45. Dispute

Heipä hei pitkästä aikaa! Monet teistä jo varmaan odottavat matkakertomusta ja kuvia, mutta en ole vielä ehtinyt niitä alkaa päivittämään, sillä tässä on neljä ihmistä vuorotellut yhdellä koneella. Tuija (Santerin äiti) on kyllä kovasti koonnut jättimäistä power point esitystä matkakuvista. Kunhan se valmistuu niin ehkä saan senkin tänne blogiin –todennäköisesti kuitenkin vain osittain, koska se on iso...Muita kuulumisia ehdin tähän kuitenkin pikkaisen päivittää.

Olemme jatkaneet vakuutusyhtiön kanssa riitelyä. Parhaillaan riitelemme collection companyn (nimeltään CCS) kanssa, jolle maksamaton 551,97 dollaria on siirtynyt perittäväksi. CCS:n mukaan syy kyseiselle summalle on se, että vakuutuksemme peruutettiin eikä sitä korvattu välittömästi uudella vakuutuksella. Vakuutusyhtiö kertoi meille aikaisemmin, että vakuutuksemme loppuu 10.11, jos ei makseta kolminkertaistettuja maksuja. 10.11 vakuutusyhtiöltä tuli kirje, että vakuutus on peruttu jo 30.10. Otimme uuden vakuutuksen 9.11 luottaen siihen, että vanhan vakuutuksen piti olla voimassa kymmenenteen päivään asti. Vakuutusyhtiön ehtojen mukaan he saavat periä meiltä rahaa, jos vakuutus lopetetaan eikä sitä korvata uudella vakuutuksella. Tämä on nyt nykyisen kiistan aihe, eikä ne kaikki aikaisemmat syyt jotka johtivat vakuutusmaksujen kolminkertaistamiseen.

Aloin sitten lukemaan Californian vakuutuslakia ja kirjoittelemaan ”pikku” vastinetta. Those of you who think that their English is sufficient enough can read about this matter from the letter that I wrote today to the CCS. The letter will describe what has happened and why I still think that we don’t owe the money. I still have the whole weekend to improve the letter so the final version might be a little bit different. Please notice that the dates in the letter are in form of month/date/year.

Dispute about the payment

CCS has contact me about payment of $ 551.97 to the insurance company Western General. I’ve been told that the reason for the payment is that my auto insurance got cancelled with Western General, before I got new insurance from Geico. I still think that I don’t owe this money to Western General, even though I understand that my insurance policy with Western General states that: “If this binder is not replaced by policy, the company is entitled to charge a premium for the binder according to the rules and rates in use by the company”. Here are the reasons why I think that I shouldn’t pay this amount. Please read carefully.

First of all my broker Survival Insurance Brokerage wasn’t able to pull out my information from the records of Department of Motor Vehicles. So the insurance company, Western General, trebled my insurance payments. I tried to solve this out with both of them; I even went to DMV and send my Driver’s Record to the broker to show that there weren’t anything wrong with my records and that there weren’t any reasons for upgraded payments.

I also heard other reasons for upgraded payments. I was told that I had had an accident, that I had added new car to my insurance and that I hadn’t drivers experience. None of these reasons were true; I hadn’t got into any accidents or added anything to my policy. When I bought my insurance through Survival Insurance Brokerage on 08/10/2007 I had told the broker, Levon Arutyunyan (who isn’t anymore with the company), that besides Californian Driver’s Licence (which I had got on the same day) I have had Finnish Driver’s License since 06/04/2003. Arutyunyan told me that because I have Finnish Driver’s License which is valid all over Europe, he can give me driver’s experience which will affect the price that I pay for my insurance. I relied on this information, because I had just arrived to the USA and he was an expert. Later on, I found out that Arutyunyan shouldn’t have given this driver’s experience to me. Western General and I had dispute about this matter. This was broker’s mistake. The California Insurance Code section 357:

“When an insured has no personal knowledge of a fact, he may never the less repeat information which he has upon the subject, and which he believes to be true, with the explanation that he does so onthe information of others; or he may submit the information, in its whole extent, to the insurer. In neither case is he responsible for its truth, unless it proceeds from an agent of the insured, whose duty it is to give the information.”

Solving out these matters took quite long time. Either one, Survival Insurance Brokerage or Western General, weren’t interested in solving this out. Because my original broker isn’t anymore with the company, no-one from Survival Insurance Brokerage thought that this was their matter. I still haven’t been able to finish solving out the dispute about driver’s experience.

When my insurance payments were trebled I contacted my broker and Billing Department of Western General; they told me that the last due date for the upgraded payment is 11/10/2007 and if I wouldn’t pay my insurance would be cancelled on that date. Like I told you, I was trying to solve out reasons for upgraded payments.

Because it seemed impossible to solve those out, I decided to change insurance company. If I hadn’t had so much troubles with the brokerage I wouldn’t had changed insurance company. (I have to mention that I haven’t had any troubles with Geico and that they didn’t have any troubles getting my information from DMV, which was a huge problem to Survival Insurance Brokerage.)

I bought new auto insurance from Geico on 11/09/2007 relying that my insurance was supposed to end on 11/10/2007. On 11/10/2007 I received letter from Western General that stated that my insurance policy got expired on 10/31/2007. It was also the first letter which Western General ever send to me. During the time I was their customer I didn’t even receive my policy card. Later on Survival claimed that they didn’t have my correct address, which isn’t true, because after many requests to get my policy card, the broker Arutyunyan, send me copy of the policy card by email and it shows my correct address. I also informed them several times about my address which was the same all the time.

The letter that I received on 11/10/2007 stated that my policy was expired on 10/30/2007, but it didn’t provide any reason for cancellation and it didn’t include any statement that I could get the reason by writing to the Western General. Before this I hadn’t got any written notice that my policy was about to expire. California Insurance Code section 662 states that:

“No notice of cancellation of a policy to which Section 661applies shall be effective unless mailed or delivered by the insurerto the named insured, lienholder, or additional interest at least 20 days prior to the effective date of cancellation; provided, however,that where cancellation is for nonpayment of premium, at least 10 days' notice of cancellation accompanied by the reason therefor shall be given. Unless the reason accompanies or is included in thenotice of cancellation, the notice of cancellation shall state or be accompanied by a statement that upon written request of the named insured, mailed or delivered to the insurer not less than 15 days prior to the effective date of cancellation, the insurer will specify the reason for such cancellation.”

I received Final Invoice from Western General, which had mailing date of 11/19/2007 and it included reason why my policy had been cancelled. According to the letter the reason was “SUBST INCR HAZARD”. If I have understood this right it was because Survival wasn’t able to pull out my information from DMV or because of driver’s experience. There weren’t any further explanations on the letter. Already before receiving this letter I had went to DMV to get my drivers record (10/25/2007) and tried to send it by e-mail to Survival Brokerage. First the e-mail didn’t go through, but I contacted the company and send the record again by email. Then they received it. According to California Insurance code my policy shouldn’t even have been cancelled, because I co-operated with them and I hadn’t negligently misrepresented my driver’s experience in the beginning; like I mentioned earlier I relied on the broker. (See section 357 of the Code in the beginning of this letter.) Section 661 states that:

“…Any insured who negligently misrepresents information described inthis paragraph may avoid cancellation by furnishing corrected information to the insurer within 20 days after receiving notice of cancellation and agreeing to pay any difference in premium for the policy period in which the information remained undisclosed. (5) A substantial increase in the hazard insured against.”

Previously I had been told that my insurance policy wouldn’t be cancelled until 11/10/2007. The two invoices on 11/10/2007 and 11/19/2007 from Western General show otherwise. Now Western General is charging me this amount of $ 551.97 because it seems that my policy got cancelled and wasn’t immediately replaced by a new policy, because I bought new policy on 11/09/2007. To me it seems that broker and insurance company made a mistake telling me that my insurance would be effective until 11/10/2007. If I would have known that my policy will expire earlier than what I had been told, I would have bought new insurance earlier. If there weren’t all these troubles with the broker I wouldn’t have changed insurance company. I also think that proceeds by Western General haven’t been done like law requires. Trying to solve this matter has taken a lot of my time and several phone calls.

I’m thinking about taking this matter to the California Department of Insurance so I’m hoping to find some co-operation from your side. I also hope that this letter will be forwarded to the insurance company Western General and that you will reply in writing before 01/15/2008. I would also like to receive breakdown of the bill. Please, contact me with any questions.

(Jostain syystä blogger yhdistelee sanoja noista lakitekstistä lainatuista kohdista, eikä suostu korjaamaan niitä. Oikeassa tekstissä ei ole yhtä paljoa virheitä.)

Jäämme odottelemaan vastausta.