When you receive a non-renewal notice, this
means that your insurance company will not provide you cover after the policy
term has ended. It also means that you need to find another assurance company
to offer you cover.
The National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction
Council reported a 6% rise of car thefts in the 2016-2017 financial year
(https://carsafe.com.au/assets/NMVTRC_Theft_Watch_Issue_63.pdf). In terms of
such an occurrence, vehicle insurance is useful in covering a massive financial
loss when your car is stolen or even written off. However, if your insurance
company sends you a non-renewal notice this could imply that you may be without
insurance cover.
Reasons
for a non-renewal notice
There are various reasons for receiving a
non-renewal notice. These fall into two categories, namely, mistakes you have
made, or difficulties with the insurance company.
If the fault lies with you, your driving
record, and possibly numerous fines and tickets gleaned, have come under
scrutiny. Speeding alone is responsible for 1in 5 accidents, 40% of these
accidents proving fatal
(https://www.finance.gov.au/vehicle-leasing-and-fleet-management/vehicle-and-driver-safety.html#AccidentStatistics).
By accumulating many fines, you have become a high risk to the insurer.
However, it is not simply your bad driving
that could have resulted in non-renewal. It may also be about the number of
claims made, and whether these were seen as questionable. Normally, insurance
companies will tolerate a maximum of three at-fault claims over a three-year
period, before cutting you off. Then again, insurers could simply decline your
claim: in 2014-2015, 26% car claims were declined
(https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/au/pdf/2016/general-insurance-industry-review-2016.pdf).
Another reason could be that your payments
have regularly been either late or declined owing to insufficient funds. On the
other hand, the insurer may stop offering a certain cover, or the company may
be downsizing, resulting to end the policy without renewing it.
What can you do?
When you receive a non-renewal notice, the
reason for the insurance company deciding to drop you will be spelled out. If
not, you need to ask why. Either way, you should contact your insurance
company, as they may have made a mistake. However, if there is no mistake, and
they will not cover you further, you will need to find another insurance
company to cover you. Ideally, let the
transfer to the new company occur a day before or on the same day as your
policy ends with your current insurance company. Either way, between the transition to another
insurance company, you will still be covered by your Compulsory Third Party
Insurance. This insurance is required by law in all Australian states when you
register your vehicle. However, in NSW the requirement is already to have a
policy in place when registering the vehicle.

Comments
Post a Comment