Home Made house insurance claim in last 3 years will insurance co find out?

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I have made house insurance claim in last 3 years now I am trying to renew policy with other company. Will other company find out if I do not tell them about claim. I know about the legality and this is a hypothetical question.
 
Hi nokia, most insurers will ask if the building has been insured before as you can now earn a no claims bonus on household policies. If you answer yes to this question they usually ask who it was with and will check this is correct if the policy is taken out. If you answer no and then have a claim later on they may find out and then void your insurance. Tbh you are better off telling them and just take the hit as a lot of companies will do their own checks anyway to see if a customer has been insured or had a claim before. So in short I wouldn't advise lying about it, it's not worth it.

Bear
 
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Nokia, hypothetical or no, you would be crazy to even contemplate it, even if it were possible. Lie to your mother, your husband the bank but do not lie to insurance companies.
 
Bronte said:
Nokia, hypothetical or no, you would be crazy to even contemplate it, even if it were possible. Lie to your mother, your husband the bank but do not lie to insurance companies.
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Would they find out during the application process. Can they/do they check?
 
nokia said:
Would they find out during the application process. Can they/do they check?
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It doesn't matter during the application process because as soon as you make a claim they'll be checking everything for a way out. Do you really want to save €50 a year and end up putting at risk a claim of tens of thousands of euro?
 
dereko1969 said:
It doesn't matter during the application process because as soon as you make a claim they'll be checking everything for a way out. Do you really want to save €50 a year and end up putting at risk a claim of tens of thousands of euro?
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Again its hypothetical. I am not going to do it. But the question is do they check during the application process?
 
I don't know if they do or not during the application process. My guess is that they don't because they don't really care at that stage because they are getting new business and new money.

But at the claim stage they will care and they will check and they won't pay out.
 
nokia said:
Again its hypothetical. I am not going to do it. But the question is do they check during the application process?
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To answer your question, no, they don't check during application, but some companies (mostly the big ones) would have teams in their audit or retention departments that once a policy is taken out they would check to see if there were any past undisclosed claims. As we have all said, hypothetical or not, it's not worth it.
 
The application &/or contract may include a condition to allow the insurers to share certain data. Whilst they mightn't check it at application stage, it will likely arise in the event of a claim. Failure to disclose is a material breach of contract. It also breaches the insurance principal of utmost good faith, meaning all relevant data must be given. Not only that, but you may find yourself uninsurable going forward as a result. Insurers also ask whether you have ever been refused insurance or had a policy cancelled. Should this hypothetical situation arise and be discovered, you would be obliged to answer yes to this as well. You would be better off imho having no insurance, than lying to an underwriter about claims. At least you would save on a premium for a policy that is worse than useless. Insurers are well-used to dealing with people who try to pull the wool over their eyes. You can be sure all the cards are well-stacked in their favour.
 
nokia said:
I have made house insurance claim in last 3 years now I am trying to renew policy with other company. Will other company find out if I do not tell them about claim. I know about the legality and this is a hypothetical question.
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If you fail to disclose a previous claim, you risk having the policy cancelled ab initio...that is as if the policy never existed. An insurance policy is a contract of umberrima fides...that is utmost good faith and therefore you must fully disclose anything that you are asked and any other matter which may influence a prudent underwriter in deciding on whether or not to accept a risk. In the event that you do not disclose a previous claim at inception of your policy, in the event that you have a claim, Insurers may cancel your policy and therefore not pay your claim. Also, when a claim is notified, Insurers will check whether you have had a previous claim (Insurers do have a shared data base of claims called Insurance Link). I am delighted from your perspective that you have only posed a "hypothetical" question, because not to disclose a previous claim is a very very foolish thing to do.
 
Claims man is 100% correct

Insurance link has a list of all claims made with insurers and is checked on lodging of a claim

If your house was to burn down all the insurance co have to do is hand back the premium and leave you with nothing
 
You have to include all information that may affect your insurance company agreeing to insure you...a previous claim is such information. By not letting them know this it makes your policy void so it is not worth the risk.

I know you are asking about when you are making the initial application but this is irrelevant as it may give you a cheaper quote but it becomes a problem when you go to make a claim.
 
When you make a claim it will be checked then and it can result in cancelling the policy back to inception or if they wish they can charge an additional premium

In short they WILL find out
 
nokia said:
I have made house insurance claim in last 3 years now I am trying to renew policy with other company. Will other company find out if I do not tell them about claim. I know about the legality and this is a hypothetical question.
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Hypothetically if you were an insurance company and someone did not advise you of a claim that they made within the last three years which would effect either the granting or the paying of a claim what would you do?
 
nokia said:
I have made house insurance claim in last 3 years now I am trying to renew policy with other company. Will other company find out if I do not tell them about claim. I know about the legality and this is a hypothetical question.
Click to expand...

Hypothetically if you were an insurance company and someone did not advise you of a claim that they made within the last three years which would effect either the granting of cover or the paying of a claim what would you do?
 
Household insurance in limbo

Can anyone help please.

My colleague has recently submitted a relatively small value household insurance claim via his broker to his insurance company.


Everything was moving along accordingly until the loss adjuster said that he could not settle on a figure until the matter of previous undisclosed claims was resolved.

This was news to my colleague. He had indeed made a couple of low value claims several years previously with another insurance company, but had presumed that his broker would have disclosed all details to the new insurance company when the business was transferred.

He has no recollection of completing a new proposal form, where he would have had to detail previous claims. As far as he was concerned, his broker had simply transferred his business and would take care of all the details.
While the insurance company and the broker are attempting to locate the original insurance proposal, the insurance company has said that it reserves the right, as a result of the previous non disclosure, to null and void ‘ab initio’ the existing policy at any time, until the current claim is either settled or denied.

Furthermore, my colleague cannot cancel the existing claim and seek household insurance from another insurance company (this time ensuring that all details of previous claims are disclosed) as the claim has already been notified to the insurance company.

He is effectively being denied insurance, which would be a major problem if he has to make another claim in the interim.

This means that he is a highly vulnerable position, where, not only does he not have guaranteed household insurance from his insurance company, but he cannot get insurance from a different insurance company.

Can the insurance company do this?

Thanks in advance
 
Did the broker process these claims for him in the past? If not, how would he have known to disclose them?
 
There were two brokers over the years.

The original broker processed all the claims and made the necessary payments. The original broker then sold its client database to a new broker. The new broker continued with the existing insurance company for nearly a year, and then transferred my colleagues business to a new insurance company.

This, I think, is where the problem lies. The broker must not have disclosed the previous claims to the new insurance company, and my colleague has no recollection of completing a new proposal form for the new insurer.
 
there would have to have been something issued to form the basis of cover when changing. Whether it be a proposal form to be completed or statement of fact to be checked. If he was issued either it would have been you colleagues obligation to ensure the claims details were on this document.
 
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