Stolen Car

[paulaga]

Does Any One Know Of A Solicitor In Birmingham Uk Who Deals In Insurance Company Who Refuses To Pay On Car Theft.

THE CAR WAS INSURED ON A MOTOR TRADE POLICY. IN A LTD COMPANY.
IT WAS STOLEN FROM MY HOME IN OCTOBER 2012. IT WAS RECOVERED BUT WRITTEN OFF. THE VALUE OF THE BENTLEY WAS 40K +. THE POLICY WAS STARTED IN MARCH 2012. AND WE RECEIVED A FULL PACKAGE OF INSURANCE WHICH INCLUDES POLICY DOCUMENTATION AND CERTIFICATES. THEY WERE ABOUT TO PAY OUT BUT THEN REFUSED AND CANCELLED THE POLICY. THE REASON WAS THAT IN JUNE 2012 THE NAME OF THE LTD COMPANY WAS CHANGED FROM EG: CAR REPAIR CENTRE LTD TO AUTO GARAGE LTD T/A CAR REPAIR CENTRE. THIS WAS PURELY A NAME CHANGE THE OLD LTD COMPANY WAS CLOSED WITH NO OUTSTANDING DEBT. A NEW LTD COMPANY WAS FORMED. THE SOLE DIRECTOR, THE PEOPLE AND CARS, THE ADDRESS AND BUSINESS PREMISES, ALL STAYED THE SAME. UNFORTUNATELY THE INSURANCE COMPANY WAS NOT INFORMED. THE OTHER ISSUE WAS THAT THEY CONTACTED ME TO SAY THAT IN DECEMBER 2012 THEY HAD RECEIVED A PROPOSAL FORM STILL QUOTING THE ORIGINAL LTD COMPANY NAME. I REPLIED THAT I HAD NEVER FILLED IN THIS FORM.
A COPY WAS SENT TO ME AND THE BROKER HAD FILLED IN THE FORM AND SIGNED MY NAME WITH OUT MY KNOWLEDGE. I REALLY NEED A GOOD SOLICITOR OR ANY OTHER ADVICE WOULD BE HELP FULL.
BEST RGDS
CONFUSED

[VHG]

As this is a first time poster it may not be genuine.

Be careful what you advise or suggest.

Give no personal info to them.

[buildersmate]

It isn't the purpose of this site to recommend specific service providers, so I suggest you don't go there.

In any case, if I was in your position, I'd be talking to the Financial Ombudsman (FO) - not to a paid-for lawyer. Part of what the FO deals with is the power to investigate insurance companies - including where claims have been denied. The website is here:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/about/index.html

In the first instance, and this is made clear on the website, the customer must have used a complaints procedure with the organisation in question first. If that fails, the FO might agree to take up your case - it is free to the general public.

The crux of this (I think) will boil down to whether the holding back of the information about the name change can be considered 'material' to the insurance contract - you say it isn't - the company is presumably maintaining it is.

[boxtops]

answers on this duplicate post too http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Insurance/Question1231299.html

[Skyline D]

If it WAS just a name change of the same company yowould most likely have a case as it's probably not a material change.

However, you contradict yourself in the next sentence and say that the old company was closed with no debt and a new company set up. I'm sorry but if that is what happened then it's NOT just a name change, it's a change of ownership of the car. A company is a legal entity and each different company is a separate legal entity. If Company A closed down and Company B started up then company B has no valid insurance so far as I can see.

Good luck but I can't see you getting anywhere here.