Declaring criminal conviction. Direct Line.

salty_seadog

Hi, I have a live non motoring criminal conviction that resulted in community service. It is spent as of May 2020.
During the application process with Direct Line I was not asked about non motoring criminal conviction. Their policy document https://www.directline.com/content/dam/dlg/Direct-Line/Products/Car-insurance/Product-pages/PDF/dl-car-policy-document.pdf is a little vague. On page 3 is a passage relating to it.• "


It reads.


"had any motoring offences including convictions, endorsements, penalty points, fixed penalties (excluding parking penalties), speed camera offences, disqualifications or criminal prosecutions pending"


I don't know if I need to declare or not, the last phrase is a little vague.


If anyone has the time to scan the document and can inform me I would be very grateful.



All advice apreciated.



"

dacouch

The policy document is not relevant, it is only relevant about declaring convictions received / pending during the policy period.

It's the application process eg questions and any assumptions that you need to answer.

Legally you're only obliged to answer clearly worded specific questions / assumptions. If they don't ask then you don't need to declare

davidwatts

It's not unusual to only have to declare motoring offences in respect of car insurance (as opposed to Home insurance where any non-motoring convictions would usually be deemed relevant). If you weren't asked about non-motoring convictions you don't need to declare them. Based on that wording, you wouldn't need to disclose one at renewal either, if it arose after the policy was taken out.

Quentin

Direct Line only ask about "motoring offences", and no mention of "convictions" at all in their assumptions you are asked to agree.

salty_seadog

Quentin wrote: »

Direct Line only ask about "motoring offences", and no mention of "convictions" at all in their assumptions you are asked to agree.

That's what I'm hoping. It looks to be the way. I've looked at another 6/7 providers and they all ask the question and are also more expensive.

dacouch

salty_seadog wrote: »

That's what I'm hoping. It looks to be the way. I've looked at another 6/7 providers and they all ask the question and are also more expensive.

DL have a tendancy to be fairly progressive with this type of underwriting so it's not unsuual for them to offer cover when other would not.

Worth bearing in mind they may change their acceptance criteria for new customer or renewals if they find the lack of a question at inception about criminal convictions affects their bottom line

salty_seadog

dacouch wrote: »

DL have a tendancy to be fairly progressive with this type of underwriting so it's not unsuual for them to offer cover when other would not.

Worth bearing in mind they may change their acceptance criteria for new customer or renewals if they find the lack of a question at inception about criminal convictions affects their bottom line

Thank you, as we seem to know they don't ask the question, no mention in their assumptions just a mention of "changes to tell us about during your policy".


Sounds good to me. I have a minor offence which becomes spent may 2020 and I just don't want the whole industry knowing about it and continuing to punish me for years after it is spent. I assume that if i declared it to a motor insurance provider then my home provider and any other sort of provider would have information shared with them and have that marked against me for future quotes.

Jumblebumble

salty_seadog wrote: »

Hi, I have a live non motoring criminal conviction that resulted in community service. It is spent as of May 2020.
During the application process with Direct Line I was not asked about non motoring criminal conviction. Their policy document https://www.directline.com/content/dam/dlg/Direct-Line/Products/Car-insurance/Product-pages/PDF/dl-car-policy-document.pdf is a little vague. On page 3 is a passage relating to it.• "


It reads.


"had any motoring offences including convictions, endorsements, penalty points, fixed penalties (excluding parking penalties), speed camera offences, disqualifications or criminal prosecutions pending"


I don't know if I need to declare or not, the last phrase is a little vague.


If anyone has the time to scan the document and can inform me I would be very grateful.



All advice apreciated.



"

Does anyone else think it very odd that they ask about speed camera courses but not red light camera offences?

salty_seadog

I have spoken to direct line today and they confirm they are only interested in motoring offence.

Hour this helps others.