General Insurance PrinciplesQuestion 229 of 531

A commercial applicant does not mention an earlier fire loss that a court found was deliberately set, and the application does not ask about it. Failing to volunteer that fact is:

a.a waiver by the insurer, which did not ask about it
b.concealment, a breach of the duty of utmost good faith
c.an innocent misstatement the insurer is required to overlook
d.a warranty breach, since every application fact is warranted

Explanation

Concealment is the silent withholding of a material fact that the applicant knows and the insurer would want, and because insurance is a contract of utmost good faith it can give the insurer grounds to void the policy even though no question was asked. Treating the insurer's silence as a waiver misstates waiver, which is the intentional giving up of a known right by the insurer, not the applicant's own choice to stay quiet.

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