Fylde coast businesses urged to look closely at insurance cover

Businesses on the Fylde coast are being urged to look closely at their insurance cover ahead of the biggest shake-up to insurance contract law in more than 100 years.
Nick Booth of Harrison DruryNick Booth of Harrison Drury
Nick Booth of Harrison Drury

The Insurance Act 2015 comes into force this month and brings fundamental changes to the way insurance policies for businesses work.

Lawyers at Harrison Drury, say the changes mean businesses will need to be more diligent in ensuring they have adequate cover and in remaining compliant with their terms of insurance.

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The reforms, which affect policies entered into after August 12, also have important implications for insurance brokers who will need to ensure policies they recommend to clients are appropriate for their needs.

Nick Booth, an expert in contract law and commercial litigation at Harrison Drury, said: “The Act will give greater scope to insurers to tailor the terms of their commercial insurance policies and to contract out of parts of the Act, meaning that deciding upon a policy simply by reference to the premium, without properly considering the policy wording and implications will be increasingly risky.

Businesses should shop around to get the best product to suit them and take advantage of the new landscape.”

According to Nick much greater care will need to be taken by businesses, particularly given their new obligations to make fair representations to the insurer, in a clear and accessible way, all those relevant matters affecting the risks to be insured.

The main changes coming in under the Insurance Act relate to duties of good faith and disclosure, remedies, use of warranties, fraudulent claims and contracting out.

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