!
Out of interest Steve what is the date on the envelope? And if it is not the same it might help us all to know which insurance company is playing this game. It is the date on the envelope that is the start point of your 20 days.
Having read the comments on house insurance up to 6th December, I fell victim for the 'get out of the snare' trap four years ago.
We own a Holiday Home in France, and were assisted towards an entirely french-speaking AXa agency by our English immobilier.
I contacted them to ask how to change Insurance to another Agency and they advised me that I was already too late to change Agents that year because of the 'two month notice' rule. (I was unaware then, that the immobilier earned a 'trail' fee for every year of renewal)
I was advised about a local english-speaking (French) agency, and I then we spent 30 minutes discussing the key points of house insurance. (A very enlightening discussion!)
Of special interest during this discussion was the fact that price competition is not allowed in the French house insurance system, and that each house was graded for risk according to number of rooms, etc, with the annual cost being universal (assuming that the 'points' had been allocated correctly).
(Oh for the Comparison companies now thriving in UK (and undoubtedly keeping prices down!)
He put the insurance through at around 5 euros less than the original Agency, I suspect at his own cost.
The original Agency challenged the change, and the new Agent sorted the situation for us.
(We received an invitation to pay the premium a year later from the original office, but, again, this was handled for us by the New Agent).
Just one other thought; I did look at insuring the house through an english-based insurance company, and the premium was lower by almost 30%
However, I did not take it up because of the fact that to be uninsured in France is illegal, and I was not certain that the British company would meet the strict French conditions.
John Acton
John Acton
a very timely post !
my renewal has just arrived with the date inside on the paperwork of the 20th of nov !
and the contract states i have 20 days to decide to renew or cancel....
so i now have literally a few days to ring around for quotes and decide who to place the policies with.
i am going to check out allianz as a few people here have had good experiences
any other recommends ????????????
Steve
Kate, it is NOT 21 DAYS and it is NOT "from the time they send out the renewal notice"
I think it would be useful to clear up some of the confusion that seems to be pervading this discussion about the cancellation of a household insurance policy. (Not to be confused with a professional insurance policy or others).
In particular the reference to a 21 day period! To the best of my knowledge and information this 21 day period does not exist in French Law.
The general law governing the renewal and cancellation of such policies in NOT the Loi Chatel but actually the "Code de la consommation" ( consumers code) and precisely the article L136-1. This states that the professional supplier, in this case the insurance company, must notify the client no more than 3 months and no less than 1 month from the date when the client has a right to cancel the automatic renewal (tacite reconduction).
In practical terms if you wish to cancel a policy you must do so in the manner and within the time period specified in the small print of your contract; Usually - but not always, for house insurance this is no later than 2 months from the renewal/expiry date and this must be done by registered and signed for post (Recommandé avec avis de réception), the date of your La Poste receipt being proof of sending.
The Loi Chatel was brought in to protect the consumer from sharp practices where some companies were confusing consumers by sending out late dated renewal notice and even renewal notices with one date on them and envelopes posted at a later date. The effect of the Loi Chatel which is the Code des Assurances in particular Article L113-15-1 is as follows.
For it to work you must:
1. KEEP THE ENVELOPE because the law states this is the only proof of posting date. I repeat here what I stated above, sometimes companies backdate the renewal letter to conform with the minimum period of notice, and post it on another date - knowing that most people throw away envelopes.
2. IF you receive the renewal notice 15 days or less from the renewal date the Loi Chatel gives you 20 (twenty!) extra days from the date on the envelope to cancel but you must do this by recorded delivery with signature and you must include your name and the policy number detail. The form letter used by Tina ( http://www.loichatel.com/lettre-de-resiliation-loi-chatel-assurance.pdf) is fine for this.
So, it is twenty days and those twenty days run precisely from the date stamped on the renewal notice envelope.
I hope that helps everyone, and doesn't confuse a now thoroughly confused situation even further.
@ Tina. You go girl. Personally I don't think you will have any problems. Bon chance!!!
Tina, I was able to just write a letter confirming cancellation (didn't know about the Loi Chatel templates) and this was accepted.
For sure there is a 21 day limit from the time they send out the renewal notice, and you absolutely MUST send the cancellation letter via registered post, but otherwise it's now pretty straightforward. Good luck!
We recently changed Ins. companies saving 800 euros per annum.
The new company dealt with everything including nofifying our old company of the cancellations.
All went well with no apparent problems & 4 months down the line is still OK.
If you give your prospective new insurer enough time it can be a smooth transition.
Well on the advice of others I have tried again (my renewal is due 21st December so this thread was very timely for me!) using a Loi Chatel letter template (http://www.loichatel.com/lettre-de-resiliation-loi-chatel-assurance.pdf), so we'll see what happens this year. I'll let you know if I'm successful.
In the six and a half years I've been here I've had two car insurance and two house insurance claims, all have been paid without a problem at all. I am with Allianz.
While in my French reg Landrover I hit the car in front when it braked to allow a car, two cars ahead of it, into a laybe on the opposite side of the road. The car in front had no working brake lights. I have a petrol car as well as the diesel Discovery. While chatting with a friend I completely filled the Discovery with petrol, only realising as I replaced the hose into the pump. Both claims sorted without any further contact after the initial telephone call.
In May this year there was an electricity surge doubling the power coming into the house, a cable had broken and was touching another, which took out my stairlift, microwave, garage door motor, five telephone chargers and battery drill charger. In August this year another EDF surge, same problem different cable, this took out the 'phones again, internet - but Orange replaced the box free of charge, and the top 15cm of my freezers had defrosted, but I ate the food and am still here to write about it. All claims paid except for stairlift and garage door motor. The agent came here yesterday afternoon, I never go to him he always comes to my home at my request, and took away the receipts, for the replacement garage motor and stairlift charger and €300 call out charge, which apparently they had not previously received. There should not now be any problem with these being reimbursed.
Earlier this summer the agent, who's based in Carhaix, came over to tell me that he had found a slightly cheaper mutuelle for people of 65 and over and wondered if I would like to change to it - I did. He's very helpful and is happy to speak fairly good English for those who can't speak French well. Because he is so helpful I insure my houses and contents, cars and health through him. I was previously with Groupama, but when I gave him my business he organised the cancellation of the previous houses and contents policy.
We have been with a big insurer for the house for about 10 years now.
It's not infrequent that when we have had to claim, they will write and remind us that we still have an amount outstanding from the total and would we please send in some sort of receipt so they can pay us!!!
I have this year changed both our car and health insurance and reckon I will have saved in the order of 2000 euros or more. Cover is about the same.
You MUST have property insurance, unless someone knows different, as it also provides responsibilite civile which I understand is obligatoire. Even tenants must have it.
not this time Tracy, my UK insurance, Halifax are including 3 months cover abroad, courtesy car the works, all for under £200...the annoying thing is I dont need cover abroad, as I have a car at our French house, costing me a blinkin fortune in insurance and its hardly used!
Well, Steve, Stephen and Catherine [among many others] - all you are saying insummary ios that generalinsurance is legalised robbery. Maybe most Government ministers sit on Ins urance Co borads and have substantialshareholdings. [Oops,is that libellous? Probably not, because of that little "maybe"]
Thank you Catharine, that is so much more polite that what my husband said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wouldn't mind but I have had the car two years now.
Can I claim mitigating circumstances as it is Wednesday (no school) and I had 2 fighting kids in the car taking my attention. It wouldn't matter so much usually but I have my first days work tomorrow in 4 weeks and obviously I drive my clients ion my car!
You are soooo blonde!
(every time I fill my car up, I drop to my knees and give thanks that I have not done that as I so know that it will happen one day...)
Well, just had a classic insurance claim!
Just filled my diesel car up - with petrol! what a complete dingbat, fortunately as I put the hose back in the distributor, I noticed what I had done so didn't start the engine. Called the local garagist as it was already 5.15pm, he arrived and collected the car. Back home, called MAAF for assistance included on policy, no problem, my local garagist just has to send them the bill direct and they will pay the repatriation. Work on it is at my own cost (of course, I was being dumb) but they are paying for a hire car of an equivalent standard (Peugeot 5008), am picking it up at 8am tomorrow. All covered by my all singing, dancing insurance which is expensive as I use my car for business, carrying clients everywhere but, it is only 530€ a year, which I don't think is bad for the cover I have, considering the replacement cost of my car is 25,000euro.
Carol, I think you have been done as most insurance covers as standard, breakdown assistance (not necessarily replacement vehicle) and European insurance, it is only the UK that charges extra premiums to drive abroad.
It seems to me that all insurance is that you pay them wads of money each year for nothing.
We had burst pipes a couple of years ago (that big freeze) and the water purifier burst and when I fixed that by bypassing it, the pipes in the top floor froze and water cascaded down four floors. They didn't pay for any damage and they didn't pay the plumbers bill for fixing it. I can do better than this.
Yes its true - a good example of how the law benefits big business.
we were with AXA and had the house / gite / car on one combined policy and it got very expensive plus i had to claim for a little bump on my car and then was told i had a 500 euro excess !
so when renewal was due i cancelled the DD and then spent the next 6 months being hassled and threatened with legals until i wrote to the customer care director and then my policy was cancelled in writing by him.
i moved to Groupama who were more competitive with a lower excess and for the last few years was happy until making a claim for water damage last winter which they refused and i am contesting so wont go into any more detail just now.In addition i think they have become expensive too !
Steve