Not upheld: Travel / life insurance claim disputes complaint against Principal Insurance Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr Z complained that Principal Insurance Limited failed to verify his commercial vehicle insurance policy details, resulting in his claim being declined when the insurer discovered he had misrepresented his driving licence history. The insurer avoided the policy based on this misrepresentation. Although Principal failed to verify the policy within the required 14-day period, the ombudsman found this did not prejudice Mr Z because his claim occurred within 3 days of policy inception, leaving time for verification before the claim event. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that although Principal failed to verify the policy within the required 14-day period, this failure did not prejudice Mr Z because his claim occurred within 3 days of policy inception. Therefore, there was still time to verify the details before the claim event occurred. The timing of verification did not affect the outcome of the claim.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website