A car owner has lost his bid for a crash damage payout after an insurer showed his policy expired more than five years before the incident.

The man reported the loss after a smash on April 26, but IAG declined cover, saying his insurance expired without renewal on April 8 2019.

The claimant argued he received no notice or reminder to renew. He noted he had been a customer for 18 years and always paid his renewals on time.  

IAG said a renewal notice detailing a premium of $1036 was sent with a batch of 11,163 documents to its mailing house for processing on March 9 2019. Dispatch information showed the document was processed on March 11 or 12 and lodged with Australia Post on March 13.  

The insurer noted that section 58 of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 – which requires an insurer to give more than 14 days’ renewal notice – only provides statutory cover for up to 12 months if a renewal invitation is not sent. It said even if an error were made, this cover would have expired.  

In a dispute decision, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority presumes, in accordance with the Evidence Act 1995, that the mail would have been delivered on March 22 – seven days after it was lodged with Australia Post and 17 days before the renewal was due.  

It says the complainant has provided no rebuttal to this presumption and no persuasive evidence of mail delivery issues affecting his address or suburb.  

“The policy expired without renewal more than five years before the loss occurred,” the authority said. 

“Even if a statutory policy had come into existence, this would also have expired more than four years before the loss occurred. Given this, there is no valid or statutory policy in place with the insurer on which the complainant could claim his loss.” 

Click here for the ruling.