can a insurance company cancel your plan without your knowledge

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Updated Jun 2024

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Updated Dec 2021

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Updated Mar 2024

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3.91

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Jeffrey Johnson

Insurance Lawyer

Jeffrey Johnson is a legal writer with a focus on personal injury. He has worked on personal injury and sovereign immunity litigation in addition to experience in family, estate, and criminal law. He earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore and has worked in legal offices and non-profits in Maryland, Texas, and North Carolina. He has also earned an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman Univer...

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Written by
Jeffrey Johnson

Jeffrey Johnson

Insurance Lawyer

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Reviewed by
Jeffrey Johnson

Updated May 2012

If the insurance premium on your car insurance was past due, the insurance company is required to send you a notice of cancellation and give you 10-15 days to pay the premium. During this time your insurance would be in force so any loss would be covered. The insurance company could require that you pay the past due premium, so the policy could be properly reinstated, and then the insurance adjuster should handle the claim. You need to talk to your insurance agent to be sure the policy was still in force at the time of the loss, as they should have a record of when the policy was to cancel for non-payment of the premium. If you did not pay the premium by the 24th, then there would not be any coverage for the loss.Insurance policies provide the extra time to pay as required by the state. This is not a “free month” of insurance, but a part of a legal contract. You should not presume that the insurance is in force if you have not paid the premium on time, since you could fail to read the notice of cancellation and the date insurance is to cancel.