The Insurance Act 2015
The Insurance Act 2015
The Insurance Act 2015 applies to all commercial polices placed or varied after 12 August 2016. The summary below describes your duties, as a policyholder, in relation to The Act.
As a purchaser of insurance it remains your responsibility to disclose every material circumstance that you know or ought to know about the risk. A material circumstance is something that would affect the judgement of an insurer in deciding whether to accept the risk and on what terms.
Through the creation of a new duty, the duty of Fair Presentation, the Act provides clarity around what information you need to provide to the insurer and whose knowledge needs to be captured when presenting a risk.
What does it mean?
When collating the information about the risk you must involve people who know the risk, can present the risk information and senior personnel who can sign the information off as accurate.
You must include the knowledge of the senior management team, the risk and insurance team and the knowledge held by third parties e.g. accountants, solicitors and your insurance broker.
You will be expected to make a reasonable search of the information available in order to make a fair presentation of the risk. What is reasonable will vary depending on the size of your business but information includes information held within the organisation or held by external parties such as those mentioned above.
What next?
If you are unsure that all material circumstances have been disclosed please discuss this with us and/or your insurer. If put on alert, your insurer will make further enquiries to ensure every material circumstance is revealed and your insurance is provided on the correct terms and for the correct premium.
The duty of fair presentation has been created to ensure fairer outcomes in the event of a claim. However, failure to make a fair presentation of the risk may result in the insurer avoiding the policy and refusing all claims. Depending on the circumstances premiums may not be returned.
Further Advice & Guidance
For further information please view our Disclosure Of Material Facts or Circumstances. Here you will find examples of:
- General Material Facts or Circumstances
- Business & Property Material Facts or Circumstances
- Claims or Losses, irrespective of whether a claim is made, Material Facts or Circumstances
- Motor Fleet Material Facts or Circumstances
For further advice and guidance, or more information on the Duty of Fair Presentation, please complete our Call Back Request form below:
Call Us on 01384 442 165
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We will gladly discuss and review your insurance requirements, and answer any questions you may have.
