House Alarm - Should I lie and say I don't have one?

dunstonh

I appear to have read the post backwards. As in, should I declare I have one even though I dont. So I apologise for that. I will leave my response in place with this apology. However, to clear up the point, if you dont declare you have an alarm when you do then it makes no difference to a claim whether you have one or not. If you do declare you have one then you have to comply with the policy requirements.

magpiecottage

marathonic wrote: »

But would fraud not be defined as doing something to gain benefit or profit - I'd definately not consider saying I have an alarm if I didn't.

Here, I want to tell them I don't, will suffer an increased premium as a result but will not be under risk of loss if I forget to set the alarm.

Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 says

"(1)A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a)dishonestly makes a false representation, and
(b)intends, by making the representation—
(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss."

Section 3 says

"A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a)dishonestly fails to disclose to another person information which he is under a legal duty to disclose, and
(b)intends, by failing to disclose the information—
(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss."


So somebody would have a hard time proving failing to disclose something that might reduce your premium or decrease the risk of loss to the insurer was fraud.

Quentin

magpiecottage wrote: »

..... somebody would have a hard time proving failing to disclose something that might reduce your premium or decrease the risk of loss to the insurer was fraud.

It seems an IFA (#9) would have a go, presumably just to try and put the frighteners on a punter!

dacouch

I often tell my clients including my parents not to claim for the relatively small discount. As others have mentioned it needs to be maintained by certain firms to qualify for a discount.

If you don't tick that you have it, they won't apply a discount with the warranty it comes with that is normally that it is subject to an annual maintainnence contract and is used when your out,

When you show people the actual discount they receive and what they have to agree to they normally decide not to declare it.

dunstonh

Quentin wrote: »

It seems an IFA (#9) would have a go, presumably just to try and put the frighteners on a punter!

where do you see that?

*Scarlett

For most people having an approved alarm will make little or no difference to their premium.

It can make a difference if you are in a high risk postcode area or have high value contentents or valuables.

You can do a few online quotes to see what impact it has on the premium.

I would not see it as fraud to say that you don't have an alarm when you actually do - just that you may not be able to comply with the restrictions applied when you declare it.

The insurance company is not being defrauded as they will assess the risk based on you having no alarm and you are gaining no additional discount.

If you are still in doubt, ring any insurers that have quoted competitively to explain that you have an alarm but don't want any discount for this or an endorsement applied.

Bear in mind it usually has to be an approved alarm and maintained on an annual contract.

dacouch

*Scarlett wrote: »

For most people having an approved alarm will make little or no difference to their premium.

It can make a difference if you are in a high risk postcode area or have high value contentents or valuables.

You can do a few online quotes to see what impact it has on the premium.

I would not see it as fraud to say that you don't have an alarm when you actually do - just that you may not be able to comply with the restrictions applied when you declare it.

The insurance company is not being defrauded as they will assess the risk based on you having no alarm and you are gaining no additional discount.

If you are still in doubt, ring any insurers that have quoted competitively to explain that you have an alarm but don't want any discount for this or an endorsement applied.

Bear in mind it usually has to be an approved alarm and maintained on an annual contract.

At an old company I worked for, I had the owner of one of their largest commercial clients transferred to me. I knew from visiting to go over the factory Insurance that his ethos was the cheapest was not the best. He had a good life style and wanted it to be hassle free.

The company had been selling him a cheap nasty business policy with Quinn, I pitched a policy that was considerably more expensive, but covered him properly, had added benefits he liked and was with a proper Insurer. Much to the surprise of my colleagues he took the more expensive policy.

I reviewed his personal lines that were also with us and found they had covered him with a crap Insurer again as they were cheap but had an alarm discount on it. The alarm discount was literally a few pound so I transferred him to a decent Insurer at a higher cost and removed the alarm discount. Not long after I transferred him, he had a genuine break in and all his expensive tech and watches were stolen. I popped in to see him and the first thing he said was how glad he was I had removed the alarm discount as on that occasion he had not set the alarm as he had popped to the shops for 30 mins. With the alarm discount his claim would not have been paid, his claim was circa £11k which he would have lost for the sake of a £3.00 discount.