Home insurance with criminal record & convictions
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This company limited, declare if you are looking for breath test. How do grant you were asked about something else i get the past actions, convictions do i have to insurance companies. Home insurers will ask about the unspent convictions of everyone who lives in the property so it’s important to find out the full past of any partner or lodger before you let them move in. Landlords need to check the criminal records of their tenants or they risk their landlord insurance not paying out.
Continue your insurance but advise you they won’t offer you another policy at renewal. This is more likely to happen if the conviction was obtained before you took out the policy and you did not disclose it when asked. In any event, you still do not have to disclose any convictions which are spent, even if they fall under the type of conviction being requested. What an insurer regards as relevant depends entirely on its own underwriting guidelines.
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However, few consumers are aware of their legal obligations with regards to convictions when taking out insurance. The time that must pass before eligible convictions are deemed to be spent and can no longer form part of the employer’s decision-making process depends on the length of sentence served. So, rather than the nature of the criminal offence determining how long convictions can influence an individual’s employment prospects, the duration of the custodial sentence itself determines this. A spent conviction refers to any offence or issued warning which, as determined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, is not supposed to be considered by employers during their hiring process.
Use our helpful guide to find out a little bit more about the right insurance policy for you. From April 2013 you no longer have to declare any unspent criminal convictions when applying for insurance. Instead the onus is on the insurance company to ask if you have any unspent convictions. The bad news is they are almost certainly going to ask the question.
What happens if I don’t disclose convictions to insurers?
Some car insurers are only interested in knowing the specifics about motoring convictions, while others will want to know the details of all criminal convictions. If you have an unspent conviction, you have to answer any question put to you fully and honestly. Therefore, if you have had insurance refused, cancelled or had special terms imposed due to your conviction you must inform the insurer. If other insurers have simply declined to offer you a quote due to your convictions you do not have to state that you have been refused insurance.
A criminal conviction can be anything from a prison sentence to a fine for littering or a speeding conviction. The length of time that a criminal conviction stays on your record is dependent upon a number of factors. This includes the seriousness of the crime, the severity of the sentence and whether you are bankrupt.
What happens if I don’t declare convictions or fixed penalty notices when asked?
Under the Act, you are not obliged to disclose convictions to insurers after a certain time period has elapsed and you are considered to be rehabilitated. If your conviction is spent, you do not have to mention it when applying for insurance. If you have received a prison sentence of more than four years, your conviction will never become spent and you must declare it. Most insurers will require you to disclose any new convictions as soon as they occur, though some may only request you do so come renewal. You’ll be able to find this information in your policy wording. The most obvious and serious form of mistreatment resulting from a knowledge of your spent conviction is dismissal.
The ‘rehabilitation period’ is often much longer than the sentence. Simple cautions, reprimands and final warnings are spent immediately and don’t need to be disclosed as these are not criminal convictions. An unspent conviction is one that hasn’t yet reached its defined time limit and will still come up on a basic criminal record check. Criminal convictions can be anything from a prison sentence to a speeding ticket, all types of offence count, no matter how minor.
How do you get a criminal record removed?
You’ll also find the pool of available providers reduced and as such your options for cheap car insurance will be fewer and farther between. Most insurance companies ask about criminal convictions because they believe it is relevant to the risk. Although this often seems unfair, insurers are entitled to decide to adjust the price, or choose not to offer cover, as they see fit. You have the right to ask what information the police have about you.
As of 2013, you’re no longer legally required to let your insurance company know if you have any ‘spent criminal convictions’. It’s your insurance company’s responsibility to make sure it asks for all the relevant details it needs to make sure you are a suitable candidate for cover. This content has moved – For existing insurance policies, and whether to disclose convictions obtained before or during the policy, see our separate information on disclosing unspent convictions to existing insurers.
The MyLicence programme is a joint programme that will be run by the DVLA, the Department of Transport and the insurance industry. The scheme will work by drivers providing their Driving Licence Number when they apply for insurance and an automatic check will then be done on the DVLA Database. We’ve raised questions about this system, to ensure that they remove any spent convictions. For further guidance and information of this scheme please read the ABI MyLicence page. Although insurers rely on information given to them at application, when a claim is made, this information will be checked. Failure to have disclosed unspent convictions at application and renewal, if asked specifically can invalidate an insurance policy and allow the insurer to avoid individual claims and entire policies.
If you’ve received a policy caution or reprimand, you won’t need to disclose these to your insurance company. The cost of insurance varies according to many factors and each insurer has a different approach. You may find that other factors (e.g your postcode or what you are trying to insure for) are more influential than your conviction. However, it remains the case that many people experience a significant increase in the cost of insurance when disclosing an unspent conviction. If an insurer does ask about convictions, make sure you get some form of written confirmation of the information you have disclosed. This will be helpful in the event of a dispute about what you have disclosed.
Even after 5 years an insurer may still ask if you have any convictions and in these instances you must tell the truth. Not doing so could invalidate your policy and even bring about fraud charges. A conviction will remain on your record until you reach the age of 100.
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