I’m not sure the insurance ombudsman would let an insurance company hide behind the wooliness of Uberrimae Fides as not all consumers can be assumed to have studied insurance 101. Why should it be up to an uninformed consumer to decide what ‘obviously’ should be told to the insurance company and what information can be withheld?
Oh yes he/she would. It is one of the basic principles of contract law, applied to insurance. If somebody filled out a proposal form properly and answered all the questions fully and accurately I don't see a problem. Ignorance is no excuse. Try telling a court of law that you never knew a law that you'd broken existed.
For example, I sometimes speed but I have no penalty points – should I tell the insurance company or am I ‘safe’ because they have no way of checking? Borrowing from another thread, what about expired penalty points? Even old ones indicate a tendency to speed so should they be reported forever, even 20-30 years after expiry? I would love to see a case come before the ombudsman where the penalty points question wasn’t asked and neither was a catch-all ‘can you think of anything material we should know about that hasn’t been asked’. I think the ombudsman would come down on the side of the consumer – the insurance company should know to ask such an obvious question and if the consumer answered all questions honestly I can’t see the ombudsman asking him did he not think he was going against the concept of Uberrimae Fides.
Answer the questions on the proposal fully and accurately. If it says "have you had any claims, convictions, endorsements, penalty points in the last 5 years?" and the truth is you haven't there is no doubt, and no problem. I think that's very clear cut.
The penalty points question is always asked afaik.
That said, I think in this case, either the OP signed a proposal form without reading or the broker dropped the ball somehow in not asking for a full proposal form or renewal update form – I don’t think there are any insurance companies left which don’t ask about penalty points at renewal or when first taking out a policy.
Yes, although at a renewal no additional q's are normally asked.