We thought we would put a series of posts together to detail some of the most common reasons why Insurance claims can get refused and how to avoid this.
Nobody wants a claim to get refused and so its important when buying insurance cover that the policy you buy is based on all of the correct details about you and your business.
Some of the most common claim refusals in general are not disclosing any previous Bankruptcy’s, County Court Judgments (CCJ’s) and Criminal Convictions – these must always be disclosed to Insurers/Brokers as these will in most cases invalidate any type of insurance policy, unless they are spent under the rehabilitation act. They fall under what is called a ‘Material Fact.’
There are specialist insurers out there that can cover this type of history and we can help you with this too.
If we now focus on our first Product specific area and that’s Motor/Fleet Insurance and some examples are:
Vehicle keys left in the ignition/Not properly securing them – Insurers have the right to refuse your claim if you have not taken reasonable steps to secure your vehicle keys. Always ensure they are kept securely and out of view from a possible third party.
Not disclosing previous claims/convictions – this may also invalidate cover or depending on the type of conviction(s), the insurer may charge an additional premium/impose additional terms on the policy instead of refusing the claim but not worth taking the risk. You should disclose all previous claims/convictions unless they are over the disclosing period (This can vary from insurer to insurer so worth checking!)
Any driver policies – usually they have brackets, Over 21/25/30 years old and an upper age limit 65/70/75 years old – you must ensure that they fit into this category. If the driver has previous claims/convictions, they still need to be disclosed to the insurer before they are allowed to drive. Some insurers will also insist that the driver is an Employee – another part of the policy that you should understand before allowing someone to drive.
Overnight parking post code – you must disclose all of the postcodes where your fleet of vehicles are kept overnight. Depending on the insurer/number of vehicles, insurers will likely charge you on the higher rated postcode for the reason that is where the majority of a Theft/Malicious Damage risk is. Please also note that postcodes can vary drastically even if its just around the corner, so for instance lets take our postcode of SS14 3HX and this may be much different than SS14 3HG even though its 2 minutes up the road!
For reference, in 2024 100% of insurance claims for Ignite customers were paid out and in 2023 just 1 claim denied due to a blatant breach of terms.
That’s all for this post, keep checking in as we update with the next product very soon.
