You are under a duty to disclose relevant information when you took out the policy, or when you renewed, if you did not provide accurate or comprehensive information the insurer may be able to reject your claim.

We can only reject your claim provided we can show that we would have refused to provide you with insurance if we had known the missing information.

If, for example, we would have given you insurance cover had we known about your recent claims history, but would have charged a higher premium, then we cannot reject on the basis of the non-disclosure (although we can still require you to pay a higher premium).

If you failed to notify us of something that happened during the period of cover under the policy, we can only rely on your non-disclosure to refuse or reduce your claim if it can demonstrate that it has been prejudiced by your non-disclosure. The circumstances in which your claim can be denied as a result of disclosure are when we had a duty to clearly inform you of the nature and effect of your duty to disclose. If we have not done this we cannot rely on your non-disclosure to refuse a claim.

The responsibility for proving that a non-disclosure allows us to reduce or deny your claim is with us.

So, if your claim has been refused on the basis of non-disclosure then you need to write to us and ask to specify what information was not disclosed. You may wish to argue that you did in fact disclose the missing information, or that it was reasonable in the circumstances not to disclose because of something we did or did not ask or tell you.

You may also file your complaint with Insurance Ombudsman Service before any time limit expires, in case we do not respond in time.

Always remember that when you arrange an insurance policy over the phone the call is often recorded. We therefore have very good evidence about what was said at the time. In addition, you are required to approve the Proposal Form which we either read to you over the telephone or mailed to you. You have the obligation to sign the proposal form confirming that all information provided is correct.