Insurance company refused to believe Ontario woman dead, kept billing

For four months, one of Canada’s best-known property and casualty insurance companies refused to believe the mother of a 33-year-old woman who died and kept billing her for auto insurance premiums.

“They were not pleasant about it, they were ignorant,” said Kim Douglas of Orillia, Ont.

She contacted Global News about her repeated calls to COSECO Insurance, a subsidiary of Co-operators Insurance, to tell the company her daughter had died and that they wanted to cancel the insurance policy on her daughter’s car.

Douglas said she was told on multiple occasions, ‘We can’t take your word for it.’

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: Douglas said she was told on multiple occasions, 'We can't take your word for it.'

When told “we need the client” to confirm the cancellation, Douglas was blunt.

“I said, ‘You’re welcome to talk to the urn – she’s dead. You can’t talk to the client, she can’t cancel the policy when she’s not alive,'” said Douglas.

Nicole Douglas, 33, died in a Toronto hospital Sept. 10 of a blood clot after suffering what initially appeared to be massive stroke. She had been in good health until the medical event, said her mother.

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“Our knees got knocked out from under us,” said Kim as she described the loss.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Our knees got knocked out from under us," said Kim as she described the loss.

Kim said COSECO and Co-operators made several withdrawals from her bank account on Nov. 10, Nov. 24, Dec. 8, Dec. 22, Jan. 5, and Jan. 19 – even after she put a stop payment order to prevent the withdrawals, which added up to hundreds of dollars. The insurance company continued to try to withdraw premiums.

Despite repeated efforts to convince the insurance company of Nicole’s death, including submitting the death certificate to them, nothing worked. So Kim contacted Global News.

Within four hours, COSECO and the Co-operators admitted what it did was wrong.

“An internal investigation revealed that human error resulted in some confusion and a delay in cancelling this policy,” company spokesperson Leonard Sharman wrote in an email.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "An internal investigation revealed that human error resulted in some confusion and a delay in cancelling this policy," company spokesperson Leonard Sharman wrote in an email.

“We have now made the necessary corrections and are processing a refund back-dated to September 22. We deeply regret that due to our internal miscommunication, the family was contacted more than it should have been, during a very difficult time,” said Sharman.

“We wish to extend our deepest sympathies to Nicole’s family and apologize for the manner in which this matter was handled,” he added.

“I’m stunned,” Kim told Global News when reached for comment after the company’s admission.

“I have a message on my phone apologizing. I’m really happy with that. If they come through with everything they say, I could not be happier.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I have a message on my phone apologizing. I'm really happy with that. If they come through with everything they say, I could not be happier."

Katherine Aylesworth contributed to this report