Seven things a good Insurer will never do

1. Give You Up: Are you looking to your existing insurance provider to renew your cover and continue supporting your business through the good times and bad? A good insurer will always do that.

2. Let you down: Under ICOBS rule 8.1.1, a good insurer will handle claims promptly and fairly, provide reasonable guidance to help a policyholder make a claim, provide appropriate information on its progress, and not unreasonably reject a claim (including by terminating or avoiding a policy).

3. Run around: When investigating a claim, an insurer will never run around trying to find reasons not to pay. It will always treat its customer fairly.

4. Desert you: In the case of liability insurance, a good insurer will always step up and pay defence costs, even where coverage might be under the microscope, and will not leave its policyholder in the lurch.

5. Make you cry: Following a heavy loss, a good insurer will always take an even-handed approach to its claims process, rather than taking the opportunity to carry out a ‘post-loss underwriting process’.

6. Tell a lie: A good insurer will never tell its policyholder that a claim is not covered by a policy when it clearly knows otherwise.

7. Hurt you: Quick, lastly – A good insurer will always investigate and pay a claim quickly, lest it be on the wrong side of S13A damages for late payment claim, and will never add to the pain often felt by policyholders at such difficult times.

Alex Rosenfield is an Associate Partner at Fenchurch Law