Our next instalment of the Insurance Act and You deals with what you know, or at least what you should know and what the insurer should know. Essentially this adds some context to our last instalment in which we talked about you as the ‘insured’ making a full presentation to the ‘insurer’ and this part spells out what it is expected you should know and from what you have presented, what it is expected the insurer would know.
Below in italics are some key points I’ve drawn from the Act itself. Again we would encourage you to read through the Act in full which can be found by going to the following link – https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/4/pdfs/ukpga_20150004_en.pdf
Knowledge: general
…an individual’s knowledge include not only actual knowledge, but also matters which the individual suspected, and of which the individual would have had knowledge but for deliberately refraining from confirming them or enquiring about them…
You can see there then the onus is on the insured to include in their full presentation not only what you already know but what it would be reasonably expected you should or could know given a reasonable search and is further explained below.
…Whether an individual or not, an insured ought to know what should reasonably have been revealed by a reasonable search of information available to the insured (whether the search is conducted by making enquiries or by any other means)…
The Act will talk about having knowledge of senior management and employees also. This has not changed, there has always been an expectation that you will provide the insurers with any updates / changes in material fact which may effect the underwriting of a risk and so this would include the experience and trading history of directors / management including CCJ’s, previous bankruptcy but also positive history, business ownership etcetera. Equally and particularly pertinent to motor risks (fleet and the like) is the requirement to keep the insurers informed of any significant underwriting points regarding your employees this would include convictions. Taking into account the wording of the Act it would be reasonable to expect your knowledge to extend to include motoring convictions of your employees given that it is reasonable for the insurers to expect you to undertake a search of their licences periodically.
If of course the employee has not informed you of a recent motoring conviction and you have scheduled in a check of licences every six months then the insurer is likely to consider that you have made reasonable steps to ensure that your knowledge is current, assuming that you have informed your staff that they should keep you up to date with such things.
Perhaps the important take home from this section is that if your business or circumstances change (for better or worse) then you need to inform your insurer / broker to ensure that their knowledge mirrors yours and that the insurance you enjoy continues to be current and effective. As the individual dealing with the company insurance it is important that you communicate the above to relevant persons within the business and to ensure that checks on the accuracy of your knowledge are put in place.
The effort to ensure that you are armed with the fullest and most accurate knowledge should not be regarded as a negative or a taxing way of avoiding your position being prejudice (although important) but a positive measure and a way of making sure your business and therefore future is protected as best and as fully as possible.
As ever we would encourage you to contact us with any queries the above might raise.
Next Time….. the best laid plans.
