Marine Surveyors Staff Form

Claims Made Policy

This policy is a claims made policy of insurance. This means that the policy covers you for claims made against you and notified to the Insurer during the period of insurance. The Policy does not provide cover in relation to:

• events that occurred prior to the retroactive date, if any, specified in the Policy;
• claims notified or arising out of circumstances notified under any previous policy (whether made or issued by the Insurer or any other insurer);
• claims made against you prior to commencement of the period of insurance;
• claims arising out of claims and circumstances noted on the proposal form for the current period of insurance or on any previous proposal form;
• subject to what is said in the next paragraph, claims made after expiry of the period of insurance even though the event giving rise to the claim may have occurred during the period of insurance.

However, where you give notice in writing to the Insurer of facts that might give rise to a claim against you as soon as reasonably practicable after you become aware of those facts but before expiry of the period of insurance, the policy will, subject to its terms and conditions, cover you notwithstanding that a claim is only made after expiry of the period of insurance.

Your Duty of Disclosure

Before you enter into a contract of general insurance with an insurer, you have a duty, under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984, to disclose to the insurer every matter which you know, or could reasonably be expected to know, is relevant to the insurer’s decision whether to accept the risk of the insurance and, if so, on what terms. You have the same duty to disclose those matters to us before you renew, extend, vary or reinstate a contract of insurance.

Your duty however does not require disclosure of a matter:

• that diminishes the risk to be undertaken by the insurer
• that is common knowledge
• that the insurer knows or, in the ordinary course of business as an insurer, ought to know as to which compliance with your duty is waived by the insurer.

Non-Disclosure

If you fail to comply with your duty of disclosure, the insurer may be entitled to reduce its liability under the contract in respect of a claim or may cancel the contract. If your non-disclosure is fraudulent, the insurer may also have the option of avoiding the contract from it’s beginning.