house insurance

[BayBoy1]

my house insurance is six weeks out of date ,I forgot to renew it.I have now insured with a different insurance company .my previous ins co want to charge me sixty pounds for not cancelling my policy with them.Do i have to pay them???although the previous co say I have a lapsed policy with them.

[bednobs]

it doesnt make sense. if your policy automatically renews as mine does, then you havent been out of date and they are charging you a cancellation fee. if it doesnt automatically renew then they cant charge you for not cancelling, because it cancels itself at the end of the year!
if i had to guess i would say it auto renewed and you are now cancelling. only your renewal/policy will know

[gingejbee]

Can't understand - either you were on automatic renewal (in which case you would have been charged and would have been covered) or you didn't renew with them so the cover ended and you don't owe anything. Unless there are "T & C"s which cover this and say they will charge unless you notify them of non-renewal.

[gingejbee]

....the same as bednobs!!

[BayBoy1]

Thanks for the answers , No it is not automatic renewal.

[factor-fiction]

If the situation is exactly as you say then the cancellation charge can't be justified and you can either just ignore it or write back and point out that it is a mistake on their part and your are not paying. But I wonder whether there is a misunderstanding here- this just doesn't seem to add up

[joko]

if the policy just ends, you have not cancelled it - it has ended

you are not obliged to have house insurance or to renew it

i had a bit of a heated discussion with an domain name provider, sending me threatening emails because i did not renew with them - they sent them over and over threatening court and costs etc - at first i didnt even look at them but after opening one was furious to discover the content... i sent them a furious email...and they said it was just automatic mail!

[factor-fiction]

Was there form of continuous credit card authority/ continuing direct debit in place?

[cathfromsaron]

when something similar happened to me, i sent a copy of new 'new' insurance details to my 'old' company and was not charged anything for 'cancelling'!

i re-iterated that i was not actually 'cancelling' as i just hadn't elected to go with them for another year, but the automatic renewal was in the small print!

i was within the 'cooling off period' for direct selling though ... 14 days?