|
|
|
Representations by consumer and terms that reduce the risk being underwritten (replacing insurance warranties)
|
| |
19. (1) The provisions in this section replace, in a contract of insurance, the law concerning insurance warranties that applied prior to the commencement of this section (whether that law arose at common law or under an enactment).
|
|
| |
(2) Any statement made by a consumer in or in connection with a contract of insurance, being a statement made by or attributable to a consumer with respect to the existence of a state of affairs or a statement of opinion, shall have effect solely as a representation made by the consumer to the insurer prior to entering into the contract.
|
|
| |
(3) Any term in a contract of insurance which purports to convert any statement referred to in subsection (2) into a warranty (as understood in the law concerning insurance warranties prior to the commencement of this section), including by means of a declared “basis of contract” clause or by any comparable clause (including one described as a warranty, a future warranty, a promissory warranty or a continuing warranty), shall be invalid.
|
|
| |
(4) In contract of insurance, any contract term however described that imposes a continuing restrictive condition on the consumer during the course of the contract shall be treated as a suspensive condition in that, upon a breach of such a condition, the insurer’s liability is, subject to subsection (5), suspended for the duration of the breach but if the breach has been remedied by the time a loss has occurred, the insurer shall (in the absence of any other defence to the claim) be obliged to pay any claim made under the contract of insurance.
|
|
| |
(5) Subsection (4) does not suspend the liability of the insurer if the fact that the breach referred to in that subsection has occurred has not increased, in the circumstances concerned, the risk of a loss that has occurred (being a loss for which liability on the part of the insurer is claimed by the consumer).
|
|
| |
(6) (a) This subsection applies to any term in a contract of insurance however described that has the effect of reducing the risk underwritten by the insurer related to—
|
|
| |
(i) a particular type of loss,
|
|
| |
(ii) loss at a particular time, or
|
|
| |
(iii) loss in a particular location.
|
|
| |
(b) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (4), any breach by the consumer of the type of contract term referred to in paragraph (a) shall only suspend the liability of the insurer in respect of that particular type of loss, or loss at a particular time or loss in a particular location, as the case may be, and if the breach has been remedied by the time a loss has occurred, the insurer shall (in the absence of any other defence to the claim) be obliged to pay any claim made under the contract of insurance.
|
