Insurance renewals

[PaulT]

Just coming up to the 1st anniversary of owning our French House - 26 January - and have just thought about insurance renewal.

When we bought I arranged insurance via phone with brokers in the north of France (house is in the south) and received an email with the certificate that was required by the Notaire. However, never received a policy document and also have not received any renewal notification.

Is this the norm or should I be suspicious?

Paul

[Kathy]

We continued with the house insurance that our vendor had and he gave us the original document saying what was covered. This time when the renewal was due the company wrote saying what the new price was. We paid this but have also not got anything back document wise. I thought that you had now to be notified in advance of your renewal costs in order to notify them in case you wanted to change insurers. This law has not been in force long, so some insurers may have chosen not to uphold it yet.We are with Aviva.

[Sunday Driver]

The Loi Chatel was introduced in January 2005 and insurance companies do not have any choice as to whether they uphold it or not....[;-)]

There are three situations which the law covers:

The insurer sends you the renewal notice at least 15 days before the contract termination date (the contract usually specifies two months notice) so you can cancel within the normal contract terms.

The insurer sends you the renewal notice after the 15 day deadline, in which case, you have 20 days in which to cancel, regardless of the contract terms.

The insurer fails to send you a renewal notice, in which case you may cancel at any time, in writing by registered letter/receipt.  If you have already paid the next year's premium, the insurer must refund it within 30 days.  If the refund is late, then you are entitled to interest.

 

[groslard]

See:

http://have-it.com/denonciation/pages/astuces/resiliation_contrat_tacite_reconduction.html

and

http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnTexteDeJorf?numjo=ECOX0307005L

But was the OP worried that he hasn't got any assurance?

[PaulT]

[quote user="groslard"]See:
http://have-it.com/denonciation/pages/astuces/resiliation_contrat_tacite_reconduction.html
and
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnTexteDeJorf?numjo=ECOX0307005L

But was the OP worried that he hasn't got any assurance?
[/quote]

Grosland, thanks for the refs but my French is not up to that level...

And no, I am not worried that we have no insurance because we do until the 26th Jan. My main thing was the level of service and perhaps the need to change - i.e. not knowing what the T&Cs are.

Paul

[Georgina]

If you received an email from your insurance company originally, can't you e mail asking for your documents? Although many companies do not respond well to e mails, can't you ring them and ask for them??? If they do not send you a renew SD has outlined your options exactly above. Just go and get another quote locally now.

 

Georgina