Building insurance with a criminal record

Boohoo

Hello.
My dad got his building insurance renewal from Halifax who he has been with for 20 years and has never questioned the premiums ever and just paid what ever it was.
This year it was £390 so i told him to shop about and he got a quote from CIS for £125 so he went ahead and bought it online.
My mum died 2 years ago and i moved in to care for her in the last 3 months and i am still here as i cant afford to buy or rent much on my income.
My dad told me that after he had given CIS his credit card details there was a declaration at the bottom about persons living in the house with criminal records and as i have one for theft which is over 20 years ago now he never declared it.
What i would like to know what should he do now as it stated that it will make the policy invalid and he is starting to panic and doesnt want to ring CIS and tell them and they cancell his policy.

Quentin

If the conviction is spent there is no problem. Is it spent? (It will be unless you got a prison sentence of 30 months or more)

mexicanhat

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act applies to criminal convictions. After the period of rehabilitation has passed you are entitled to be regarded as having paid your price for the conviction and it is regarded as 'spent' but only if you have not reoffended in the rehabilitation period

The rehabilitation is based on the penalty that you received for a

• fine it is five years
• for custodial sentence under six months it is seven years,
• six months - two and a half year in prison is 10 years
• over 2 and a half years in prison is never spent

So if you only had the one offence and haven't had any since, you only need to declare it if you received a prison sentence of 2 and a half years or more. If you were under 18 when the incident occurred the rehabilitaion periods will be less.

For an insurance policy you can truthfully answer ' no' in relation the questions about convictions if the conviction is spent.

Although not directly relating to this post, You should be aware that some applications for jobs are exempt from the rehabilitaion act and you need to disclose all convictions

If you still confused post again

Boohoo

Thank you for the replies.

My convictions were in 1989 and a fine and community service as it was then.
I have had a look on the CIS site and it says that with a conviction for theft,fraud and other bits to get a quote do not use the online quote sevice but to call a phone number. When my dad put all the details through and his credit card details and pressed to buy at the end was a box to tick to declare that persons living in the home do not have any of the listed convictions and he ticked the box as no as he thought that it meant that my criminal record was spent and that he didnt have to declare this but on the policy docs it states that the policy will be invalid if i have a record for the above convictions.
My dad doesnt know what to do like ring them up or leave it but if anything happens to the house he may not be covered and lose the lot. If he rings them and tells them that i have a conviction will they cancel the policy or refuse him insurance and that will go against him for all his future insurances he may buy.

Quentin

Your conviction is spent. End of!

There is no need to tell CIS (even if they ask about it)! If he does tell them, it is up to them to do what they like with the information, but he does not need to inform them. It is nothing to do with them!

UnderPressure

Agree with Quentin convction spent so dont worry about it.

In fact I had a friend a couple of years ago who had an old theft conviction from being young and silly and got caught shoplifting from 1991, she applied for a job in a care home and was panicing because she was subject to a CRB check, anyhow long story short the conviction was that old it didn't even show on the CRB check she gained enhanced disclosure no problem.

Tell your dad not too worry it will be fine

mexicanhat

your conviction is spent you can honestly answer no, you do not need to take any further action