I have a pending claim on a motorcycle accident which was deemed to be my fault - my motorcycle scraped the door of a stationary cab and a car. There was no damage to my bike, but I think both other vehicles claimed for repairs.

* The policy is with eBikeInsurance (Southern Rock) but is being processed by Eldon. I am the owner of the motorcycle and the only person on the policy.

* I also have a joint insurance policy with my wife for our car. I'm the main owner on that policy with my wife as a named driver. In April 2009 she was driving our then car and had an accident, writing off the car and damaging several other vehicles. Since then we have changed insurance companies for our new car.

Here's the situation.

Eldon has send a letter asking for my original documents (Certificate of insurance, Driving license, V5 and MOT) which is not a problem, however they also said the following...

==== quote =====

While validating this claim, we accessed the claims database. This database is showing that you have been involved in the following accident:

* [Date in 2009] [My wife's name] driving. ABC Insurance. No Claims Discount disallowed.

When this policy was renewed on the [date in August 2009 - actually the date of the original policy] , this accident was not disclosed. Please provide a letter of explanation as to why you have failed to declared (sic) this claim.

==== end quote =====

I replied that I did not declare the previous claim because it was my wife that had the accident and I had not personally had any accidents. I DID declare a 3-point speeding fine from 2006. I thought the two policies were unrelated, and my wife was not (and has never been) a named driver on the motorcycle policy - she doesn't even have a motorcycle license. I said it was an honest misunderstanding, which it was, and offered to repay any difference in policy premiums.

Having provided the information, I am now waiting for a response and losing a lot of sleep while I do. I realize this may blow over, but am trying to get a feel for possible scenarios.

* What are the chances they will use this as an excuse to invalidate my insurance policy?

* If they do invalidate the policy, would I be liable for the repair/storage/legal costs for the other two vehicles?

* What about my insurer's legal costs?

* If my insurance company does the above, what redress do I have? I feel I have a case under "Natural Justice" (for what it's worth) for an honest mistake.

* Is this the kind of situation the Financial Services Ombudsman would investigate? What could they do on my behalf.

Thanks for any expert advice

Rob

the phrase that you should be using is that the "nondisclosure did not materially affect the risk". This is the test of whether or not you had a duty to reveal facts which were known to you when you took out the insurance.

On the other hand, if what they want to know is whether you had a valid no claims discount – then suddenly you should have revealed it. However, in this circumstance, even the nondisclosure of a no claims discount could not be said to have materially affected the risk.

Will they use the nondisclosure as an opportunity to try and deny the loss? Very possibly. That's how they make their profits.

What can you do? You can go to the ombudsman if you can stand over 12 months of not knowing what is going on and uncertain result, or you could to the insurers in the County Court for breach of contract.

Motor/bike insurance tends to concentrate on who is going to be on the policy, so unless they asked along the lines of "have you or anyone in your household had any claims or accident in the past x years ........" which they probably didn't you should be ok.

The may think that you should have told them when they ask about any other facts you want to tell them, but your a layperson, you wern't to know.

If they can prove they asked you such questions your in an awkward situation, inadvertant non disclosure works for things like alloy wheels or a spoiler, but "accident's, what accident, oh that accident " doesn't work to well with the FOS and

not a court.