Recap of the Traditional Position on Conditions Precedent -

Part One of this two-part series explored the powerful remedy granted to underwriters on a breach by an insured of a condition precedent and considered court decisions from other parts of the UK and as far away as Singapore. The English law position that failure to comply with a condition precedent will entitle an insurer to escape liability even if the failure to comply was not in any way related to the loss was strictly applied in all cases. In some, the courts went even further, deeming that terms in insurance contracts that were not specified to be conditions precedent could still be relied on as such by insurers.

However, the recent change in the law has tipped the scales closer to insureds, in what had previously been a proinsurer legal regime.