Any Home Insurance Experts - we mistakenly didn't disclose a claim!

babelfish

We've always been above board and honest with all our household dealing but last year we took out a new home insurance with Swinton (buildings and contents). I thought I was answering honestly when I filled the form in and said we hadn't had any claims in the past 3 years.

However, we have just put a claim in because we have a water leak under the floor in the hall. We had previously claimed for a leak in the hall which our insurance at the time put right. It has now come to light that it was in 2012 and so under the 3 years. I honestly thought it was longer ago than that and had also forgotten that we had gone through the insurance to put it right anyway!

Ive just had a call from Swinton asking why I didn't disclose this claim at the time of taking their insurance out and so I said I honestly thought it was longer than 3 years ago and couldn't remember that we'd claimed on the insurance. They said they would ring back in 2 weeks once they'd assessed our claim.

Im really worried now that they'll think its some kind of fraud and that, of course, they won't pay for our claim either. Does anyone know what is likely to happen now? Will this invalidate our insurance altogether? I can't believe I made this mistake anyway - Im usually so on-the-ball with this kind of thing. Help!

InsideInsurance

If they accept its an error rather than fraud then they will charge you an admin fee to note the claim and back date it to inception and any additional premium the insurer sees fit based on the fact this should have been factored in from day 1

Quentin

The outcome depends on their take on this, and could range from rejecting your claim and voiding your policy to simply asking you to pay the difference in premium you owe them.


Wait for their response and take it from there.

babelfish

I was with Direct Line for the 3 years previous to this and it actually states on both Direct Line renewal schedules for the 2 years after our previous claim that we have no claims for contents for the past 5 and 6 years! Ive emailed these documents to our present insurer to show that this is where I got the information from. Surely if you've made a claim which was accepted and paid out their renewal shouldn't state that we have been claim free for years?

Im hoping this will suffice to show that we're not trying to defraud anyone and that it was a genuine mistake that Direct Line made!

Quentin

babelfish wrote: »

I was with Direct Line for the 3 years previous to this and it actually states on both Direct Line renewal schedules for the 2 years after our previous claim that we have no claims for contents for the past 5 and 6 years! Ive emailed these documents to our present insurer to show that this is where I got the information from. Surely if you've made a claim which was accepted and paid out their renewal shouldn't state that we have been claim free for years?

Im hoping this will suffice to show that we're not trying to defraud anyone and that it was a genuine mistake that Direct Line made!

Originally you said you didn't disclose the claim because you honestly thought it was older than 3 years.


Now you are saying you didn't disclose it because DL didn't show it on your 2 schedules covering the 2 years since the year of the claim, and are wanting to now blame DL????

InsideInsurance

Ultimately its your responsibility to remember when a claim was however, as you say, it may help substantiate that it was an innocent error.

Different insurers/ brokers will take different approaches to these things however being realistic it is difficult for them to actually prove that you intentionally lied to them rather than just forgot. Whilst many may block you initially a significant proportion will back down later for something like this (obv different if you "forget" to declare you've had 4 heart attacks and you answer "no" to if you've ever had any heart problems etc)

Beyond the delay whilst they investigate the real risk would come from if they wouldnt have offered terms had they known about the claim. Doesnt result in the policy being voided for fraud but doesnt leave you in a good place either

babelfish

Quentin wrote: »

Originally you said you didn't disclose the claim because you honestly thought it was older than 3 years.


Now you are saying you didn't disclose it because DL didn't show it on your 2 schedules covering the 2 years since the year of the claim, and are wanting to now blame DL????

You make it sound like Im changing my "story". The DL renewal letters show why I thought it was longer than 3 years when I originally took out the Swinton insurance.

We had a couple of minor accidents in our car in the past 10 years (not our fault) but I couldn't honestly tell you when they were and if they were more than 5 years ago without looking up the details! If an official renewal letter says that you had no claims within a certain time period then you tend to think that its accurate, especially if you were with that insurance at the time of your previous claim.

David_InsDef

babelfish wrote: »

I was with Direct Line for the 3 years previous to this and it actually states on both Direct Line renewal schedules for the 2 years after our previous claim that we have no claims for contents for the past 5 and 6 years! Ive emailed these documents to our present insurer to show that this is where I got the information from. Surely if you've made a claim which was accepted and paid out their renewal shouldn't state that we have been claim free for years?

Im hoping this will suffice to show that we're not trying to defraud anyone and that it was a genuine mistake that Direct Line made!

Did you have Building & Contents with Direct Line previously and if so, what do the previous renewal schedules say about claims under the Buildings section?

Was your previous claim made under Buildings, possibly with another insurer?

Quentin

babelfish wrote: »

You make it sound like Im changing my "story". The DL renewal letters show why I thought it was longer than 3 years when I originally took out the Swinton insurance.

We had a couple of minor accidents in our car in the past 10 years (not our fault) but I couldn't honestly tell you when they were and if they were more than 5 years ago without looking up the details! If an official renewal letter says that you had no claims within a certain time period then you tend to think that its accurate, especially if you were with that insurance at the time of your previous claim.

You have changed your story (from saying you made an honest mistake regarding being claim free for the last 3 years)


Then you say you checked your renewal docs and used them as your reference.


But you say that the first renewal immediately following the claim year wrongly stated no claims - surely you knew then they had made a mistake in your favour and chose not to correct it?


But you don't have to justify your answers here - just pointing out changing your story from an honest mistake to blaming your insurer may get spotted by an astute investigator and raise more questions.

babelfish

David_InsDef wrote: »

Did you have Building & Contents with Direct Line previously and if so, what do the previous renewal schedules say about claims under the Buildings section?

Was your previous claim made under Buildings, possibly with another insurer?

Both under contents and buildings the renewal schedules say claim free for 5/6 years. We were with DL at the time of the previous claim and the following one year after.

babelfish

Quentin wrote: »

You have changed your story (from saying you made an honest mistake regarding being claim free for the last 3 years)


Then you say you checked your renewal docs and used them as your reference.


But you say that the first renewal immediately following the claim year wrongly stated no claims - surely you knew then they had made a mistake in your favour and chose not to correct it?


But you don't have to justify your answers here - just pointing out changing your story from an honest mistake to blaming your insurer may get spotted by an astute investigator and raise more questions.

Its ok, I know you are just trying to help and giving an outside point of view. When I filled in the form for my present insurance (which is nearly a year ago now as its due for renewal each April) I wouldn't have ticked "no" to previous claims within the last 3 years without checking in some way as Im usually very careful about these things. When I spoke to my insurance the other day I knew I had made a genuine mistake, as I told them, but I couldn't remember what my thought process had been for me to think the previous claim was longer than 3 years. When I then spotted my two renewal forms and saw the "claim free" part I knew that this would have been where I got my information from and therefore why I ticked "no".