Hi all, in December last year, I received a car insurance renewal notice for my Mum´s peugeot that she left here with us. The policy was with Aviva and expired in Jan 2014. We decided to trade it in against a family car as we were expecting Harrison around that time so I ignored the renewal quote (which I might add was more expensive than the previous year). We traded the Peugeot and insured the new car with a different and much better value insurance company. Today I received a statement from Aviva saying that the car insurance for the Peugeot is all set up and we just need to pay the annual fee and it will be activated. I emailed the Aviva offices and told our rep that we did not want to re-insure the Peugeot as we had sold it to a garage and bought a new car which we have insured elsewhere. I received an email back from him 10 minutes later saying that I should have let him know that we did not want to renew within 10 days of receiving the renewal notice and also that I must send him the certificate showing that the car is sold...finally he stated that the years premium must also be paid and that I am still contractually bound to the policy! This seems ridiculous to me as the insurance policy was only for 1 year and it expired without me intimating that I wanted to renew. Surely, people have a right to choose not to renew their policy with the same insurers and shop around. Anyone had experiences like this? I am certainly not planning on paying a premium for a car that I no longer even own.
Thanks for the info. I am going to send the sales certificate to them on Monday along with a letter explaining that I was unaware of the situation and keep fingers crossed! Cheers
Chris is right. When you insure a car in France, you enter into a rolling contract and it is necessary to follow a strict procedure (as with so many things in France) in order to cancel it. If you want to change insurer, normally the new insurer will do this for you. Similarly, if the car is written off, the Casse Auto will provide you with the appropriate documentation. I am not sure that they are right to demand payment for the complete year, but they can charge you until the expiration of the statutory notice period.
It seems possible that the garage where you traded your Peugeot, or your new insurer, was negligent in not dealing with this for you. Or maybe this was just one of those occasions where a misunderstanding occurred due to differences in culture, legislation and language.
It is interesting to note that, in France, the insurance is on the car, rather than the driver. Even if you keep a car off the road, you are still required to keep it insured, because if someone steals it and has an accident, it is still your insurance that pays.
Regretfully, an insurance policy in France is automatically renewed unless you give the insurers notice of cancellation by registered letter within the limits prescribed by law. What you should have done is to send them the cancellation letter and a copy of the document evidencing the sale of the vehicle. My best advice is to do so now.