Your Disclosure Obligations

Your Duty of Disclosure

It is important that you provide us with complete and accurate information about the risks to be Insured, otherwise the advice we give you may not be appropriate for your needs. We rely on you to provide complete and accurate information.

In entering into an insurance contract with an insurer, you have an ongoing duty under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) to disclose information which is related to or relevant to the insurer in considering your risk. This Duty of Disclosure applies for the duration of the policy however, it is critically important when you renew, extend, vary, or reinstate your insurance.

If you are applying for or renewing insurance in relation to consumer insurance products such as, your motor vehicle, home building and/or contents, residential strata, travel, personal accident or sickness and/or consumer credit products, it is critically important you answer the specific questions asked by the insurer truthfully and accurately.

In answering those questions, you must tell the insurer all information that’s known to you and that a reasonable person would be expected to provide in answer to the questions. Not doing so may be considered by the insurer to be a breach of your Duty of Disclosure and ‘duty to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation’ and may cause issues in relation to the validity of your insurance contract and/or issues in the event of you lodging a claim.

At renewal, the insurer may ask you to advise of any changes to information you have previously disclosed or may give you a copy of the information you previously disclosed and ask you to advise them if there have been any changes. If you do not tell the insurer about a change, you will be taken to have told the insurer there is no change.

If you are applying for, or renewing any other types of insurance, you must tell the insurer all information that is known to you that a reasonable person in the circumstances could be expected to know, or that is relevant to the insurer’s decision to insure you and on what terms. You do not need to tell the insurer anything:

• that reduces the risk it insures you for;
• is common knowledge;
• that the insurer knows or should know; or
• which the insurer waived your duty to tell it about.

Non-disclosure

If you fail to comply with your Duty of Disclosure, the insurer may cancel your insurance contract, or reduce the amount it will pay you if you make a claim, or both. If your failure to comply with the Duty of Disclosure is fraudulent, the insurer may refuse to pay a claim and treat the insurance contract as if it never existed.

If you are in doubt about whether or not a particular matter should be disclosed, please contact your Account Contact.

Where you represent another insured party, you must make sure you explain the Duty of Disclosure to them when we arrange any insurance cover.

Alternatively, you may ask any person you represent to contact us and we will explain their Duty of Disclosure to them directly.