Summary

In an insurance contract, the main obligation of a policyholder is to pay the insurance premium and the main obligation of an insurer is to pay the insurance indemnity in case of an insured event. At the same time, the insurer’s obligation to pay the insurance indemnity is not absolute and in certain cases the insurer is partially or fully relieved from the obligation to perform. Such cases may, for example, be situations where the policyholder has failed to duly pay the insurance premium; the policyholder has violated the pre-contractual obligation to inform; the insured risk increases; the policyholder violates the obligations following the insured event; or also a situation where the policyholder violates safety requirements (safety measures). In its article, the author analyses safety requirements in non-life insurance.

Safety requirements are not separately regulated in the Law of Obligations Act (for example, contrary to an overall increase in the insured risk). At the same time, the Finnish Insurance Contracts Act and the Principles of European Insurance Contract Law (PEICL) regulate the safety requirements (separately from the overall increase in the insured risk). In practice, however, the majority of Estonian insurers use the regulation of safety requirements in their standard conditions and this despite the fact that there are no explicit norms in the Law of Obligations Act). In the article, the author tries to find answers to the following questions: What are the safety requirements? How can one distinguish safety requirements from insured risk exclusions? And what are the consequences of neglecting safety requirements in the obligation to perform of the insurer?