Hello!

A good friend of mine has recently received a criminal record! I spoke to him tonight and having been to probation, was informed that home, car, life and business insurance would be void, if he did not inform them of the conviction.

Does anyone know / have a template letter that can be sent to all these insurers to inform them of the conviction.

Anyone else had a similar situation? Would be good to pass on any nuggets of information

THANKS

Twinks

poppycock

may i ask

what the conviction was as its relevant

Suggest they keep the letter very simple. i.e. Please be aware of the following recent conviction

Conviction for .............................. ( just offence type and no story)

Conviction date.............................

Punishment received....................... ( just whether caution, fine, suspended or prison sentence rec'd. Include the lenght of any custodial sentence.)

Please confirm in writing that you have noted the policy records and whether this has any affect on continued Insurance at the earliest opportunity.

Depending on the conviction, it is possible that some Insurers will cancel giving notice. Your friend should therefore start making enquiries, as the current Insurers might only provide 7 days notice of cancellation. Probably best to use a decent local broker (not Swintons). Find using this link. http://www.biba.org.uk/ConsumerHome.aspx

The letters should be sent recorded delivery to make sure they have evidence of sending the letters.

Under the t&c's of some policies, they do require mid term notification of criminal convictions.

Thank you - its great. The conviction is quite sensitive so i'd rather not mention up here but I think this letter should help - I will forward it over along with some other useful information i've found on the internet.

Thank you again for your help - much appreciated!!

I've been in the same situation as you - in my case it's a member of the household that's got the conviction - like yours, it is a little bit "sensitive".

All I did, under the "principle of utmost good faith" was declare the fact that a household member has a conviction and that I had insurance cancelled on me when this member returned to the household and invite the insurance company to advise the affect (if any) upon the policy within 28 days.

99.9% of them have been absolutely fine with it - the only ones that have asked for more information have been my car insurer (even though this person's not a named driver on the policy) and one of the pet insurers.

Your friend, actually being the insured and the holder of the conviction would be better advised going to a specialist broker (not sure if I'm allowed to name them on here but they ARE specialist criminal conviction brokers) whom he will find to be far more understanding and far more able to provide him cover.

Please also make your friend aware of the limitations placed upon him by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (this conviction will not be "spent" until a period of ten years has passed (dependent on the length of incarceration served - if more than a certain amount of time the conviction is NEVER spent - please be aware) whereupon he will have to declare this conviction until spent (min 10 years) PLUS another 5 years when applying for insurance.