Business Insurance - Help Needed

Rita_Cat_12345

Last year we had a claim on our insurance by a member of the public who fell over, the insurance company did a deep search and sent us a letter stating "notice to void" because I had not declared some work CCJ's - I worked for a large corporate PLC and was one of a number of directors on two of their subsidiaries for signature purposes and didn't even know about the CCJ's, I have since resigned from these companies. The letter was a gathering of information exercise which I responded to in full, we heard nothing further from the insurance company and they continued to take monthly payments. The third party claimant sent us a letter stating that our insurance company had voided our insurance - I sent an e-mail of complaint to them but heard nothing back. I have  since taken this up with the Ombudsman who are investigating and have been since Dec 2024, the final deadline for response is next week from the insurance company. Whilst we have refuted the claim via a solicitor this is still ongoing and due to all of this we can no longer get any insurance - I am at a complete loss as what to do other than close our successful pub / restaurant business and lay off our 20 members of staff as we can't even get the basic employers insurance - Any thoughts, help, advice would be appreciated...

MyRealNameToo

Rita_Cat_12345 said:

Last year we had a claim on our insurance by a member of the public who fell over, the insurance company did a deep search and sent us a letter stating "notice to void" because I had not declared some work CCJ's - I worked for a large corporate PLC and was one of a number of directors on two of their subsidiaries for signature purposes and didn't even know about the CCJ's, I have since resigned from these companies. The letter was a gathering of information exercise which I responded to in full, we heard nothing further from the insurance company and they continued to take monthly payments. The third party claimant sent us a letter stating that our insurance company had voided our insurance - I sent an e-mail of complaint to them but heard nothing back. I have  since taken this up with the Ombudsman who are investigating and have been since Dec 2024, the final deadline for response is next week from the insurance company. 

Who did you buy the insurance via? Was it done online or via a proposal form? 

The ombudsman will be doing exactly what you should have done at the time and checked exactly the questions asked and how you responded to them. The devil is in the detail and checks will include any "helper text" that may sit with with question (irrespective of if you bothered to read it). 

Rita_Cat_12345 said:

I am at a complete loss as what to do other than close our successful pub / restaurant business and lay off our 20 members of staff as we can't even get the basic employers insurance - Any thoughts, help, advice would be appreciated...

Could you cease being a director? You say "we" so presumably there is someone else there with you? You can retain a shareholding and could still be an employee as long as you arent seen as having a fundamental control of the business (saying who's working when etc isnt an issue). 

Obviously for now you need to declare the canceled insurance so another problem but may be worth speaking to brokers. 

What have you been doing for EL cover since December?