Duty of Disclosure for Insurance Contracts: A Comparative Note of the United Kingdom and Indonesia

Abstract

Duty of disclosure is one of the most essential aspects of an insurance contract. Its role in an insurance contract is to avoid fraud and misinterpretations. A person seeking insurance must act in good faith, and good faith requires to disclose every material fact known, related to the risk. It begins with the proposer for the insurance policy that is obliged to disclose all information to the insurer. However, there is a possibility either the insured or insurer done a breach of duty of disclosure. Breach of duty of disclosure includes Non-Disclosure and Misrepresentation. Breach of duty of disclosure also possible to happen in the Pre-Contractual and Post-Contractual Stage in an insurance contract due to either a deliberate, reckless, or innocent breach. The duty of disclosure in each country might be different depends on its jurisdiction, for example, the United Kingdom as a common law country and Indonesia as a civil law country.