.webp)
Terms and Conditions
Last updated: October 2024
Terms and Conditions
It is very important that you read these terms and conditions as they set out the arrangements between us, upcover, and you, our customer.
Duty of Disclosure Notice
It’s important to remember that whenever you enter an insurance arrangement that you have a duty to disclose.
As you consider taking out a policy with us, you should know you have a duty of disclosure.
We may ask you questions that are relevant to our decision to insure you and on what terms. If we do, you must tell us anything that you know and that a reasonable person in the circumstances would include in their answer. It is important that you understand that you are answering for yourself and anyone else to whom these questions apply. If you do not tell us anything you are required to, we may cancel your contract or reduce the amount we will pay you if you make a claim, or both. If your failure to tell us is fraudulent, we may refuse to pay a claim and treat the contract as if it never existed.
What this means is that you have an obligation to answer questions honestly, truthfully and as accurately as possible. Failing to do this before you purchase an insurance product can invalidate the insurance if the insurer decides they would not have entered into the contract if they had been informed at the start - so it is important to do this!
You have this duty until the insurer agrees to insure you, and at every renewal, or update to your insurance should you need to make changes (endorse, extend, reinstate or vary) your insurance.
You have this duty until the insurer agrees to insure you, and at every renewal, or update to your insurance should you need to make changes (endorse, extend, reinstate or vary) your insurance.
Motor insurance, and Personal Accident & Illness Insurance – Duty to Not Misrepresent
It’s important to remember that whenever you enter an insurance arrangement that you have a duty to not misrepresent.
As you consider taking out a policy with us, You should know You have a duty to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation.
Our decision to insure You relies on the accuracy of the information You provide to Us. You must answer all the questions We ask You honestly, truthfully and accurately and in doing so You to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation (“Your Duty to take Reasonable Care”). If You do not answer Our questions in this way We may reduce or refuse to pay a Claim, or cancel the Policy. If You answer Our questions fraudulently, We may refuse to pay a Claim and treat the Policy as never having existed.
Before entering into a consumer insurance contract, that is for motor, or personal accident insurance for your business, you have a duty to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to the insurer to enable it to determine whether to insure you and, if so, on what terms. You have this duty until the insurer agrees to insure you. You have the same duty before you renew, extend, vary or reinstate an insurance contract. Personal Accident insurance and Personal Accident and Illness insurance are the only types of consumer insurance contracts available for purchase through upcover.
What can happen if you make a misrepresentation, or fail to disclose?
If you make a misrepresentation or failed in your duty to disclose to the insurance partner and it is determined you failed to take reasonable care not to do so, the insurer may cancel your insurance contract or reduce the amount it will pay you if you make a claim, or both. If it is determined that your misrepresentation to the insurer was fraudulent, it may refuse to pay a claim and treat the contract as if it never existed.
Claims Made & Notified Policy Notice vs Occurrence Based Policy vs Date of Discovery
Claims Made and Notified Policies
Claims Made and Notified Policies refers to how a claims can be made under certain insurance products. This typically means that a claim can arise when a ‘claim is made or first notified to the insurer in the period of insurance’. A claim may include litigation, formal complaints, investigation notices from official bodies and letters of demand. This is usually when you receive the formal complaint, letter of demand or notice of litigation.
This applies to certain policies and is usually noted in the policy wording. This can include where you have purchased Professional Indemnity (or Civil Liability), Cyber Liability (third party claims section or the policy), IT Liability (Professional Indemnity or Civil Liability sections) or Management Liability insurance policy.
Your right to notify circumstances under the policy
You may believe there could be a claim but no claim has yet occurred. This entitles you to notify a circumstance, or facts that could become a claim in the future. What this does is ensures your business may be covered under the current period of insurance, even if no litigation or demand or notice has yet been made.
For more information, please refer to Section 40(3) of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth), this states that if the insured gives notice in writing to the insurer of facts that might give rise to a claim against the insured as soon as reasonably practicable after the insured became aware of those facts but before the insurance cover provided by the policy expires, the insurer is not relieved of liability under the policy in respect of the claim, when made, by reason only that it was made after the expiration of the period of the insurance cover provided by the policy.
If during the policy period you become aware of circumstances which a reasonable person in your position would consider may give rise to a claim, and which you fail to notify to the insurer during the policy period, the insurer may not cover you under the policy or a subsequent policy for any claim which arises from these circumstances.
When completing the application, and at subsequent renewals, you are obliged to report and provide full details of all circumstances of which you are aware and which a reasonable person in your position would consider may give rise to a claim.
It is important that you make proper disclosure (see Duty of Disclosure Notice, above) so that your cover under any policy is not compromised.
For more information, please refer to Section 40(3) of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth), this states that if the insured gives notice in writing to the insurer of facts that might give rise to a claim against the insured as soon as reasonably practicable after the insured became aware of those facts but before the insurance cover provided by the policy expires, the insurer is not relieved of liability under the policy in respect of the claim, when made, by reason only that it was made after the expiration of the period of the insurance cover provided by the policy.
If during the policy period you become aware of circumstances which a reasonable person in your position would consider may give rise to a claim, and which you fail to notify to the insurer during the policy period, the insurer may not cover you under the policy or a subsequent policy for any claim which arises from these circumstances.
When completing the application, and at subsequent renewals, you are obliged to report and provide full details of all circumstances of which you are aware and which a reasonable person in your position would consider may give rise to a claim.
It is important that you make proper disclosure (see Duty of Disclosure Notice, above) so that your cover under any policy is not compromised.
Occurrence Based policies
Occurrence based policies refers to how claims can be made under other insurance products, typically Public and Products Liability (or General Liability) insurance products. This means that a claim can arise within a period of insurance when the alleged loss, injury or property damage occurred.
Date of Discovery (First Discovered)
Date of Discovery based policies refers to how claims can be made under Cyber insurance products (first party loss), as well as Fidelity or Commercial Crime insurance products. This typically means the date that you first discovered the cyber event, cyber crime, or fraud. It is important that when this occurs that you notify the insurance partner and insurer as soon as reasonably practicable after first discovery. You can do this by making an online claim form on https://www.upcover.com/support.
Retroactive Liability
The proposed insurance may be limited by a retroactive date either stated in the schedule or endorsed onto the policy. Where the cover provided by the proposed policy is subject to such a retroactive date, then the policy does not cover any claim arising from an actual or alleged act, error, omission or conduct occurring prior to such retroactive date.
Agency Notice
In effecting this insurance upcover Pty Ltd (ABN 17 628 197 437; CAR 1299211) will be acting under an authority given to it by its insurance partners, the insurer, and will be effecting the contract as agent of the insurer and not you, the customer or the insured.
General Advice Warning
All services provided to you from upcover.com are provided as general advice only. General Advice is advice that has been prepared without considering your current objectives, financial situation or needs. Because of this, our platform, or customer success specialists, do not recommend an insurance policy for you, we only offer the policies available to us from the insurance partners and insurers listed on our website, and provide you with factual information about these products. All advice provided is General Advice only.
Therefore, before acting on this advice, you should always consider the appropriateness of the advice having regard to your current objectives, financial situation or needs. If the advice provided relates to the acquisition or possible acquisition of a new insurance policy you should read the Product Disclosure Statement and/ or Policy Wording (available on our website) before making any decision about whether to acquire such a financial product.
Therefore, before acting on this advice, you should always consider the appropriateness of the advice having regard to your current objectives, financial situation or needs. If the advice provided relates to the acquisition or possible acquisition of a new insurance policy you should read the Product Disclosure Statement and/ or Policy Wording (available on our website) before making any decision about whether to acquire such a financial product.
Renewing the Policy (including Auto-Renewal)
We will send you notification of whether the insurer is prepared to negotiate to renew the policy and if so, on what terms, at least 14 days before the expiry date of your policy. This is usually between 60 and 45 days before your existing policy expires.
Unless we require a new proposal or declaration from you to determine your premium or decide to offer renewal (we will tell you by email if this is the case), the renewal notice will show the premium for the new period of insurance and may also include notice of any changes to the terms of your policy.
If you wish to take up such a renewal offer and you are happy the information is accurate and you have no further disclosure to make to insurers under your duty of disclosure (see Duty of Disclosure Notice, above), you will not have to do anything and if we do not hear from you 14 days before the expiry of your current period of insurance we will automatically deduct / charge the renewal premium from your account / credit or debit card. If you do not wish to take up the renewal offer you must contact us before we deduct this payment which will be within the week before your policy expires. You may request that this policy be cancelled should you wish to not continue with the renewal but this must be notified at least 30 days before the new policy start date.
When you receive a renewal offer, you must tell us before expiry if the information contained in it is incorrect or incomplete and make such additional disclosure to us as is required pursuant to your duty of disclosure. We will then consider the additional information and whether and on what terms we are able to arrange for policy renewal.
If we are not able to automatically renew your policy we will send you an email notification for you to either complete your renewal online or to contact us. Please ensure you keep us updated of any change to your email address.
Unless we require a new proposal or declaration from you to determine your premium or decide to offer renewal (we will tell you by email if this is the case), the renewal notice will show the premium for the new period of insurance and may also include notice of any changes to the terms of your policy.
If you wish to take up such a renewal offer and you are happy the information is accurate and you have no further disclosure to make to insurers under your duty of disclosure (see Duty of Disclosure Notice, above), you will not have to do anything and if we do not hear from you 14 days before the expiry of your current period of insurance we will automatically deduct / charge the renewal premium from your account / credit or debit card. If you do not wish to take up the renewal offer you must contact us before we deduct this payment which will be within the week before your policy expires. You may request that this policy be cancelled should you wish to not continue with the renewal but this must be notified at least 30 days before the new policy start date.
When you receive a renewal offer, you must tell us before expiry if the information contained in it is incorrect or incomplete and make such additional disclosure to us as is required pursuant to your duty of disclosure. We will then consider the additional information and whether and on what terms we are able to arrange for policy renewal.
If we are not able to automatically renew your policy we will send you an email notification for you to either complete your renewal online or to contact us. Please ensure you keep us updated of any change to your email address.
Commission and Fees
For each insurance product the insurer will charge you a premium. We receive from the insurer a commission that is a percentage of this premium, varying between 0% and 25%.
We also charge per policy a service fee of $0 to $300 (ex. GST) for the policies we arrange. This fee relates to the delivery of the service from upcover to you including but not limited to the provision and maintenance of the technology platform and the services provided by upcover’s software engineering, product, customer success and product specialist team. It is calculated based on factors including the work involved, the nature of your business and the product selected.
If you elect to pay your premium by monthly instalments, we will also charge you an instalment administration charge which is a flat percentage of the total cost of your insurance, assisting us in servicing the loan that enables us to allow monthly instalments as well as the cost of servicing these to you each month.
If you pay by credit or debit card we may charge you a card (including arrangement & handling) fee. This fee covers the cost of bank charges etc. associated with such facilities. This is a cost that upcover bears and is not charged to you.
All fees payable for services will be advised to you separately from your premium on the invoices we provide.
We also charge per policy a service fee of $0 to $300 (ex. GST) for the policies we arrange. This fee relates to the delivery of the service from upcover to you including but not limited to the provision and maintenance of the technology platform and the services provided by upcover’s software engineering, product, customer success and product specialist team. It is calculated based on factors including the work involved, the nature of your business and the product selected.
If you elect to pay your premium by monthly instalments, we will also charge you an instalment administration charge which is a flat percentage of the total cost of your insurance, assisting us in servicing the loan that enables us to allow monthly instalments as well as the cost of servicing these to you each month.
If you pay by credit or debit card we may charge you a card (including arrangement & handling) fee. This fee covers the cost of bank charges etc. associated with such facilities. This is a cost that upcover bears and is not charged to you.
All fees payable for services will be advised to you separately from your premium on the invoices we provide.
Policy Cancellation
You may cancel your policy at any time by providing written notice to us, please see https://www.upcover.com/support for more information. The insurer may cancel your policy in accordance with the Insurance Contracts Act, 1984 (Cth).
upcover Remuneration Rights on Policy Cancellation
On cancellation of any insurance policy effected through upcover, unless the cancellation takes place within any applicable cooling off period, you agree that the commission and any fees paid to upcover are non refundable to you and may be deducted by upcover from any refund otherwise payable by the insurer to you on cancellation of the policy, irrespective of any terms to the contrary in the policy.
Privacy Collection Notice
We generally collect personal information from you or through service providers that act for us. However, there may be occasions when we collect it from someone else where they hold relevant information.
We will use your personal information for the purposes for which it was collected (usually to arrange a quote for insurance or an insurance policy for you; assist you with any claims you may make; or to contact you), other related purposes and for the other purposes outlined in our Privacy Policy.
You may choose not to give us your personal information, but this may affect our ability to provide you with a product or service, including arranging a quote for insurance or an insurance policy for you, communicate with you or respond to your enquiries.
We may disclose your personal information to insurers, our service providers our referral partners (if you purchased through us as a result of referral) and other parties, as detailed in our Privacy Policy.
For more details on what personal information we collect, how we collect it and from whom, and how we hold, use and disclose your personal information please refer to our Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy also provides information about how you can access your personal information, seek correction of it and complain about a breach of privacy law and how we will deal with such a complaint.
You can access our Privacy Policy at https://www.upcover.com/policies/privacy-policy or you can contact us and request a copy be sent to you.
By email:
Privacy Officer
support@upcover.com.au
Mail:
upcover Pty Ltd
Level 8, 11 York St, Sydney, NSW 2000
We will use your personal information for the purposes for which it was collected (usually to arrange a quote for insurance or an insurance policy for you; assist you with any claims you may make; or to contact you), other related purposes and for the other purposes outlined in our Privacy Policy.
You may choose not to give us your personal information, but this may affect our ability to provide you with a product or service, including arranging a quote for insurance or an insurance policy for you, communicate with you or respond to your enquiries.
We may disclose your personal information to insurers, our service providers our referral partners (if you purchased through us as a result of referral) and other parties, as detailed in our Privacy Policy.
For more details on what personal information we collect, how we collect it and from whom, and how we hold, use and disclose your personal information please refer to our Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy also provides information about how you can access your personal information, seek correction of it and complain about a breach of privacy law and how we will deal with such a complaint.
You can access our Privacy Policy at https://www.upcover.com/policies/privacy-policy or you can contact us and request a copy be sent to you.
By email:
Privacy Officer
support@upcover.com.au
Mail:
upcover Pty Ltd
Level 8, 11 York St, Sydney, NSW 2000
Dispute Resolution
We have complaint handling and internal dispute resolution procedures in place. This service is available to you free of charge. Clients who are not satisfied with our services may contact our Co-Founder & CEO, Skye Theodorou, or our Customer Support Resolution Officer on 1300 UPCOVER or support@upcover.com to raise any concerns they have. We will take your concerns raised seriously. If you are unhappy with our resolution you may proceed to make a complaint to our insurance partners, who will respond to your complaint within fifteen (15) working days.
You can refer to your policy wording in order to find contact details of this, or see https://www.upcover.com/support. If you are not satisfied with upcover or our insurance partner’s, the insurer’s, answer and request us to do so, we will treat your complaint as a dispute. The matter will then be referred to our or our insurance partner’s internal disputes resolution officer and they will respond to you within fifteen (15) working days.
If you are still not happy with the outcome you may be able to have your matter considered by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA provides a free and independent dispute resolution service for consumers who have general insurance disputes falling within its terms of reference.
Determinations of AFCA are binding on us but are not binding on you.
Contact details for AFCA are
Phone: 1800 931 678
Email: info@afca.org.au
Post: GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001
Website: www.afca.org.au
You can refer to your policy wording in order to find contact details of this, or see https://www.upcover.com/support. If you are not satisfied with upcover or our insurance partner’s, the insurer’s, answer and request us to do so, we will treat your complaint as a dispute. The matter will then be referred to our or our insurance partner’s internal disputes resolution officer and they will respond to you within fifteen (15) working days.
If you are still not happy with the outcome you may be able to have your matter considered by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA provides a free and independent dispute resolution service for consumers who have general insurance disputes falling within its terms of reference.
Determinations of AFCA are binding on us but are not binding on you.
Contact details for AFCA are
Phone: 1800 931 678
Email: info@afca.org.au
Post: GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001
Website: www.afca.org.au
Thanks for visiting our website. Have a question? Let us know – support@upcover.com
.svg)
