Fair Presentation

If you are a business insured (i.e. an insured who has bought insurance wholly or mainly for purposes related to their trade, business, or profession) the business has a duty to make a fair presentation of the risk to the insurer. This entails disclosing to the insurer every material circumstance which you know or ought to know. You should conduct a reasonable search to ascertain all material facts within your organisation, making enquiries of senior management and other relevant individuals where necessary. You must make accessible to us members of your senior management (or the most appropriate persons) to provide accurate, complete, and timely information to enable us to fulfil our obligations to make a fair presentation of your risk to insurers. The disclosure should be made in a clear and accessible way.

A circumstance is material if it would influence an insurer’s judgment in determining whether to accept the risk, or the terms of the insurance (including premium). If you are in any doubt whether a circumstance is material, we recommend that it should be disclosed.

Failure to disclose

Failure to disclose a material circumstance may entitle an insurer to impose different terms on your cover or proportionately reduce the amount of any claim payable. In some circumstances an insurer will be entitled to avoid the policy from inception and in this event any claims under the policy would not be paid.

Insurance Act 2015