Q&A Edition February 2011
A NECA Member has posed the following question:
I have been in the business for over 20 years now and the other night my wife and I were reminiscing about the ‘old days’. Apart from realising just how far we had come, we were thinking about the type of work we do now and how we could not have even imagined us being involved in such futuristic activities.
One of the frightening realisations we came to was that a lot of what we do now is self taught. We also keep expanding our capabilities to stop our competitors nipping at our heels. For example, we are doing more and more solar panel installations and getting into home automation – things we never would have even dreamt of ten years ago.
We had a bit of a scare though recently and it made me think – are we insured for all of these additional activities? It involved a solar panel installation, we fixed the problem quickly but it could have been a lot worse. What do we, or do we not, have to tell our insurance company and is there any risk that we won’t get a claim paid if we start doing something new that we forget to tell them about?
Our advice:
I have worked with NECA for many years and it amazes me at how diverse this industry has become over a relatively short space of time!
In answer to your question though, every insurance policy has a condition in it that relates to your ‘Duty of Disclosure’. Simply put, an insurance company can deny your claim if the claim has come about while you were engaged in an activity they did not know about. While this sounds quite harsh, it is really meant to protect them against insuring your business as an electrical contractor (and charging you a commensurate premium) when you decide to do a bit of dynamite blasting on the side – which is clearly a more hazardous activity!
The key here is to use common sense. If the new activity diminishes the risk to the insurer, is of common knowledge, or the insurer should know just through general market intelligence, there is no need to notify of the change.
Having said this, the installation of solar panels might be one that is a bit more tricky; so we would advise that you let your
insurer know of this activity. You will probably find that your premium will not rise as a result (if you are insured with NECAGUARD it certainly will not) and you will then be fully protected.
Another ten years and you will probably be telling your insurer how you are doing infrastructure work by remote control on the moon!
Seriously though, if ever in doubt, just contact your broker or InterRISK and we can give you some advice that will assist.