Minor convictions and home insurance

The facts about having minor convictions and how this influences finding house insurance

The truth is many homeowners will find it extremely difficult to find home insurance if either they, their partner or child has been convicted of a crime – not matter how small.

How long a crime needs to be declared to your insurer is based on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and varies depending upon the severity of the offence. For example, offences such as fare dodging can take five years to be spent, while a three month jail term would take around seven years.

Other insurers take a tougher stance on possession offences such as dealing drugs and having them in possession. However non ‘criminal’ offences such as drink driving will not have the same impact, and in many cases won’t influence the home insurance premium at all.

Why do minor criminal convictions affect home insurance?

Sometimes the link isn’t terribly clear, in terms of linking a criminal conviction to the insurance of bricks and mortar. There’s a concept in insurance called ‘moral hazard’ where a certain demographic is believed to pose a higher risk than others. Also there is the feeling that vandalism and theft claims tend to have a higher incidence rate amongst policyholders with convictions.

This is part of the reason, however insurers need to play their part in helping previous offenders become reformed and make realistic pricing decisions in terms of insurance. A house is still most people’s important asset, and like we are finding with homeowners in a potential flood plain, the prospect of not being able to afford insurance is a very distressing notion to many people.

The question is: should offences such as assault, drug dealing and fare dodging affect insurance rating? This will depend upon the insurer but the overring notion is that even if home insurance is more expensive it still needs to be affordable.

Convictedhomeinsurance.co.uk is a website designed to offer impartial advice to be people with convictions and help them insure their property. We offer a confidential service and will do our best to find an affordable policy with the right level of cover.

Our sister site convictedcarinsurance.co.uk helps find convicted driver insurance for offences such as drink driving, uninsured driving and reckless/dangerous driving.