URGENT! please advise... very stressed.

u264047

Hi all,

Apologies for Caps in the header, i know its annoying.

I urgently need some advice- my story thus far;

I came back from my holiday in October to find my house had been burgled foe which i had no insurance as it is a rented property (i know - stupid for not organising it, but we never intended to stay as long as we have)

After reporting the burglary etc i immediately arranged contents insurance with Endsleigh, we went over the policy details etc over the phone.
The guy at the call centre asked if i had any prior convictions and i told him that yes, about 5 years ago i was arrested and convicted for an assault (no prison term) So i asked him if that mattered, and he said "wait, i'll go ask my manager" i was told then that "yes 5 years is fine, no problem" and proceeded to record "no" to the convictions question.

The problem with this is, it turns out (unbeknown to me at the time) that my conviction will not be spent until 5 years since the sentence was passed on this, which happens to be around next March, just shy of the 5 year period (took 7 months to mess around with the courts)

Last week I was burgled again and I contacted my insurer and they have appointed a loss adjuster to come out and see me regarding my claim.

My questions are:

1) how often do the loss adjusters check for criminal convictions
2) would I have a leg to stand on if i argued that the guy in the call centre setting up my claim said "it should be fine"? because if it hadn't of been fine, i would have quite happily gone to another insurer and paid more to have a policy worth a damn.

Any answers to the above, and advice with this in general would be HUGELY appreciated.

Sorry for rambling on....

huckster

A bit late but you should have challenged the wrong information at the time. Obviously Endsleigh should have checked the date of conviction and the rehabilitation of offenders act. They should have noted the declaration as YES as not spent and entered the details. I suspect that Endsleight may not have provided cover, had they dealt with it properly.

In regard to the Loss Adjuster, I suspect they ask the policyholder for the information. Whether they check with the police or do a CRB check, I don't know.

Endsleigh should have a recording of your phone call when you arranged the policy. This has been a requirement of the FSA for many years now. So they can check that what you have said matches the phone call record.

If I were in your situation, I would get in touch with Endsleigh and ask them to look into this. Be upfront about the situation and also be totally honest with the Loss adjuster. Remember that you were relying on the professional expertise of the Insurance company and the onus is on them to make sure that the risk information was correct. If you fully declared all relevant information that was asked of you, there should not be an issue with the claim or continuing cover.

u264047

Thank you for replying to my post so quickly.

I realise it is too late to be thinking about this, however I am just looking for my fighting stance should this be an issue.

Do you really recommend confronting them about this situation before it's even brought up?
Should they negate to perform a CRB check, everything should be ok as i have been 100% honest in both my submitted claim (around £8000 worth of items) and about the fact my house was burgled prior to purchasing insurance.

Would it not be better to play dumb and then if it is brought up, ask them to check their phone logs later?

I'm sure they are in the wrong and you are right. They should have interrogated me further - instead of just to trying to obtain a new customer to add to their monthly targets.

huckster

It is up to you how you approach this.

I am sure the loss adjuster will check into the information declared at inception and ask for your confirmation this is correct. At this point what are you going to do? Are you going to bring up the telephone call with Endsleigh and the information disclosed.

What you don't want to do, is at any stage from this point, is give any inaccurate information. I think you realise this from what you have said.

Perhaps going with the flow, would be ok.

u264047

Think i'll play it by ear.

Thanks for the advice mate. You've managed to settle my angst a considerable amount!

McKneff

Although you tak about 'spent' i believe there are different terms in
Insurance.

i believe that if you are imprisoned it is 5 years
Its on a sliding scale depending whether you have been on probation,
or something else, i remember someone posted it on here so hopefully someone will see this and post again.

huckster

McKneff

The Insurers just use the rehabilitation of offender act. For a fine, the offence does not become spent (non disclosable) until 5 years after the date of conviction.

In the case of this poster, there would appear to have been a misunderstanding, when cover was arranged by phone.