Insurance Act 2015 – what’s in there for marine community?
Author: Darko Vrkljan
Key words: Insurance Act 2015, insurance law, ITC-Hulls (1/10/83), H&M insurance
Insurance Act 2015 is a result of at least 30 years of discussions and proposals how to modernize a 100-years old Marine Insurance Act 1906. Although the Marine Insurance Act 1906 enabled codification of (marine) insurance principles developed by Judiciary, its role gets weaker due to digitalization processes, improvements in best insurance practice and rise of awareness of consumer (assured) protection rights.
Insurance Act 2015 represents probably the most significant change to English (British) insurance law ever. It became effective on 12 August 2016 and applies to all classes of insurance including reinsurance and retrocession. The main changes refer to amendments to Placement (pre-contractual obligations), Warranties (express and implied), Fraudulent Claims and, conditionally, Damages (for late payment of claims) subject to Enterprise Act 2016.
The author of this paper would like to present an impact of above mentioned main changes to the insurance industry, especially to transport insurance respectively hull insurance of vessels (H&M) and to show practical implications when underwriting H&M risks. Namely, 2/3 of countries use Institute Time Clauses – Hulls (1/10/83 respectively 1/11/95), shortened as ITC – Hulls (1/10/83), as a wording for hull insurance of vessels. Likewise, many other wordings derive from ITC – Hulls (1/10/83).
Finally, the author of this presentation wishes to induce participants to consider justification of future application of English law and practice instead of domestic law, especially Croatian law.
