Insurance policy & recent seizure

MarkJD

Howdy Folks,

Looking for a bit of guidance or possibly someone has had experience with this.

My mother is currently halfway through her insurance policy for the year and recently had a seizure out of the blue and had to have surgery. She will be kept on a low dose Keppra (Levetiracetam) for 12 months. From my understanding she essentially is no longer covered from an insurance point of view to drive and she needs to be seizure free for 12 months before she will be allowed to drive again. I have a couple of questions around this for her before we go contacting the insurance company etc:

1) Is the above statement correct in relation to the 12 months wait and current situation?
2) Will her current policy become void or will it be paused?
3) She has years of no claims discount and has had no accidents but because of this will she now lose her policy and all those years of built up discounts etc?
4) Hopefully she remains healthy for the year and can then drive again but will she be screwed with new policy rates or increased rates because she could be seen as an increased risk?

Appreciate any insight and information. We are yet to contact the insurance company but she knows she cannot drive and has not as of yet. Just want to make sure she doesn't screw herself over before contacting etc.

Thanks!

tevey08

Not 100% sure but I thought it had to be more than 1 seizure over a period of time not rather than just the 1 seizure.

I could be totally wrong.

Sue Pa Key Pa

Hi OP

The main insurance implication is that you cannot drive against medical advice. Once the professionals think you mother is fit enough to drive again, they will need to certify that to the licencing authority and insurer

Her policy remains in force unaltered, providing there is no material change in the risk. i.e the vehicle is kept at the declared location and the use hasn't changed. Named drivers can continue to use the vehicle as before.

You can suspend cover, but ALL cover gets suspended if you do, including damage, fire & theft. You will earn a credit for the down time. It may be possible to suspend just the 3rd party section of the policy, leaving damage fire & theft in place. I did this for my aunt when she fell ill

Once you mother is certified as fit to drive, there should be no loadings related to her health

The NCB will remain valid 2 years from when the policy is cancelled, not from the date she stops driving.

You need to declare this new situation to insurers and they should be able to tailor a solution to your circumstances

MarkJD

tevey08 wrote: »

Not 100% sure but I thought it had to be more than 1 seizure over a period of time not rather than just the 1 seizure.

I could be totally wrong.

Great thanks a lot ill look into this.

Sue Pa Key Pa wrote: »

Hi OP

The main insurance implication is that you cannot drive against medical advice. Once the professionals think you mother is fit enough to drive again, they will need to certify that to the licencing authority and insurer

Her policy remains in force unaltered, providing there is no material change in the risk. i.e the vehicle is kept at the declared location and the use hasn't changed. Named drivers can continue to use the vehicle as before.

You can suspend cover, but ALL cover gets suspended if you do, including damage, fire & theft. You will earn a credit for the down time. It may be possible to suspend just the 3rd party section of the policy, leaving damage fire & theft in place. I did this for my aunt when she fell ill

Once you mother is certified as fit to drive, there should be no loadings related to her health

The NCB will remain valid 2 years from when the policy is cancelled, not from the date she stops driving.

You need to declare this new situation to insurers and they should be able to tailor a solution to your circumstances

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond and for providing so much detail. Interesting on the medical clearance as they seemed to indicate this was insurance related. Have you heard of an automatic 1 year suspension of driving after having a seizure is this an automatic thing in your opinion? What about the fact she is being kept on the anti-seizure medication is it potentially because she needs to remain on this for a year.

Thanks again either way will follow it up.

Sue Pa Key Pa

MarkJD wrote:

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond and for providing so much detail. Interesting on the medical clearance as they seemed to indicate this was insurance related. Have you heard of an automatic 1 year suspension of driving after having a seizure is this an automatic thing in your opinion? What about the fact she is being kept on the anti-seizure medication is it potentially because she needs to remain on this for a year.

There is a relationship between any illness and insurance in that to drive against medical advice is prohibited. The specifics of treatment and timeframes are not considered by insurers, they just wait for the clearance to come from the medical people

NUTLEY BOY

Can a G.P. take any action to inform a licensing authority formally that the patient is unfit to drive medically ? I think of the scenario where a patient choses to ignore medical advice and keep driving.