A luxury car buyer who failed to tell an insurance broker her husband had four speeding offences has lost a claim dispute.

The motor policy was placed with HDI Global Specialty a year ago and the woman’s husband was listed as an additional driver. After an accident last April, they lodged a claim.

HDI declined the claim, saying it was a misrepresentation that several speeding offences were not disclosed. The correct driving history would have failed its mandatory underwriting guidelines for an acceptable risk, it said.

The woman, who had disclosed an offence of failing to stop at a signal, said she was not aware of her husband’s full driving history at the time of policy inception. 

She told the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) that questions asked by her broker were confusing and the speeding offences – which were within 13kmh of the limit – were at the lower end of the scale.

The insurance quotation came as she was collecting the vehicle, she said, and almost all communication around the policy was conducted through the broker on the phone and without paperwork to review.

“The panel does not accept that these are sufficient reasons for the complainant to provide incorrect answers,” AFCA said in its ruling on the dispute. “The complainant says the broker asked long, compounding questions which applied to both her and [her husband]. She says the questions should have been singular, clear and specific questions regarding the traffic history of the parties. The panel does not accept these submissions.”

The broker had asked if in the previous five years “yourself or [your husband] had any traffic offences, charges, infringement, or convictions”.

The woman revealed only that her husband had not stopped at stop sign, yet the husband also had speeding offences three times in April 2022 and once in September 2019.

AFCA says the questions were “clear and specific” and the policy schedule and application process clearly communicated the importance of answering correctly, contacting HDI if there were any changes, and the consequences of failing to do so.

It says HDI has established it would not have offered the policy if the car buyer had disclosed the true driving record.

“The complainant has made a misrepresentation and did so by failing to take reasonable care. The complainant could have made a proper inquiry of [her husband’s] driving record. The complainant was reckless or showed a disregard to the question asked,” AFCA said.

“The complainant did not make any attempts to correct her answers at any time. The panel notes that on the claim form [months later], the same answers are given in relation to the driving record.”

HDI’s underwriting guidelines do not allow it to issue a policy if a driver has incurred more than three offences in the previous three years or more than five offences in the preceding five years.  

See the full ruling here.