Holiday Insurance - refusing to pay out

jdpjamesp

Hi folks. Hope I've got the right place for this. Also, I'm not after sympathy comments from folks as I don't know you all from Adam!

I'm after some advice please from the collective wisdom that is the MSE forums.

In April last year my father was diagnosed with Bladder Cancer. We were told that it was operable and he would very likely survive to live a good few years if not more. In May I booked to take my wife to Munich for a few days in October. In June Dad had curative surgery which was deemed a great success. In July finally decided on my travel insurance provider - Insureandgo - and paid for that. I didn't even consider taking into account Dad's situation at the time. I had enough of an issue sorting out insurance due to wife's PND!
During the course of the summer it became clear that Dad's cancer had returned, aggressively, and then on the Friday before we were meant to fly he passed away. The funeral was quickly booked for the following week, and my wife and I decided not to travel.
According to Insureandgo's underwriters I have not satisfied the clauses of the insurance policy due to Dad's illness having been diagnosed prior to booking.
According to his GP (who is a specialist in palliative care), he has never seen anyone deteriorate so quickly, and would have never advised us not to book a holiday.
So my question - is there anything I can do? I'm pretty annoyed about £500 odd pounds completely wasted.

Let me know if you need more info on this.

InsideInsurance

You have no claim against the insurance as it was a preexisting condition that he died of and the fact the prognosis didnt happen is irrelevant.

The only way you'd have cover is if you had informed the insurers of his cancer prior to purchasing the insurance and they had accepted to cover this risk for you. To the best of my knowledge Insure&go are not one of the few insurers that give you this option.

To be honest, if the GP advised it was safe to book the holiday, you've probably got more chance of a claim against him for his miss advise than you do against your travel insurance for a non-covered preexisting condition

jdpjamesp

Thanks.

Dangermac

InsideInsurance wrote: »

You have no claim against the insurance as it was a preexisting condition that he died of and the fact the prognosis didnt happen is irrelevant.

The only way you'd have cover is if you had informed the insurers of his cancer prior to purchasing the insurance and they had accepted to cover this risk for you. To the best of my knowledge Insure&go are not one of the few insurers that give you this option.

To be honest, if the GP advised it was safe to book the holiday, you've probably got more chance of a claim against him for his miss advise than you do against your travel insurance for a non-covered preexisting condition

I dont necessarily agree with this. It will depend on the policy wording, which will differ from insurer to insurer.

The burden of disclosure on a travel policy can be different depending on whether the person in question (in this case, Dad) is travelling or is a non-travelling family member.

The starting place is to look at the policy wording. Then see if there is any potential for discussion/ambiguity.

Remember, ambiguity will work in your favour, due to the rule of 'contra proferentum' which generally means that the law wiill generally rule against the party that drafted the contract. You also have the FOS to refer to if you disagree with the insurer's decision

DM

InsideInsurance

Dangermac wrote: »

The burden of disclosure on a travel policy can be different depending on whether the person in question (in this case, Dad) is travelling or is a non-travelling family member.

Its not a duty to disclose, its an opportunity to.

All travel policies I;ve ever seen exclude undeclared pre-existing conditions for both travelling and non-travelling family members. The issue is that only a tiny number give you an opportunity to declare a pre-existing condition of a non-travelling member. The rest the exclusion cannot be lifted.

Insure&Go wrote:

You will not be covered under section A - Cancellation and curtailment, if a close relative, person who you are booked to travel with or someone you plan to stay with who is not insured under this policy, if during the 90 days before this policy started, they:
* needed surgery, inpatient treatment or hospital consultations;
* needed any treatment or prescribed medication; or
* were on a waiting list for, or knew they needed surgery, inpatient treatment or tests at any hospital or clinic when this policy started; or
* had been diagnosed with a terminal condition (that will cause their death) before this policy started.

The OP said they bought the insurance in July after their father had had surgery in June and so it is excluded by the first bullet - operation within 90 days before the policy started

jdpjamesp

Yep and just seen a clause that says if that person has had prescribed medicine within 90 days too. Which means I was screwed anyway because he was on a permanent prescription for thyroxine.
Chalk this one down to experience then.

Dangermac

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Its not a duty to disclose, its an opportunity to.

All travel policies I;ve ever seen exclude undeclared pre-existing conditions for both travelling and non-travelling family members. The issue is that only a tiny number give you an opportunity to declare a pre-existing condition of a non-travelling member. The rest the exclusion cannot be lifted.



The OP said they bought the insurance in July after their father had had surgery in June and so it is excluded by the first bullet - operation within 90 days before the policy started

It does very much depend on the individual wording.

Some policies have a narrower exclusion than others.

Unless you have the benefit of seeing the policy wording, it is tricky to categorically say that something wont be covered.

However, looking at the OP's subsequent response, you are correct. But wordings to vary from policy to policy.

DM

InsideInsurance

Dangermac wrote: »

Some policies have a narrower exclusion than others.

Unless you have the benefit of seeing the policy wording, it is tricky to categorically say that something wont be covered.

I agree it does vary between policies and ultimately you should always check your own policy wording but there are certain circumstances (eg being operated for cancer the month before buying insurance) that you can be 99.99999% sure will be excluded from a policy - would be different if the operation had been years previously.

katejo

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I agree it does vary between policies and ultimately you should always check your own policy wording but there are certain circumstances (eg being operated for cancer the month before buying insurance) that you can be 99.99999% sure will be excluded from a policy - would be different if the operation had been years previously.

I had surgery for epilepsy 34 years ago. I have been seizure free since then but still take medication as a precaution. I get fed up each time I renew because I get asked if I take medication so have to declare the epilepsy. I then get questions which assume that I have had seizures within the past year or so. There is no option to say how long ago it was.

In this case I would definitely have declared the cancer even if the prognosis were not expected at all.

jdpjamesp

Yeah in hindsight I should have declared it. At the time everyone was playing it down as not a massive issue. My Dad in particular. Therefore it never even crossed my mind that I'd need to cancel because he'd died. It was all very sudden.

Quentin

Even if you declared it they may not have covered it.