LM-2024-000066 - [2025] EWHC 1416 (Comm)

Fecha: 18-Jun-2025

CONTRACT – Home insurance – Claim for indemnity under policy –Defence of avoidance for qualifying fraudulent misrepresentation – Defence of reliance on contract works exclusion – Claimants’ applicatio

CONTRACT – Home insurance – Claim for indemnity under policy –Defence of avoidance for qualifying fraudulent misrepresentation – Defence of reliance on contract works exclusion – Claimants’ application to strike out defences and for partial summary judgment against defendant – Whether claimants adopting misstatement in defendant insurer’s self-generated statement of insurance that the property was not likely to undergo any contract works within the next 12 months following policy inception – Whether a case of mere nondisclosure – Whether defendant placing reliance on any misrepresentation when incepting policy – Whether contract works exclusion available to defendant – Whether properly and fully pleaded

The following cases are referred to in the judgment:

AF Kopp Ltd v HSBC UK Bank plc [2024] EWHC 1004 (Ch)

Axa Sun Life plc v Inland Revenue Commissioners [2024] EWCA Civ 1430, [2025] 1 WLR 2179

Boake Allen Ltd & Ors v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2006] EWCA Civ 25, [2006] STC 606

BV Nederlandse Industrie van Eiprodukten v Rembrandt Enterprises Inc [2019] EWCA Civ 596, [2020] QB 551

Crossley v Volkswagen AG [2021] EWHC 3444 (QB), [2023] 1 All ER (Comm)

Duchess of Sussex (HRH the) v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2021] EWHC 273 (Ch), [2021] 4 WLR 35

Easyair Ltd v Opal Telecom Ltd [2009] EWHC 339 (Ch)

Hayward v Zurich Insurance Co plc [2016] UKSC 48, [2017] AC 142

Jones v Zurich Insurance plc [2021] EWHC 1320 (Comm), [2022] Lloyd’s Rep 219

Kasem v University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWHC 136 (QB)

Loreley Financing (Jersey) No 30 Ltd v Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd [2023] EWHC 2759 (Comm)

Niprose Investments Ltd v Vincents Solicitors Limited [2024] EWHC 801 (Ch) and [2025] EWHC 14 (Ch)

Parallel Media LLC v Chamberlain [2014] EWHC 214 (QB)

Sumitomo Bank v Banque Bruxelles Lambert SA [1997] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 487

Tchenguiz v Grant Thornton UK LLP [2015] EWHC 405 (Comm), [2015] 1 All E R (Comm) 961

TFL Management Services Ltd v Lloyds TSB Bank plc [2013] EWCA Civ 1415, [2014] 1 WLR 2006

His Honour Judge Hodge KC:

I: Introduction

On the afternoon of 9 May 2022 the claimants, Mr and Mrs Bellhouse, insured their home in Chiswick, at 135 Park Road, London W4 3EX, and its contents with the defendant, Zurich Insurance Plc (Zurich) for the period from 9 May 2022 to 8 May 2023. They did so through insurance brokers, Giles Gowers Insurance Associates (Giles Gowers). It is common ground that this was a consumer insurance contract for the purposes of the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 (CIDRA). On 29 December 2022, whilst substantial contract works were being carried out to the property, a fire broke out which caused substantial damage to the property and its contents. The claimants made a claim under their home insurance policy. Zurich has purported to avoid liability under the policy, asserting that it would not have entered into the policy of insurance but for a misrepresentation that the claimants had no plans to carry out any major works of renovation, addition or alteration to their home within the next 12 months. Zurich also seeks to rely upon a contract works exclusion from cover under the terms of the policy. By a Part 7 claim form, issued on 8 March 2024, the claimants seek a declaration to the effect that Zurich is obliged under the insurance policy to indemnify them in respect of the claim, together with an indemnity, damages, interest and costs.