The short answer is yes. And they will, however they may not check until you decide to make a claim. In which case, if they learn that you have got unspent convictions (if you have not completely discharged your rehabilitation time period), then your insurance policy will most likely turn out to be void because you failed to declare them when asked. It will be the insurance companies job to calculate risk, and if you decide not to declare your criminal record when questioned, you run the potential risk of paying towards a policy which you’ll never see any benefit from. Unspent convictions will always need to be disclosed to your insurer, however spent convictions don’t need to be disclosed. When you do disclose a spent conviction to the insurer, they are required to dismiss the declaration and will not be able to take it into consideration when determining your premium.
Whether you believe your conviction is pertinent to your insurance or not, you will still nevertherless be required to disclose it. Insurers use a variety of aspects to asses risk, and it is up to them to determine to what level (if any) your conviction may impact your policy. In the eyes of the law, you will have a duty to “disclose material facts”. Regardless of whether or not you are asked about your record, due to the fact unspent convictions are considered as material facts, you will always have to declare it to your insurer.
You can not avoid the necessity to declare. Obtaining a policy in a partner’s name is not going to allow you to avoid disclosure, because it doesn’t negate the material fact. Even if you’re living in somebody else’s household, the same as when you have someone who has a criminal record living in your property, you’re still required to present information to the insurance provider.
Failing to reveal your unspent convictions whenever obtaining insurance can have extremely serious repercussions. First of all (as mentioned above) your insurance provider will not be obliged to compensate in the case of a claim, nor will you be eligible for the return of any payments that you’ve made. These rules are also applied to home owners that have an individual with undisclosed/unspent convictions living in their household. Due to the fact that an omission of disclosure is a breach of the law, you would also be exposed to criminal prosecution for attempted fraud.
Lying on your insurance application can, in a nutshell, result in you losing both your house as well as your freedom. Since the majority of mortgage lenders require that you possess and maintain adequate buildings insurance, having your insurance policy cancelled can lead to problems finding cover from a different insurance company, this may lead to you losing your mortgage. Given that fraud is a serious offence, you may be convicted under the Fraud Act as well as wind up serving time.
It is sadly true that numerous insurance providers will unfairly decline your application when you’ve got unspent criminal convictions, mainly because you don’t match their idealised profile of an unrealistically risk free customer. The independent charity UNLOCK, the National Association of Reformed Offenders, works towards establishing access to fair home insurance coverage for people with criminal convictions. The UNLOCK website offers an invaluable useful resource for all ex offenders seeking information regarding their own rights and legal responsibility with regards to acquiring criminal convictions insurance. Ex offenders need to have insurance, the same as everybody else.