Insurance with a conviction

biglad

I am enquiring on behlf of a friend who has a conviction of gbh which he spent 3 months in prison for and that was around 4 years ago

he currently lives with his partner and they dont have insurance on the property.

is there anywhere he could get insurance to covre his possessions and if so would it be worth him getting a policy for his stuff and his partners for hers so their items are seperate?

also what is he likely to pay as an increase in premium should he get insurance

thanks in advance

dacouch

He needs to be covered as a joint policyholder on his partners insurance.

Its quite likely (Depending on the conviction) that your friends insurance will be invalid as her insurers will be subject to her and her immediate family living with her (Which will include him if he lives there) not having any criminal convictions.

After his conviction has become rehabilitated the conviction would not matter (It explains the rehabilitation period on this link)http://www.nacro.org.uk/data/resources/nacro-2007021302.pdf

If you have a look at nacro they also have other advice on their website http://www.nacro.org.uk/templates/news/index.cfm

There are a few Insurers that will offer cover, I normally place this type of business with Bureau Insurance under their Fairway Scheme, here is a link to them http://www.bureauinsure.co.uk/

I have heard of Unlock but not used them so cannot vouch for them, here is a link to them http://www.unlock.org.uk/main.aspx

biglad

thanks for your reply

they dont have any insurance at the moment which is why im trying to help them get some sort of insurance

he has another 6 years for the convicion to become rehabilitated

when you say normally place this type of business i take it you work in insurance

how much of a % would they expect to pay more due to the conviction

dacouch

I do work in Insurance as a broker.

A lot of people in his position do not declare their convictions, this is sometimes not picked up on small claims eg £500ish. However any bigger claims Insurers will often check for any convictions and if they do and its not declared they through out the claim and then cancel your Insurance. If you have Insurance cancelled in these circumstances by an Insurer it becomes incredibly difficult and expensive to get cover.

Its very difficult to say as it will depend on what type of conviction it is and any other history of crime. They will also look at the rest of the risk eg how much cover you want, whether either of them have had Insurance before and if so were there any claims.

Insurers tend to charge more for dishonesty convictions eg fraud as they worry you might try and put in a fraudulent claim and obviously arson convictions also put the price up.

I would budget for upwards of £300 for contents only and upwards of £500 for building and contents. (These are just estimates).

These types of companies tend to charge high premiums for the first year or two and then once you have established a record without claiming the premiums come down.

If they ring Bureau on Tuesday they normally come back with a quote within 24 or 48 hours. They will be able to explain to him how roughly what they expect the premium to drop down to the next year and so on.

Make sure he is totally honest with them and any one else he gets a quote from. Also check the terms they or any other Insurers impose as they often impose a security warranty (Insist you have certain types of locks) or other restrictions/requirements which he will have to abide by if they make a claim.

dacouch

One other thing to bear in mind is don't just ring random companies and go through a quote and then declare the conviction. They will almost certainly refuse cover and then note it on a database. If they do this then technically he will need to declare that he has had insurance refused if he approaches anyother company and they ask if you have ever had insurance refused.

Approach the specialist companies eg Bureau or Unlock that offer cover for offenders and they will normally offer cover.

As stated in my first post, once the conviction / convictions have become rehabilitated he does not need to declare it to Insurers so he will then be able to use "normal" Insurers and get cover for the same price as any one else. Its a case of keeping himself out of trouble and its best to only claim for bigger claims so that his premium reduces

cyril82

Someone in my immediate family had this problem, they received a conviction for a Reckless assault occasioning ABH, reckless assault means it was not malicious, i.e they didn't attack someone but caused harm by recklessness, which in the eyes of the law still amounts to assault. he was a teenager at the time but received a 4 month prison sentence.

He later bought a house and could not get home and contents insurance. It took alot of shopping around but eventually he managed. Nacro can provide you with a list of insurers, just visit the link dacouch's post and find the phone number and give them a ring. Also i think he now has insurance with legal and general, having declared his conviction.

I helped him to find his insurance which is how i found out about, nacro etc, but one other thing i found out that might be of interest to your friend was that the conviction was spent after 7 years and not 10 as we had previously assumed, this was down to the short sentence so i think it may apply in your friends case. He may like to look into that.

biglad

thanks a lot for that

it was gbh his sentence was for so not fraud or theft or anything

will pass on the info to him

with regard to the being refused cover i had my bike stolen the other week and rang an insurance company i previously got a quote with but never had it (this was around 6 months ago). when i rang them back i gave my details etc but said i had bike stolen so they wouldnt insure me, so is this technically being refused insurance as i never signed anything or actually got a quote for the bike just got told they wont insure if i had something stolen which is a bit bad in my eyes

hope it doesnt mean i have to now declare i have been refused insurance

dacouch

Being refused for insurance because you have that type of claim is not a problem as its quote common.

The Insurers use the have you ever been declined / refused insurance as a catch all to weed out the type of customers they do not want to cover such as someone with a criminal conviction (They also have a question asking about criminal convictions)