It’s All in the Small Print

We have all heard the stories of people having their insurance claims thrown out because they forget to tell Insurers about a previous claim when taking out a policy but are you aware that there are many other reasons claims get declined and sometimes policies get revoked and people are not even aware of these because they have not read their policies in detail or they do not understand a certain policy condition.  We are all in the habit of just renewing out policy each year and because we assume nothing has changed to the property, we often forget to see if anything has changed to the policy itself.  One example of this is that some insurance policies have a condition that policy holder must ensure that their chimney is cleaned at least annually by a professional and that a documented record must be kept of this event.  If the policy holder cleans the chimney themselves or even has a local handyman without the proper qualifications do it and keeps no record, then they are in breach of the policy condition and should they then have a chimney fire Insurers will not proceed with the claim.  This is just one common example of the types of conditions that can apply.  It is really important that you thoroughly read and fully understand your policy and the conditions that apply to it or you may be living under a false sense of security.  For more information or advice please call 1800 277377.