insurance

[Tasha]

We are having trouble with insurance company AGF.  They insist we have a policy with them.  We have owned our home for two years now and in January 2004 they wrote to say that they had insured the previous owner and would we like to continue, we wrote back and said no and heard no more until January this year when we had a reminder to say we hadn't paid our bill for 2005.  We contacted them to say we didn't have a policy with them and that we had not recieved a bill from them.  They insisted that we had a policy and that we had paid in Jan 04.  They were unable to show us that we had paid and couldn't explain why we didn't have a policy document.  This went back and forth for some weeks during which time the the man at AGF was getting more and more unhelpful every time we called.  In the end for the sake of 60 euro we just paid to stop anymore letters coming.  We then had a letter to say we still hadn't paid and they added another 31 euros to the bill for not paying on time.  We paid this although the chq had been cashed from our bank account for the 60 euros.  I have now had a letter this morning claiming that nothing has been paid and that they are going to take further action.  When we speak with the man at AGF he just keeps saying its the law and wont say anything else and refuses to comment on the fact that we do not have a policy with them.  We dont know what to do now. Any suggestions.

[Tourangelle]

If I were you, I would stop all telephone contact with them. I would then write them a letter explaning the situation and send it recommendé avec accusé de récéption. I would then get in touch with your local Que Choisir. They are an independent consumer organisation. Have a look at their website, www.quechoisir.org Have a look at where it says, 'un litige, nous pouvons vous aider'. It will give you your local branch. You will have to join the association to use get their advice, but it is not very expensive (about 25 euros, so less than you have already paid to try to make the problem go away)and they should beable to tell you what to do next.

HTH

[pjm]

Well I would send them a copy of the first letter (requesting they cancel the insurance policy) by recorded delivery, as proof that it has indeed been cancelled.  I assume that if you do not have your house insurance with AGF you have taken out a policy with a different insurance company?  Can you not ask your actual insurance agent to sort it out for you?

[Audois]

This is typical AGF behaviour, you're not with the Limoux (11) branch by any chance?

I had a 'run-in' with them 2yrs ago over a car that was sold and they were informed ... they continued to send bills and then took me to court for non-payment.  Eventually, after several visits over 7 months I sorted it out; but they decided to have the final word as when I changed my insurance to another (cheaper) company they refused to send my documents.  I went back in to demand why they'd not been sent and I got a mouthful for having turned my back on AGF!

Never again!