Declined house insurance claim CCJ

chesca84

Asking for advice if anyone can help?
My partner bought a home for us in December & took out an insurance policy in his name & paid the premium in full. I was named on the policy as living in the house but the policy is not in my name. We have recently attempted to make a claim for issues with the drains in the garden. When my partner rang them up to ask advice & see if our insurance covered this they said they needed to credit check him & me. They did the credit check on me without my consent. The person on the phone then said to my partner, "do you know (my name) has a CCJ for £1898 from 2017?" to which my partner stated no & he was then informed that our insurer may not cover us and they needed to refer the claim to another department & would be in touch. 

A bit of my background...I had problems with debt prior to getting together with my current partner, I had a CCJ and other debts that were eventually included in a DRO at the end of 2017 so although the CCJ is still on my credit file it's "settled/written off" as I no longer need to make payments towards it. Although my partner knows I have previous issues & a debt relief order I have never gone into the full details as we didn't feel it necessary. I didn't want him to be financially linked to me as he has a good credit history hence the mortgage in his name, insurance in his name no joint bank accounts etc. I'm in a different position now as working as a qualified midwife for nearly 2 years, no further bad credit or debt but my DRO will be on my file for another 3 years. 

So back to today & the insurers have wrote to my partner to say his insurance is void due to my CCJ. 

1. Can anyone tell me why they needed to credit check us at the point of making a claim even though the premium was paid in full? And were they legally allowed to credit check me without my permission? And if they were going to do a credit check shouldn't it have been at the point of taking the insurance out? 

2. What can I do about the insurers disclosing my private financial information to my partner? I know from my job that data protection and sharing information incorrectly can have dire consequences. My partner has no issue with my past financial history but it was not the insurance representatives place to share that information with him...I could be in an abusive relationship for all she knew. I want to ensure this does not happen to anyone else.

3. Why would my CCJ cause the insurance to be void? The insurance is not in my name and has no bearing on the broken drains in the garden. I don't understand how it works so if anyone can offer any clarity I would be grateful. 

4. And finally if anyone can offer any advice with regards to my DRO...when applying for any insurance/finance products in the future what do i declare? As my CCJ is on my file but not open as it formed part of my DRO do I still have to declare it? I have declared my DRO when opening my bank account before but didn't think to mention my CCJ as that to me is part of the DRO if that makes sense? Maybe I've been thinking about it incorrectly? I've not gone out of my way to hide it but because in my head it's settled I've not thought about how that would still impact things.

If anyone can shed any light on any of my issues I would be really grateful thank you.

Thrugelmir

Full disclosure of the personal circumstances of any party added to the policy is required at the outset. Your partner appears not to have consulted you when completing the proposal form. To ensure that questions asked were correctly answered. 

Nearlyold

What can I do about the insurers disclosing my private financial information to my partner? I know from my job that data protection and sharing information incorrectly can have dire consequences. My partner has no issue with my past financial history but it was not the insurance representatives place to share that information with him...I could be in an abusive relationship for all she knew. I want to ensure this does not happen to anyone else.

Just to point out that CCJ's are a matter of public record and as such recorded on a Public Register which anyone who wants to can access on payment of a small fee, so not sure that it would constitute Private information.

Sandtree

Insurance requires you to make declarations/answer questions/agree to statements when you buy it. Generally the majority of these answer are taken on trust (a fundamental part of insurance) at the point of sale... if insurers were to send an inspector around to validate the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, rebuild cost etc for every single quote they'd be adding a vast amount to each quote given the conversion rate from quote to sale.

At the point of claim the insurer is in its rights to validate that what you've said is true is true. The check they will have done is just a soft search that brings back public information like CCJs. Agree with it or not but most insurers have concerns of the moral risk that may occur if you've unmanaged debt/CCJs etc... do you let the Bailiffs take your TV for which they take £200 off of your debt or do you "accidently knock your TV over" in which case your insurers give you £1,000 for a brand new one. Obviously not implying that you personally would do such a thing but the logic applied that is generally backed up by the experience in claims.

You can challenge if they were ever asked the question (directly or in a list of assumptions) if they believe they weren't.. obv check online if that's how they bought or ask for call recordings to be listened to if it was over the phone etc.

The likely outcome will depend on a number of factors such as if believe and intentionally lied or was ignorant and answered to the best of his ability etc.

dacouch

The Insurers must ask a clear question / assumption about CCJs for the policyholder and immediate family, if they have not then you may have a good case to get the claim paid.

bazzyb

Are you certain they credit checked you? They certainly wouldn’t need to do that to find your CCJ as it is public information. Have you checked your file and seen if any searches have been recorded?

As for disclosing your information, again it is a matter of public record so they’ve not disclosed anything private or confidential. 

Jumblebumble

Sandtree said:

Insurance requires you to make declarations/answer questions/agree to statements when you buy it. Generally the majority of these answer are taken on trust (a fundamental part of insurance) at the point of sale... if insurers were to send an inspector around to validate the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, rebuild cost etc for every single quote they'd be adding a vast amount to each quote given the conversion rate from quote to sale.

I agree
Insurers may well ask 5 questions on sale and 50 questions  on receipt of a claim
Why would they do anything else ?
The OP must either suck it up or formally complain and then ombudsman
They should certainly not take as gospel the determings  of the first person who gives an opinion

Thrugelmir

Jumblebumble said:

Sandtree said:

Insurance requires you to make declarations/answer questions/agree to statements when you buy it. Generally the majority of these answer are taken on trust (a fundamental part of insurance) at the point of sale... if insurers were to send an inspector around to validate the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, rebuild cost etc for every single quote they'd be adding a vast amount to each quote given the conversion rate from quote to sale.

Insurers may well ask 5 questions on sale and 50 questions  on receipt of a claim
Why would they do anything else ?

To underwrite properly. Insurance companies have been doing business for a very long time.

Sandtree

Jumblebumble said:
I agree

Insurers may well ask 5 questions on sale and 50 questions  on receipt of a claim
Why would they do anything else ?
The OP must either suck it up or formally complain and then ombudsman
They should certainly not take as gospel the determings  of the first person who gives an opinion

Unfortunately I don't

Insurers cannot ask fundamentally new additional questions at point of claim that were not either asked at point of quote or clearly written as an assumption at point of quote and the policyholder confirmed that the assumptions were true.

What insurers can and do do is actually check the answers/assumptions you said were true at point of sale were actually true. Its not cost effective to do them all at point of sale and goes against the principles of trust which are fundamental to insurance. How they do that may be by asking the same question in a different way or asking a question and reviewing an answer rather than making a statement and having the customer say true or false to. Things can go further with asking for evidence, checking with third party data providers like Experian or potentially sending a guy round to see if your house really does only have the 1 bathroom you claimed. I had a number of motor theft cases where the inspector went round and found that not only was the car not "kept in the garage over night" as the customer had said but they didn't even have a garage!

The OP can do some leg work on what the company actually asked/gave as assumptions and checking that there was indeed a comment on CCJs for anyone in the household... it is a common but not ubiquitous question.

dunstonh

2. What can I do about the insurers disclosing my private financial information to my partner? I know from my job that data protection and sharing information incorrectly can have dire consequences. My partner has no issue with my past financial history but it was not the insurance representatives place to share that information with him...I could be in an abusive relationship for all she knew. I want to ensure this does not happen to anyone else.

As you are both party to the policy and any administration regarding the policy should be available to both of you, then anything related to the policy can be made available to either of you.

Anti-money laundering ID checks and PEP checks also show things like CCJs and adverse media as that info is public domain.   So, it may have only been a soft check rather than a hard check.

You can log onto credit karma or similar to see what type of check was done.

3. Why would my CCJ cause the insurance to be void? The insurance is not in my name and has no bearing on the broken drains in the garden. I don't understand how it works so if anyone can offer any clarity I would be grateful. 

The immediate guess is non-disclosure or incorrect disclosure.    

4. And finally if anyone can offer any advice with regards to my DRO...when applying for any insurance/finance products in the future what do i declare? As my CCJ is on my file but not open as it formed part of my DRO do I still have to declare it? I have declared my DRO when opening my bank account before but didn't think to mention my CCJ as that to me is part of the DRO if that makes sense? Maybe I've been thinking about it incorrectly? I've not gone out of my way to hide it but because in my head it's settled I've not thought about how that would still impact things.

You answer truthfully.  No more. no less.  If they dont ask about debts, defaults, judgements etc then you dont mention them.  If they do, then you do.

We are all largely guessing here as to why they did a check or if it was a hard check or a soft check.  However, something has come to light that has triggered further checks and that "suggests" a difference in information to what was declared on the application.

uk1

chesca84 said:

Asking for advice if anyone can help?
My partner bought a home for us in December & took out an insurance policy in his name & paid the premium in full. I was named on the policy as living in the house but the policy is not in my name. We have recently attempted to make a claim for issues with the drains in the garden. When my partner rang them up to ask advice & see if our insurance covered this they said they needed to credit check him & me. They did the credit check on me without my consent. The person on the phone then said to my partner, "do you know (my name) has a CCJ for £1898 from 2017?" to which my partner stated no & he was then informed that our insurer may not cover us and they needed to refer the claim to another department & would be in touch. 

A bit of my background...I had problems with debt prior to getting together with my current partner, I had a CCJ and other debts that were eventually included in a DRO at the end of 2017 so although the CCJ is still on my credit file it's "settled/written off" as I no longer need to make payments towards it. Although my partner knows I have previous issues & a debt relief order I have never gone into the full details as we didn't feel it necessary. I didn't want him to be financially linked to me as he has a good credit history hence the mortgage in his name, insurance in his name no joint bank accounts etc. I'm in a different position now as working as a qualified midwife for nearly 2 years, no further bad credit or debt but my DRO will be on my file for another 3 years. 

So back to today & the insurers have wrote to my partner to say his insurance is void due to my CCJ. 

1. Can anyone tell me why they needed to credit check us at the point of making a claim even though the premium was paid in full? And were they legally allowed to credit check me without my permission? And if they were going to do a credit check shouldn't it have been at the point of taking the insurance out? 

2. What can I do about the insurers disclosing my private financial information to my partner? I know from my job that data protection and sharing information incorrectly can have dire consequences. My partner has no issue with my past financial history but it was not the insurance representatives place to share that information with him...I could be in an abusive relationship for all she knew. I want to ensure this does not happen to anyone else.

3. Why would my CCJ cause the insurance to be void? The insurance is not in my name and has no bearing on the broken drains in the garden. I don't understand how it works so if anyone can offer any clarity I would be grateful. 

4. And finally if anyone can offer any advice with regards to my DRO...when applying for any insurance/finance products in the future what do i declare? As my CCJ is on my file but not open as it formed part of my DRO do I still have to declare it? I have declared my DRO when opening my bank account before but didn't think to mention my CCJ as that to me is part of the DRO if that makes sense? Maybe I've been thinking about it incorrectly? I've not gone out of my way to hide it but because in my head it's settled I've not thought about how that would still impact things.

If anyone can shed any light on any of my issues I would be really grateful thank you.

Your partner needs to make a complaint to the insurance company and make it clear that if it isn't resolved it will be sent to the Ombudsman for a decision.

1.  Your partner should make clear that the insurance proposal was made honestly and made based on all of the facts known to him and that no known material facts were purposefully witheld.  He should make it clear that he was unaware of the CCJ and would have declared it if it were known.

2.  The policy can only be voided by the insurance company if they can show that your partner hadn't taken reasonable care when completing the form and also be able to state categorically that had they known of the CCJ then they would have refused cover.  In my opinion your cannot be assumed to have NOT taken reasonable care and when a form is signed a declaration is made with respect to honesty.   They cannot simply say that the are refusing cover because they suspect that they have been lied to but they can say that the risk would not have been covered if they had known of the CCJ  if that is genuinely the case. To me it would seem odd that an insurers  don't cover people with CCJs.  That is an important nuance you should understand. 

If they would have accepted the risk but charged a higher premium, they can either ask for the extra premium and pay the claim or scale back their settlement of the claim by the percentage of premium underpayment.

Unless they can show a reasonable lack of care when your partner completed the form AND that they wouldn't have accepted the risk then they will in my opinion probably lose the ombudsman complaint.

Good luck.