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Pre-contractual duty of disclosure

Boat insurance term, area: Owner duties

Before a policy is issued, the proposer has to answer the insurer's written questions fully and truthfully: engine power, year of build, berth, cruising area, earlier damage and repairs. An answer that is wrong or left incomplete gives the insurer the right to withdraw from the contract, to cancel it, or to rewrite the terms with retrospective effect. Example: a hull repair from an earlier season that went unmentioned can surface years afterwards, following a grounding, and turn a claim into an argument about the proposal form instead of the damage.

What to check: Check which questions the proposal form actually put to you in writing, because only those count. Check how long the insurer may rely on a breach once it learns of one, and whether it warned you of the consequences in writing beforehand.

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