Home insurance 'previous loss details'

s-keeper · 20 November 2009 at 1:16AM

Hi there, I couldn't find an answer to my query from quite a search so....

I had a bicycle stolen from work a couple weeks ago, it was pretty bashed up so I had let the insurance on it lapse a long time ago. But since parts of it were still worth £250 to me, I reported it to the police and predictably they closed the case 3 days later.

So now I'm getting a new bike I thought I'd get some contents insurance and put it under that. All the websites I look out want to know if I've had any, even uninsured, losses within a certain number of years. My question is: does the insurance company have access, or would oblige me to allow them access, to the police reports in my name if I made a claim? Obviously, if I hadn't filed a police report, they would have no way of knowing.

The reason I ask is that I'm also currently claiming medical expenses for contracting strep-throat in the states, and I was quite surprised that I had to give my insurance company full access to my entire medical history through my nhs record.

I rather value my right for privacy.

Oscar_The_Grouch · 20 November 2009 at 9:31AM

Hi there

I appreciate you value your privacy (I'm the same) but the idea of insurance is that it's based on "utmost good faith". This means that the insurers expect you to tell them the truth and you expect them to pay any insured claims correctly. It sounds fairly simple, but most people forget that!!

If you were to deliberately withhold the information on the loss, the insurers could declare your policy "void" (cancel it back to its start) and refuse to pay any other claims - not the sort of thing you want to happen if you have had a massive fire in you home!! On that basis, you would be expected to declare the loss of the bike on any home insurance quotation that you obtain for the next 5 years.

Answering your point about access to police reports and information about you, the simple answer is "yes"; your insurers can ask for access to your police records and frequently do for larger claims or incidents, random smaller cases and losses where the handler gets the feeling "something is not quite right". I've seen some very good examples of claims handlers following lines of enquiry just because they had a gut feeling.

*Scarlett · 20 November 2009 at 4:35PM

I would ring any companies that appear to be giving you a competitive quote on-line and speak to them about this.

As the bike was unisured and you made no attempt to claim for it, it may not have to be registered.

You will be able to get a difinitive answer with each individual insurer to help you chose a policy and will be protected against any further issues with this as you have declared it to them.

I'm sure many people would not think of declaring that they had for example stained / ruined their carpet with a spillage when they don't even have accidental cover on their contents insurance. I'm sure you don't have to declare every mishap in your life! But to be on the safe side, and to ensure you will have valid cover, I would definitely speak to the insurer in person.

Home insurance 'previous loss details'

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