Important Changes to Property Owners’ Customer Questions

***THIS PAGE WAS LAST EDITED 6 OCTOBER 2021***

Important Changes to Property Owners’ Customer Questions

Updated questions, fairer pricing

Polaris is updating the customer-facing questions in the open market Property Owners panel. This means changes for customers, and for brokers too. This is an industry wide directive being led by Polaris that will affect the entire market and not just Ageas.

You must now definitively ask for new quote data from customers on all quotes and renewals for Property Owners’ policies.

It’s important that you adapt your business processes now, so you can start collecting the required additional customer information. You will be unable to obtain a new business quote or renew without it.

We recommend that you contact your customers and ask them to proactively answer the new and amended questions for all recent quotes and upcoming renewals.

What must Ageas brokers do?

Make time to engage your customers at quote and renewal, so that you can run through the new and changed questions with them. This is important, as we will not extend cover on the existing basis.

Insured details

A new field to capture information about Company Partnership Name details
Some software houses will now ask for details of claims settled
Several questions about the policyholders’ finances have also been amended
All declaration questions have been updated

Property to be insured

You will find:

New questions about residential property use and how residents are funding their rent
Several questions about details of the property have also been amended

Other

You will find:

A new, optional question about non-damage business interruption cover
An amended question connected to the need for cover against acts of terrorism

Which questions have been removed?

Several questions have been removed across four sections of the question set. These questions relate to:

The insured party
Property to be insured
Other cover needed
Liability

Why are these changes happening?

This is an industry-wide initiative being led by Polaris, affecting all insurers using the iMarket standard question sets through software houses. These questions haven’t been updated for a long time, so these changes aim to support customers with fairly traded products and more accurate pricing.

FAQs

When does this change happen?

17 October 2021

If we can’t reach the customer at renewal, will Ageas honour the cover on the existing basis?

No. We cannot honour cover on the existing basis; this is a contracted new period of insurance and needs to be reflected with fair presentation of risk and ensuring the customers’ needs have been correctly met. It’s essential that brokers get definitive answers to all the new questions. In addition, we cannot offer extensions for collecting the information, so it is important to factor in this additional work when you’re planning to contact customers.

Can we get the system set up with default answers?

No. Your customers must tell you what their answer is proactively, so that we have a fair presentation of risk on all existing business and new business.

Will a Notice to Policyholders (NTP) be issued at renewal?

Yes, however before we issue your customers renewal and NTP, you will need to obtain all the required information. The NTP at renewal will highlight any questions where the wording has changed.

There are some significant changes in rate, are these correct? Have there been rate increases?

We can rate risk factors more accurately, with the new questions in place. This does mean some risks will automatically see movement in premium, up or down.

Which residential occupant type should be chosen now for freeholders and / or leaseholders?

If policyholders aren’t sure about the type of residential occupants in the building, then they should choose ‘Working Occupants, not Benefits Assisted’.

If a policyholder does have this information, then it must be declared (they can use the closest possible category, based on the majority of occupants).

However, freeholders and leaseholders will be aware of students – so policyholders must always declare and choose ‘Student’ if most residents fit that description.

Does ‘Benefits Assisted’ include benefits like child support?

Child Benefit is excluded from benefit considerations. The term “Benefits Assisted” applies when occupants are receiving benefits that make up more than 50% of the household’s income. That might include housing benefit, employment, disability, incapacity, or care/support benefits.

Who should we contact with any queries on the product or policy changes?

If you have any Ageas specific queries relating to this change, please contact PropertyOwnersUpgrade@ageas.co.uk.