Most people applying for home insurance skim past the question about criminal convictions. For anyone who has to answer yes, it is often the point at which a straightforward renewal turns into a problem, and comparison sites tend to stop returning quotes altogether.

Cover is available. It just comes from a different part of the market.

Why it has to be declared

Insurers are entitled to ask about unspent convictions, and under consumer insurance law you have to take reasonable care not to give an answer that is incorrect or misleading. A conviction is a fact, not an opinion, so there is no grey area in how it should be answered.

It is worth understanding that a decline is usually about underwriting appetite rather than a judgement about you personally. Many mainstream insurers simply do not have a product built to price the risk, so their system returns nothing.

It applies to the whole household

This is the part that catches people out. The question normally covers not just the policyholder but anyone living at the property, which can include a partner, an adult child or a lodger.

Plenty of policies have been invalidated because the applicant answered honestly about themselves and did not realise the question extended further than that.

What happens if it is not declared

If a conviction that should have been disclosed comes to light after a claim, the insurer can reduce the settlement, refuse the claim outright, or treat the policy as though it never existed and return the premium.

That is a serious position to be in, particularly where a mortgage lender requires buildings insurance to be maintained as a condition of the loan. Being uninsured is a breach of most mortgage agreements as well as a financial risk.

When a conviction becomes spent

Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, most convictions become spent once a rehabilitation period has passed, after which they no longer need to be declared for insurance. The length of that period depends on the sentence and the age of the person at the time, and some of the longest sentences never become spent.

The rules have changed more than once, so check the current position on GOV.UK rather than relying on what you were told at the time.

Arranging cover

Specialist insurers underwrite these cases individually. They look at the nature and age of the conviction alongside the property itself, rather than filtering the application out automatically.

If your renewal has come back declined, or you are not sure whether something needs declaring, speak to a broker before you complete another proposal form.

Call Alternative Insurance Brokers on 0161 388 2520 and we will talk it through.