Then, it is up to the insurers, months down the line, to rely on the “not declaring a material fact” to repudiate a claim. This then gives the insurers a bad name, incorrectly.

The other point Mxa makes is valid, lengthy form filling is a pain, especially when you get to the end and are told for some reason a quote cannot be given.

Have long advocated a combination of online basic form filling and then, shock horror, getting information over the phone from the customer, for our business and commercial buildings.

You can then question to your hearts content and at the same time make the customer very aware (verbally and in writing) of the need to declare fuller details.

We all know that there are people who will mis-declare and then scream from the roof tops how unfair the insurers are when their claim gets kicked into touch. But, this has to be balanced with the vast majority if people who find it boring and when sitting at a PC filling in boxes may not fully understand the long term consequences of not giving all information.

The problem is not going to go away as the comparison sites are having a tougher time as competition increases and recession affects them through less cars etc and more people choosing to go uninsured. Their now venturing into business insurance which, I have always said is not that complex, needs to be dealt with slightly differently and should not be sold/purchased without some human interaction.

No-one wants to go back to lengthy form filling but a combination of asking specific questions, providing a statement of fact document which the insured must read and most of all, making any insured aware that the onus is always on them to advise:-

a) Any material fact that may alter an insurers opinion of a risk and

b) Any changes to the risk during the year

This will run and run, but at the end of the day the Ombudsman (funded by the industry) will be there to ajudicate, usually in favour of the customer.

Woud think though that website owners will do their best to make the forms easy to fill since it can make them lose customers.

Thanks for the article.

For example:

Make a simple form for a potential customer to fill out which will have a bunch of assumptions but list them in the assumptions section keeping the form clean and simple and give the person a quote on 5 – 8 details.

If the quote is competitive and to the liking of the person then they may continue on with the full quote which will then obviously be the painful part but they should be compelled enough by the quick quote to stick it out.