Not upheld: unfair payment demand, withholding of documentation, alleged coercive conduct complaint against Great Lakes Insurance UK Limited

Decision detail

Summary

A limited company complained that its commercial vehicle insurer, Great Lakes Insurance UK Limited, demanded payment of an outstanding additional premium of £2,720.64 only seven weeks before policy renewal and refused to release its confirmed claims experience (CCE) documentation unless the premium was paid. The complainant claimed this prevented him from obtaining a competitive renewal quote and resulted in higher premiums and a day of lost trading. Great Lakes had failed to copy the wholesale broker into correspondence about the additional premium in June 2024, causing it to remain unpaid until February 2025. The ombudsman found that responsibility for the outstanding premium was shared across multiple parties, that seven weeks' notice was reasonable, and that withholding the CCE while the premium remained unpaid was standard industry practice. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Great Lakes made an error in not copying P into the original correspondence, responsibility for the outstanding premium was shared across multiple parties. Mr T and his broker S were aware an additional premium had been generated and should have questioned why direct debit payments did not increase. Seven weeks' notice was considered sufficient in the circumstances. The ombudsman found it was standard industry practice not to release CCE documentation while premiums remained outstanding, and Great Lakes was not responsible for the higher renewal premium. The ombudsman found no evidence of blackmail, viewing the renewal offer as a reasonable attempt to resolve the complaint.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website