in Oregon, does an insurance

by sleepyshepherd » Sat May 11, 2013 09:24 pm

in Oregon, does an insurance company have to send a cancellation notice to the insured if they have not received payment/renewal of their SR22 before notifying the DMV? If not, are they bound to at least sending a cancellation notice at the same time that they report it to DMV?

Total Comments: 8

Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 04:20 am Post Subject:

Your insurance company will send a notification about your SR22's cancellation to you and the DMV simultaneously.

Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 06:13 am Post Subject:

Do they have to do that by rule of law, or just out of courtesy?

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 07:53 am Post Subject:

As per the law, your insurer is liable to inform about the cancellation of your SR22 to the DMV and if they deem fit, then they may inform you about the same. But most of the time, they do inform about such events to their clients.

However, even if your insurer doesn't apprise you about this, then it is very likely that you'll get to know of this through the concerned authorities. For instance, you get rounded up by the traffic cops for not carrying a SR22 insurance policy.

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 05:43 pm Post Subject:

For anyone required to file and maintain insurance through the SR-22 process and the required coverage lapses, the insurance company will absolutely send notice to the state of Oregon.

You, as the insured person, should have (required by law) a premium notice, and if the premium didn't get paid, a "late payment" notice would have also been sent to you. This notice likely gave you an additional ten days to make the insurance payment. Some companies, however, do not have this provision, so the due date IS the due date for the premium.

If the insurance lapsed due to non-pay, the state will give you a short period of time to reinstate the lapsed policy or to obtain new coverage to satisfy the SR-22 requirements. If you don't get the required coverage and notice sent to DMV, they'll likely suspend your driver's license.

BTW- there's no such thing as an "SR-22 insurance policy." You have insurance to satisfy the SR-22 legal requirements.

InsTeacher 8)

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 12:33 am Post Subject:

Thank you for your replies to my question. I asked because of events involving my son's license having been suspended twice while a direct withdrawal for the monthly premium was taken both times, he was notified by the DMV of pending suspension of his license but could not get things resolved with the Insurer in time to avoid suspension (both times). They did not send him notices then because they did withdraw the payment, yet they notified DMV of no insurance via SR22 protocol. We found out recently that the insurance company was erroneously applying all of the payments for a year to a completely different policy. It is a complicated long story, I have posted other questions in an attempt to break down the different aspects of this problem so that I can write the insurer a letter (I have power of attorney) to ask them for an appropriate dollar amount for compensation for the fines, and reinstatement fees that my son paid due to the insurers huge mistake; as well as, letting them know that my son should get his car insurance from them for the year he paid for but was not covered. I have been asking my own questions and considering the other Q&A"s by others here, before I write that letter so that I do it correctly and not leave anything out or ask for unreasonable compensation. Thank you again.

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 11:47 pm Post Subject:

I would suggest that you immediately contact the Oregon Insurance Division and ask for the compliance section.

Frankly, you've been too nice. While I appreciate niceness, this isn't the time to play nicely. This is something that could "stick" to his state DMV records and once it's in the system, it's (as you now know) almost impossible to get it removed.

My thought would be to (1) contact the insurer and let the BOSS know that you're planning on filing legal action against the agent, agency and insurer for conversion of funds, failure to maintain a policy premium properly and exemplary damages for the pain in the rear-end they caused, and (2) contact the Oregon Insurance Division (503-297-4981).

InsTeacher 8)

Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 06:58 am Post Subject:

Thank you so much for the advice! I have been wrestling with this for 2 weeks, not sure how to go about contacting the insurance company about the financial burdens my son incurred via court fines, reinstatement fees, lost wages, and having to move his family to another place to avoid eviction. When my son finally got a reply from one of the agents, he was told that nothing could be done by them until he had my daughter (who they had been applying his premiums to), lives in a different town and she has not had her car for 11 months send them a written statement of the date that she sold her car and a request to cancel the insurance because they needed proof she was not the insured on the policy!

I tried to tell my son that he was making a huge mistake, my logic being why would they need proof supplied by my son? I kept telling him that all they had to do was read the name, policy number and vin number on their own paperwork etc. I told him it was their job to find and clean up their errors and that it sounded fishy to me that they had such a request. My son argued with me that the agent had told him that once they got the statement from my daughter that he would be compensated and would get the insurance coverage that he had paid for. I told him to get it in writing that it just did not make sense that they "needed" the statement in order to investigate and make things right.

Needless to say, he did not heed my advice because he just wanted to get his SR22 to the DMV so that he could get his license back so that he could get back to work. Of course the insurance company has not done what they promised; they only sent that letter of experience with dates of coverage for the year that he should have been but was not covered and an invoice for the next year of his insurance premiums totaling $1328 with his first payment due June 6, 2013. They also make it a point to blame the original agent who signed my son up, making statements like "we are very happy that we are able to get your insurance straightened out after the mess that so-and-so had made, or how sorry that they are about the mess so-and-so has caused and how much effort they are making in getting it all figured out for my son. They have even gone as far as to suggest that my son take action against the former agent; however, what they obviously have not done is their so-called investigation (or they have and are trying to cover), because that agent has not worked for that insurance company for 8 months! Well, I am prattling away here and all I really wanted to say was thanks, because your reply was the answer that I have been looking for; I felt that the insurer should be held accountable but was not sure if we could stand a chance against them, or what to say to them either; I will call the Oregon Insurance Division tomorrow... should I contact the insurance company first, to give them the opportunity to accept our request for compensation or should I just call the ODI and file a complaint? Thanks Ins Teacher :)

Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 11:49 am Post Subject:

File your complaint first and then discuss the matter with the insurance company. Ask them if they want to resolve this with or without going to court, because the next time they hear from you it will be through an attorney.

Add your comment

Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.