Your General Responsibilities
– Mr C Woodcock.
11/06/2010
All insurance policies have claims conditions that impose certain requirements . A failure to meet these can lead to problems obtaining a full settlement or, in some cases, getting any payment at all.
Your basic responsibilities where a claim or accident reporting incident arises are:
- To report the incident to us or your insurer immediately;
- To take all reasonable steps to minimise the loss;
- To advise the authorities, where appropriate;
- To co-operate with us and/or your insurer in any investigation including the supply of supporting evidence;
- To act at all times in good faith; and
- Where damage to another person or their property is concerned (for example in the case of motor accidents), to never admit liability to anyone and refer any correspondence received direct to us and unanswered.
Remember that you have a duty to report accidents even where they may not immediately lead you to make a claim. For instance, consider a motor accident where little damage appears to have been done and both parties depart the scene amicably. You should still report the incident. This is in case sometime afterwards the other driver discovers that there is damage to his/her vehicle and that you are at fault for it. Or worse, that he or a passenger have been hurt in the accident (something he/she may well not have noticed at the time).