Check the written notice that renewable general insurance is about to expire

Key facts

Human involvement

Yellow · Close supervision

How AI is used

From the schedule, record the day and time the cover expires, the period of the cover, and the date any written notice was given to the insured or to a person acting as agent for the insured. Record whether the notice states the day and the time the cover will expire and whether the insurer is prepared to negotiate to renew or extend the cover. Record whether, before expiry, the insured obtained insurance cover from some other insurer to replace the original cover. Do not decide that a further contract exists, and do not calculate a premium.

What the lawyer must review

The lawyer decides whether section 58 of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) applies and what follows if the notice was not given. Subsection (1) defines renewable insurance cover as cover provided for a particular period of time that is of a kind that it is usual to renew, or for the renewal of which it is usual to negotiate. Subsection (2) requires the insurer, not later than 14 days before the day on which renewable cover under a contract of general insurance expires, to give the insured or a person acting as agent a notice in writing of the day and the time the cover will expire and whether the insurer is prepared to negotiate to renew or extend the cover. Subsection (3) says that where the insurer failed to comply with subsection (2) and, before the original contract expired, the insured had not obtained from some other insurer cover to replace the original cover, then by force of the section there exists between the parties a contract providing cover as provided by the original contract, for a period that commences immediately after the original cover expires and expires, unless sooner cancelled, at the earlier of a period equal to the period of the original cover, or the time the insured obtains replacement cover from the original insurer or some other insurer. Subsection (4) says that where a contract is in force by subsection (3), no premium is payable except where a claim is made, in which case the insured pays a premium worked out under subsection (5) or (6). Subsection (5), for a claim for total loss of the property insured, uses the hypothetical premium that would have been payable if the original contract had been renewed for the same period and on the same terms and conditions, including the same subject-matter and risk. Subsection (6), where the claim is not for total loss, uses the formula in that subsection: the number of days in the period that began on the day the contract came into force and ended on the day the claim was made, times that hypothetical premium, divided by the number of days in the period of the original contract. The lawyer applies subsections (5) and (6). The tool does not decide that the statutory contract exists. This is not a notice cancelling a policy, and it is not a pre-renewal sweep for a claims-made programme.

Written for / version

US