Insurance Act 2015

Insurance Act 2015

2015 CHAPTER 4

Commentary on Sections

Part 2: the Duty of Fair Presentation

Section 2: Application and interpretation

37. Part 2 of the Act, which addresses the duty of fair presentation, applies to non-consumer insurance contracts only. This is because the law in this area as it applies to consumer insurance contracts was reformed by CIDRA.

38. Section 2(2) provides that the duty of fair presentation, set out in the remainder of Part 2, applies in the event of a variation to a non-consumer insurance contract as well as upon the initial agreement of the contract. Section 2(2)(a) follows the current law by stating that the duty to make a fair presentation of the “risk” relates only to the “changes in the risk” which are “relevant to the proposed variation”.(9)

9

See, for example, Manifest Shipping Co Ltd v Uni-Polaris Insurance Co Ltd (The Star Sea) [2001] UKHL 1, [2003] 1 AC 469, by Lord Hobhouse at [54]. There is no requirement to disclose information relating to the rest of the original policy; see Lishman v Northern Maritime (1875) LR 10 CP 179.