Med insurance problem

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paddywackcocker

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Hello all
Having a problem renewing insurance, was with GJW but they can’t renew because,
British registered yacht, moored in East coast of Spain, owner is British but lives in Switzerland.
on renewal they have said you now need a Uk address and bank account for payment.
Have shopped around a bit but seems to be the standard (has something changed?)
Any advise appreciated

Paddy
 
Irish Rover

Irish Rover

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paddywackcocker said:
Hello all
Having a problem renewing insurance, was with GJW but they can’t renew because,
British registered yacht, moored in East coast of Spain, owner is British but lives in Switzerland.
on renewal they have said you now need a Uk address and bank account for payment.
Have shopped around a bit but seems to be the standard (has something changed?)
Any advise appreciated

Paddy
Click to expand...
Try craftinsure.com
 
Baggywrinkle

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TSailors said:
try uk mailboxes company . they offer you virtual mailboxes and forward or scan all incoming mail
Click to expand...

That would open the OP up to a claim being declined as he would have fraudulently obtained insurance. If you have fraudulently obtained insurance in the past, then that in itself also becomes a material fact which you need to disclose.

For an insurance company your place of residence is a material fact, i.e. it would affect their decision on whether to offer cover or not and on what terms.

Material fact​

An important fact about you or your circumstances that would influence an insurer’s decision on whether to issue a policy and on what terms. Non-disclosure or misrepresentation of such facts can result in your policy being cancelled or your claim being declined.
Click to expand...
Material fact | ABI

What does Material Fact mean?​

A fact that is known, or ought to be known by an insured, is material to be disclosed to insurers if it would affect their assessment of the risk, the terms on which they are willing to underwrite it, or the premium they require to do so.
Click to expand...
Material Fact Definition | Legal Glossary | LexisNexis

... if you fail to disclose material facts to an insurance company then you are giving them a "get out of jail free" card at best, and at worst laying yourself open to prosecution for fraud by dishonestly making a false representation (false statement of residency and false address) to obtain insurance.

The general use of false information to secure insurance would be an offence under Section1 of the Fraud Act 2006

Fraud Act 2006 - Explanatory Notes

If anyone wants to obtain insurance by false representation or deliberately failing to disclose information then they need to understand the risks and decide for themselves. This post is intended as information only.

EDIT: I was also declined insurance after having been with GJW for years. I am German resident, UK flagged boat in the med. I got insurance through a German broker and am covered by AXA Versicherung AG in Germany, €1074 for a 44ft AWB in Croatia worth about 150K.
 
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ashtead

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It’s all down to standard rules on location of risk -the underwriters behind GJW set the criteria which specify uk address etc . I suspect with the vessel being uk registered a Swiss underwriter will decline . I might be proved wrong but my belief is that a Swiss insurer will underwrite a risk located in Switzerland . In EU the location of risk rules set by directive but clearly CH has its own rules.
 
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PlanB

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There seems to be a general requirement for the insured to be resident in the country of the insurer. This was also the case in Spain. My boat was insured with Bishop Skinner for Med use. But I had UK address. I failed to insure a Spanish car in Spain as I did not have a Spanish àddress.
 
greeny

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I failed miserably at attempts to insure my SSR boat in Portugal with my usual broker who tried 4 different companies for me. They all said that the boat had to be Portuguese registered before they would cover it. I'm not sure how the Portuguese go on with all these Polish and other registrations but there must be a way. Or maybe not insured.
 
ashtead

ashtead

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For a vehicle in the EU the location of risk is place of registration under the directive -number 13 I seem to recall. Vehicles are one exception to rules on risk location I would have thought boats location is place of registration but it’s more complicated than this globally . Generally an eu insurer can passport around the eu or establish a branch though to give pan eu coverage. Where the risk is in uk it’s a third country branch if an eu insurer or just set up a uk subsidiary. So should be perfectly possible for a Portuguese insurer to cover a polish registered vessel in the one eu market. Whether though an insurer wants business from a non resident though and the associated admin might not make it attractive .
 
Graham376

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greeny said:
I failed miserably at attempts to insure my SSR boat in Portugal with my usual broker who tried 4 different companies for me. They all said that the boat had to be Portuguese registered before they would cover it. I'm not sure how the Portuguese go on with all these Polish and other registrations but there must be a way. Or maybe not insured.
Click to expand...

Greeny, I have UK address, boat based in Portugal and have just received renewal quote from N & G via Topsail for renewal early October, up 10%

Chatting to a guy with SSR reg boat yesterday and he's insured with Fishermen's insurers in Portimao. Says far cheaper than any other quotes he had. Will try and get more details.
 
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WindyWindyWindy

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PlanB said:
I failed to insure a Spanish car in Spain as I did not have a Spanish àddress.
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It's also a requirement for a Spanish car to have a Spanish address on the registration.

They actually do car insurance differently here, the car is insured rather than the driver. So you can lend your Spanish car to pretty much anyone over 25 for instance.

For what it's worth, I managed to get a Polish boat, owned by a UK company that lived Spain whilst being a Spanish resident. The boat paperwork has got pretty substantial mind ..

Try Topsail.
 
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