INSURERS

Coming this week is a paper from the Law Commission which proposes drastic changes to the very core of insurance law. The duty of utmost good faith and disclosure means that , at present , an insurer can lawfully repudiate a claim for , say , fire damage where the insured has not installed burglar alarms as required by the insurer even though there is no causative link between damage and default. That is all wrong says the Commission and we go into consultation until the autumn on reform which looks like imposing a clear obligation upon the insurer to ask rather than for the insured to volunteer.