Cars and résiliation of their contrats

[menthe]

I thought it worthwhile to revisit this subject, although many on here would already be familiar with the process I am about to describe.  There might be others who could benefit from my experience.

Last year, I mentioned here that I pranged my car and damaged it so badly that it was uneconomical to repair.  The damaged car was transported to "experts" and was thoroughly assessed and a devis for repairs was provided.  So far so good.

The next stage concerned my health because it was during a time when weird things were happening to me.  I was falling about and hurting myself and I stopped driving for the safety of myself and other road users.  I had no easy means of getting to the garage of the assessors and reluctantly decided just to let the car be scrapped.  I simply couldn't face all the hassle involved.

As far as I understood it, the car was sold in its damaged state to the insurance company who suspended my contract about a fortnight after the sale of my car to them.

All reimbursements due to me were paid and in fact it was pretty smooth as these things go.  However, what I didn't think to do was to also resiliér the contract.  I assumed that as they had the car and I had told them that I had no thought of buying a new car and therefore there was no need to keep the contract to be used against a purchase, the contract would be automatically rescinded.

This is NOT so.  Therefore, if you ever get into a similar situation, don't forget to résiliér your contract, as well as all the other stuff you need to attend to after your car is written off.

Doesn't make sense to me but just do it, otherwise no return of the unused part of your policy.

[Hectorsdad]

Thank you for the warning although we all hope it will not happen to anyone. There are so many pitfalls in the UK as well as in France.

[menthe]

Hectorsdad, I thought I'd better remind people to cancel their policy.

As it happens, the insurance people have been very quick.  I explained the situation this morning and, by this afternoon, they have emailed to say the contract is now cancelled and that my reimbursement would be by direct credit to my bank account.

 

[DaveLister]

If I had been in your circumstances, I too would have assumed the contract was automatically rescinded once the car was sold/scrapped. Thank you Menthe for heads up. Something else to check if the need arises.

[Lehaut]

As part of the "writing off" of the car, did they also contact ANTS on your behalf and remove the car from your ownership? (cession de véhicule).  You don't want the extra headache of  having your numberplate cloned and you getting the fines etc.

[menthe]

Lehaut, thank you, yes, I filled in the cert of cession and sent it with the cancelled carte grise, etc to the people liaising between me and the assurance.

At the time, I was thoroughly confused.  The car was picked up from a garage near our house.  Then it was sent to the car expertise tens of kilometres away.  After, I must say, a very thorough and fair assessemnt, including comparison with other cars of the same make and model for sale, I was given the choice of having it repaired at my own cost or scrapping it.

I thought the expertise bods were going to repair it but, no, it would have to go to another garage for repairs.  Then the administration of the reimbursement was handled by yet another company in Nantes.  At one time, I had 4 different places to ring for information about different aspects and choices.

As you know, I felt extremely ill and frightened (nothing to do with the accident) and all this phoning and explaining and being explained to gave me much stress and many sleepless nights.

To cut a long story short, I let the car go to save my sanity!