Legality of Car Insurance Documents

[gadjet]

Posting here rather than Cars etc as possibly more response from Fools.

The insurance broker for my classic car was bought out (due to retirement) some months age & I have just received the documents for next year from the one who has taken over. Premiums for classics don't change much from year to year as there is no No Claim Bonus so I'm happy to stay there.

All the documents address me as 'Miss Susan S...' although they know I'm married (the Statement of Disclosure says so on the entry line Marital Status even though the entry line immediately above, The Proposer, says Miss Susan S...

More to the point, should I request the brokers to reprint the documents, particularly the Certificate of Motor Insurance to show Mrs Susan S... ?

TIA

Sue

[Howard]

If it were my car, I would definitely make a phone call to ask for the documents to be corrected. Hopefully won't take more than five minutes. Worth checking while you do this that the broker hasn't made any other mistakes.

regards

Howard

[chas49]

If it were my car, I would definitely make a phone call to ask for the documents to be corrected. Hopefully won't take more than five minutes. Worth checking while you do this that the broker hasn't made any other mistakes.

regards

Howard

Whilst I agree that it's probably worth a phone call (so long as they don't want to charge an admin fee), are you sure that you selected the right title on the form (assuming you did it online). In any case, I can't see that the wrong title should make any difference to your cover since they clearly know you are married (which might be relevant to the premium, whereas if you choose to call yourself Miss, Mrs or Ms surely isn't relevant)

[gryffron]

It's an interesting general question.

So after a bit of googling the legal answer is:
1) You can use any title you choose. Miss, Ms or Mrs (or even Mr), regardless of your marital status, or gender.
2) You can call yourself any name and title you like. Indeed a different name and title every day of the week if you want. You only need an official name for dealings with the govt, Tax, Passport, police etc. Civil contracts can be in any name.

So does it matter, legally? No.
BUT
For practical purposes, it's a good idea to choose one and stick to it. For contract purposes PROVING that Mrs Susan S, Ms Susan S, and Miss Susan S are the same person could cause costly and time consuming disputes. So if your insurance documents have a different name to your driving licence, you could spend months trying to prove that they are the same person.

So in practice, I agree with the earlier posts. Ring and tell them. Or write and tell them, then you'll have proof that you are the same person. You told them so. Even if they don't re-issue the documents.

Gryff