‘Model driver’ forced to sell new car as insurers cancel policy after 1 month

A couple were forced to sell their new Land Rover worth £100,000 after their insurance company cancelled their policy just one month after it was bought.

Hannah Platts, 40 and her husband Kareem Chester purchased the Land Rover Defender for £80,000 in October last year and spent hours looking for a reasonably priced insurance policy to cover it.

The pair, who said they bought the SUV to ‘get around’ because they live in a rural area, found an insurance quote which cost £2,300 a year with Adrian Flux insurance, which seemed like a reasonable deal.

But, just a month later, while they were away visiting friends, they received an e-mail out of the blue which stated the insurance provider could ‘no longer’ insure the car.

The mother-of-two spent an entire day searching for a new quote, but the best she could find cost around £11,000 a year – despite her being a ‘model driver’. The pair said as they were unwilling to spend more than 10 per cent of the car’s value on insurance every year, they decided to sell it.

But, despite being a top-of-the-range car, they were hit with a number of issues when it came to selling the vehicle, and they were forced to sell it at a £14,000 loss.

Mrs. Platts said:

“We called up Saxton 4×4, a dealership in Essex that specialise in high-end SUVs and are reseller for Range Rover.

“They said it was a major issue and they were struggling to sell the things.

“The Defender we had was a specialist Carpathian Edition. It had all extras like hunter lights. We bought it for about £100,000, but we sold it to them and took a hit of £14,000 or £15,000.”

According to data from the DVLA, Range Rovers could be most uninsurable car as they are often sought out by criminals.

The figures show that the Land Rover was the most stolen brand at the time, with 924 stolen per 100,000 in the 12 months to March 2023. It also made up six of the top ten most stolen car models overall.

But this is not the first time the couple have faced this issue with Adrian Flux insurance. While they were on holiday in 2022, the pair received a message to say the provider could not renew a policy on their 2021 Range Rover Sport, which cost around £80,000 new.

Mrs. Platt said:

“We got an email from the insurer saying they could no longer insure your Range Rover.

“When we got home and tried to insure it and the best policy we got at that point for the car was £9,000 a year. We were paying £2,000 a year before, which is not not cheap, but not £9,000.

“We just thought that’s ridiculous, so we just got rid of the car and swapped it for another SUV. It was good but it wasn’t ideal.”

Speaking to a media outlet, Lee Westwood, a manager at Adrian Flux said:

“Our records show that a policy was taken out by this customer in December 2022.

“The policy ran for the full 12 months, in that time two changes of vehicle were made, and it was completed in December 2023. It was never cancelled.

“The customer was contacted three weeks before renewal to inform them we could not offer a renewal price. The underwriting acceptance criteria surrounding the vehicle grouping and value had changed since their original cover was agreed. As a broker we had no alternative to offer them at the time.

A spokesperson for Jaguar Land Rover, which manufactures these cars told MailOnline:

“Unfortunately, a record increase in car insurance premiums is an issue affecting the whole industry.

‘We are fully committed to doing everything we can to support clients who might be struggling to get insurance. As such, in October, we launched our own insurance and so far we have provided more than 11,000 insurance solutions to clients and we are working continuously to expand our offering.”

Further reading

Claims against insurance – Oakwood Solicitors

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