as i did not hear from my present insurers for this years buildings and contents cover I went elsewhere, however i notice on my bank statement that they took out £18 for first payment for this year. I therefore stopped the DD .I have since received an email stating that they did not receive any correspondence stating that i wished to stop the cover and that I owe them for administration costs-surely they cannot charge this!!
Unfortunately you do have to cancel insurance policies these days otherwise they renew automatically - somewhere deep in the small print of the policy documents, it will say that.
You should have heard from them though with a new premium and new documents. I suggest you call them and argue the case.
Yes they can, if you didn't give them notice that you were cancelling - just because you didn't receive renewal papers doesn't mean they weren't keeping you on cover (they could have gone missing in the post). Why didn't you ring them and ask where the renewal papers were, how much they were planning to charge you this year? It's your responsibility as well as theirs!