Introduction
In August 2016 the Insurance Act 2015 came into force in the UK.
The new Act represented the greatest change to insurance contract
law in the UK in over 100 years and was widely heralded by the
insurance sector as a welcome and long overdue overhaul of the
law.
However, more recent legislative changes have caused concern
within the insurance market. On 5 May 2017, the Enterprise
Act 2016 will come into force in the UK and will make two key
amendments to the Insurance Act. These are the addition of
two new clauses as follows:
- Clause 28 of the Enterprise Act introduces a
new section 13(A) to the Insurance Act which will makes it an
implied term of every contract of insurance that if the insured
makes a claim under the contract, the insurer must pay any sums due
in respect of a claim "within a reasonable time". A
"reasonable" time includes time to investigate and assess
the claim and what is reasonable will depend on various factors
which I will
