As regards insurance, the legislator authorised the grouping of different risks into a single policy.
For example, car insurance. The same insurance policy can cover civil liability, the 'bob' driver, omnium, vehicle assistance or even personal assistance, legal protection, bodily injury to the driver, etc.
In the case of a combined policy, the policyholder must be protected in his relationship with the insurer. As such, the legislator stipulated that the cause of cancellation or nullity relating to one of the coverages cannot necessarily affect the other components of the insurance.
Therefore, failure to mention a thatched roof when declaring the risk may result in the termination of the fire cover but not in the termination of the water damage cover covered by the same contract.
However, the cancellation of a single cover may make it difficult, if not impossible, to take out an insurance policy with another insurer for just the cancelled part of the cover.
For example, you took out a car insurance policy including civil liability car insurance, vehicle assistance and omnium with the same insurer. But the insurer terminates the omnium cover and you have difficulty finding an insurer on the market that will only provide omnium cover for your vehicle. Indeed, this cover is usually combined with the civil liability car insurance.
As such, the law provides that if the insurer cancels the cover relating to one or more risks, the policyholder may terminate the entire contract, so that they can take out a combined policy with another insurer. In concrete terms, in our example, you can cancel your entire policy and therefore all cover (civil liability car insurance, assistance, etc.) and insure your vehicle with another insurer who agrees to provide omnium cover for the vehicle, as long as you take out civil liability car insurance as well.
From 1 October 2024, the policyholder will be able to request that a new insurer or insurance intermediary take the necessary formal steps required to exercise the right of termination on their behalf. The law provides for continuity of insurance over time, but not coverage. Therefore, the policyholder must communicate whether they wish to fully terminate the contract or not.