I left something out signing up: do I lose cover?

The worry behind the question

It is one of the most common questions after a claim: “I filled in that questionnaire three years ago, I forgot to mention something — am I going to be left with nothing?” The worry is reasonable, but the answer is not the one most people fear.

The law does not treat someone who hides something deliberately the same way as someone who simply overlooked it. That difference — whether there was bad faith — decides whether you are paid in full, paid less, or not paid at all.

What the law says

The duty to disclose is not open-ended: it exists only to the extent that the insurer asks. If the insurer does not put a questionnaire to you, or if the circumstance was not among the questions, the law expressly releases you from that duty. You are not required to guess what they might have wanted to know.

Where there genuinely was an inaccuracy about something that was asked, the law sets out three paths. The insurer may cancel the contract within one month of learning about it. If the claim happens before that declaration, the payout is reduced proportionally to the difference between the premium paid and the one that would have applied had the true risk been known. Only where there was wilful misconduct or gross negligence is the insurer released from paying at all.

In short: an honest oversight usually means being paid less, not being paid nothing. What costs you the whole claim is deliberate concealment.

An example

Someone takes out home insurance and the questionnaire asks for the built area. They declare 90 m² when the property has 110 m², because they miscounted or did not include a terrace enclosed years earlier. There is no intent to deceive: there is a mistake.

If there is a claim, the company may apply the proportional rule: if the premium for 110 m² would have been 20 % higher, the payout is reduced by that proportion. Less is paid, but it is paid.

The outcome would be very different if those square metres had been concealed knowing they made the policy more expensive. That is no longer an oversight.

What it is worth doing

If reading this has reminded you of something you did not declare, what the law rewards is reporting it before there is a claim, not after. A corrected policy costs whatever it costs; a policy corrected too late can cost you a reduction on the payout.

And when a questionnaire arrives for a new policy, it is worth reading carefully even if it is long. Every question answered wrongly is a potential discount on the day it matters.