Duty of Disclosure: What you must tell us
Under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (the Act), you have a Duty of Disclosure. You are required before you enter into, renew, vary, extend or reinstate your Policy, to tell us everything you know and that a reasonable person in the circumstances could be expected to know, is a matter that is relevant to our decision whether to insure you, and anyone else to be insured under the Policy, and if so, on what terms.
- You do not have to tell us about any matter
- that diminishes the risk
- that is of common knowledge
- that we know or should know in the ordinary course of our business as an insurer, or
- which we indicate we do not want to know.
- If you do not tell us
If you do not comply with your Duty of Disclosure we may reduce or refuse to pay a claim or cancel your Policy. If your non-disclosure is fraudulent we may treat this Policy as never having worked.
Claims Made Policy
The Professional Indemnity section of this Policy operates on a 'Claims made and notified' basis. This means that the Policy covers you for Claims made against you and notified to us during the Period of Insurance.
This Policy does not provide cover in relation to:
- acts, errors or omissions actually or allegedly committed prior to the retroactive date of the Policy (if a date is specified);
- claims made after the expiry of the period of insurance even though the event giving rise to the Claim may have occurred during the period of insurance;
- claims notified or arising out of facts or circumstances notified (or which ought reasonably to have been notified) under any previous Policy;
- claims made, threatened or intimated against you prior to the commencement of the period of insurance;
- facts or circumstances of which you first became aware prior to the period of insurance, and which you knew or ought reasonably to have known had the potential to give rise to a Claim under this Policy;
- Claims arising out of circumstances noted on the proposal form for the current period of insurance or on any previous proposal form.
Where you give notice in writing to the insurer or any facts that might give rise to a claim against you as soon as reasonably practicable after you become aware of those facts but before the expire of the period of cover, you may have rights under Section 40(3) of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 to be indemnified in respect of any claim subsequently made against you arising from those facts notwithstanding that the claim is made after the expiry of the period of cover. Any such rights arise under the legislation only. The terms of the Policy and the effect of the Policy is that you are not covered for claims made against you after the expiry of the period of cover.