A modification of an insurance contract can only result from a written document, recalled the Court of Cassation.
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It can result from the signing of an addendum signed with the insured or a written request from the insured or even any document provided it is written, she explained. The judges thus set aside the logical deductions that an insurer presented in order not to have to bear the consequences of a claim.
The example
The insurer had originally covered the risk of several vehicles and claimed after an accident that the vehicle in question had in the meantime been withdrawn from the contract.
But without any written document signed with his client, without a written request from that client, he had no “Beginning of proof”, observed the judges, and so he owed his guarantee.
The argument according to which the insurer would have had no interest in withdrawing from the contract the cover of the risk of a vehicle, on its own initiative, thus reducing the contributions which it collected, is not a useful argument, has added the Court. Also ineffective is the argument that the client was necessarily aware of a change which had led to the reduction in his contributions.
What the law says
The law, in the Insurance Code, requires a writing to prove the existence, as the content of an insurance contract, recalled the Court. In addition, the Chatel law provides that the insurer must notify you before the end of the termination period of your contract. If he doesn’t, you can cancel your insurance whenever you want. The Hamon law allows you to change when you want insurance, as soon as you have passed the first year of the contract.
