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As an ex-insurance company employee I strongly advise your readers to declare any accident, regardless of whether a claim is likely.
As an ex-employee of an insurance company I have been following the recent correspondence concerning the non-disclosure of accidents. It is understandable to think that what the insurer doesn’t know will not hurt them but I would strongly urge a very close perusal of the dreaded 'Small Print'. In my experience most motor insurance policies contain a requirement that ALL incidents be reported to them. This is not dependant upon the intention to submit a claim and the intention that a claim will not be submitted does not unfortunately release the policyholder from this obligation. Subsequent discovery of such non-disclosure by the company could well lead to the automatic cancellation of the policy, with no return of premium due and the policyholder being completely uninsured merely as the result of an honest attempt to save money. Believe me, the risk just isn’t worth it.
Having been guilty of non-disclosure your company may well refuse to renew and further non-disclosure of this situation to any new company may well cancel any new insurance arrangement. I'm sorry, but they have you by the '****s' and it is far safer to reveal all up front. Yes it may cost you more but at least you are still insured and without the taint of dishonesty against your name.
Having been guilty of non-disclosure your company may well refuse to renew and further non-disclosure of this situation to any new company may well cancel any new insurance arrangement. I'm sorry, but they have you by the '****s' and it is far safer to reveal all up front. Yes it may cost you more but at least you are still insured and without the taint of dishonesty against your name.
Asked on 23 June 2011 by PN, Newcastle upon Tyne
Answered by
Honest John
You're right. But insurance companies are no longer run the way they were before you retired and aren't keeping ‘uberrimae fidei’ (absolute good faith) because they are using this rule to rip policyholders off with savage increases in premiums if they ‘crash and tell’, or even if someone crashes into them and they tell. It’s such an unfair clause that its legality needs to be questioned in the Supreme Court. It leads to the ridiculous situation where someone else scratches your car causing £200 of damage, you declare it, but your insurers decide it is knock for knock and you have a £300 excess so they won’t pay for the damage to be repaired, but will hike your premium. That is wholly wrong, and not just in my opinion.
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