My policy was cancelled!

I was hoping to get your assistance on a matter I’m currently facing.

Last year May, the company I work for went through retrenchments and restructuring, which resulted in salaries being reduced by 50% and also not being paid on time. As a result, I have not been able to meet many debit orders on the last day of the month but as soon as I do get paid, I make sure to make payments towards them, and have been doing that since. Earlier this year, I was involved in a car accident and went through the whole police process. I alerted my insurance broker about the issue and they relayed the message to the insurer. I had missed 3 months worth of instalments due to inconsistent payments but, as soon as the accident happened, I borrowed funds to cover the arrears. My broker let me know that my insurer cancelled my policy, even though I had been depositing money whenever we got paid, and no one let me know of the cancellation. I then shared with them the notice of retrenchments and restructuring from work but they ended up saying that their hands are tied and they could not help me.

Is this an issue you may be able to help me with?

Firstly, I’m very sorry about the stress you’ve been though over the last year. Times have been very tough for us all but you’ve had a very hard time.

I’m happy to contact the insurance company on your behalf but I suspect they’ll only give me bad news. Technically, the insurance company was correct to cancel your policy because you were behind with your payments and, even though you tried to catch up with the payments, it seems like the policy had long been cancelled.

However, I still think the insurance company let you down. They should have been talking to you throughout this period and warning you that the policy would be cancelled. They should have been doing this directly to you but also to your broker if they couldn’t get hold of you.

I’m interested in how you paid the money you borrowed to cover the arrears. Did you pay them to the broker or to the insurance company? Either way, you deserve those payments back.

I’ll let you know what the insurance company says.