WENDY KNOWLER: Is an unpleasant surprise lurking in your car policy?
Even if you're all up to date on your car insurance premiums, a claim might be rejected if you’re in arrears on unrelated payments
If you defaulted one or more of your accounts, would you let the company that insures your car know about it? Probably not, if you’re still paying your car insurance premium in full and on time, right? But there’s most likely a clause in your policy document that compels you to do so, and if you don’t, you could have a car-related claim rejected and even the policy cancelled as well.
It’s what the industry calls the “ongoing duty of disclosure”. That’s understandable when it comes to moving to another area or province, or your newly licensed son or daughter taking over as the regular driver, because those factors have an obvious and significant impact on risk, requiring your policy — and the premium — to be adjusted accordingly...
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