Coronavirus FAQ's

• Your ceremony or reception venue is unable to hold your ceremony and/or wedding reception due to Coronavirus. However, please note that if the reason for cancellation is due to a government act or regulation, exclusions may apply (there is more detail on this exclusion below).
• Unavoidable cancellation of the wedding due to the death, injury or sickness (including Covid19) of the prospective marriage or civil partner, or your close relatives (close relatives are defined within your Policy), which would mean that having or continuing with the wedding and/or wedding reception would be impossible. Please see below for further details on what we cover in relation to Covid-19 and self-isolation due to Covid-19).
• The caterers for the wedding being unable to provide the service for or at your wedding due to an outbreak of Covid-19 at their premises.

Please refer to your Policy for further details on what is and is not covered under the terms of Section 1.

Please also note that if your claim is covered, it is only covered up to the amounts listed in the Schedule to your Policy.

Your Policy contains a number of exclusions. Most relevantly in relation to Coronavirus, your Policy excludes cover under Section 1 of your Policy and in the General Exclusions, if the reason for your wedding cancellation, rearrangement or curtailment arises directly or indirectly from a government Act or regulation. Therefore, if your wedding is cancelled or postponed whilst the Government prohibits large gatherings such as weddings, your claim may be excluded from cover. However, if there are any other covered circumstances causing the rearrangement or cancellation of your wedding (e.g. sickness of the prospective marriage or civil partner, or your close relatives (as defined within your Policy), then your claim will be covered, even if this exclusion also applies.

This exclusion applies to weddings in the UK and abroad but it is based on the applicable local laws and regulations in place at your wedding destination.

If you are unsure about your particular circumstances, please email claims@wedinsure.co.uk or call us on 0333 003 3182 and we will happily discuss this with you.

If your venue cancels your wedding ceremony and/or wedding reception, you need to discuss a solution with your venue, before submitting a claim. Your venue may offer you the opportunity to rearrange your wedding to a later date, or they may provide you with a refund. If you will incur any additional costs, please contact us before making any decisions regarding rearrangement or cancellation of your wedding, so we can discuss your options. This is because we do not want you to assume that you will have a valid claim under your Policy and subsequently make a decision that may have detrimental financial consequences for you. Please email us at claims@wedinsure.co.uk or call us on 0333 003 3182.

If your venue cancels your wedding, your Policy provides cover:

• If the reason is because your venue is unable to hold your ceremony and/or wedding reception due to Coronavirus. However, please note that if the reason for cancellation is due to a government Act or regulation, exclusions may apply (there is more detail on this exclusion above).
• If the venue suffers financial failure and/or is unable to guarantee that it will be able to hold your wedding and/or wedding reception because it has gone into administration after the date of purchase of your Policy.

If the venue is unable to hold your wedding and cancels please note that if they are refusing to give you a refund by reference to your contract terms with them, these terms can only be enforced if they are ‘fair and reasonable’ under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (the CRA). The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has recently launched an investigation into complaints about coronavirus-related cancellations at venues. According to the CMA, where a contract is not performed as agreed, consumer protection law allows consumers to obtain a refund. This would apply where a venue has cancelled a wedding without providing any of the promised goods or services or when a consumer is prevented from receiving any goods or services due to circumstances beyond their control. So, in these instances we do expect your venue to refund you or offer an alternative date that works for you.

Your Policy covers death, injury and sickness of the prospective marriage or civil partner, or a close relative (as defined within your Policy) that would make having or continuing with the wedding impossible. We will therefore cover self-isolation of you or your prospective marriage or civil partner, or a close relative (as defined in the Policy) only, if such persons have symptoms of Covid-19 and will be in self-isolation on the date of your wedding ceremony and/or wedding reception.

However, you will be required to produce supporting evidence of the requirement of such persons to self- isolate due to Covid-19 symptoms and evidence that the self-isolation will extend to the date of the wedding, such as an NHS self-isolating certificate or communication from NHS Test and Trace. You will still need to demonstrate mitigation of your financial loss.

Cover is not available for cancellation solely as a result of someone shielding. Where a prospective marriage or civil partner or close relative (as defined within your Policy) is shielding, cover will still be available for cancellation where that individual has a sickness that would make their attendance at the wedding impossible, regardless of the need to shield.

Your Policy also does not provide any cover for travelers in quarantine/self-isolating upon arrival or return into the UK or abroad.

Cover is provided in relation to wedding suppliers in the following circumstances:

• If the venue or catering business suffers financial failure in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Policy, resulting in the cancellation or rearrangement of your wedding, then your associated financial loss will be covered, subject to any applicable exclusions.
• If caterers are unable to provide their services due to an outbreak of infectious disease at their premises, this is covered under your Policy, subject to any applicable exclusions.
• If your wedding supplier enters bankruptcy, liquidation, ceases to trade or becomes insolvent. Note that later policies contain a specific exclusion where a wedding supplier becomes insolvent or is bankrupt or liquidated or ceases to trade within 10 days from the date you purchased your policy. Please check your policy carefully.

If you have been able to rearrange your wedding to a later date or are considering doing so, we want to make sure you are aware that from 9th November 2020, we are offering all policyholders an opportunity to extend cover to a rearranged wedding date for no additional cost so your policy continues to remain in force for your rearranged wedding date.

Our offer is subject to policyholders’ meeting all the following criteria:

• The reason for postponement/rearrangement of your wedding must be directly related to COVID- 19, the ban on social gatherings, enforcement of social distancing or travel restrictions;
• Your rearranged wedding date must fall:

• within 24 months of your existing wedding date; and
• no later than 31st December 2022, whichever is the earlier date of a) or b).

• From 9th November 2020, policyholders cannot request more than one free extension under any circumstances.
• You can split your wedding ceremony and wedding reception dates, but the later of the two dates must also fall within 24 months of your existing wedding ceremony date and be no later than 31st December 2022, whichever is the earlier date.

If you take advantage of an extension on or after 9th November 2020, this will be your final opportunity to extend your policy, in accordance with the provisions outlined above, we cannot extend your policy again.

It is also important for you to understand that all of the terms, conditions and exclusions in the policy you purchased for your original wedding date, do not change if your policy is extended to your rearranged wedding date. Please note though, that your policy excludes cover if the reason for your wedding rearrangement arises directly or indirectly from a government Act or regulation. Therefore, if your wedding is cancelled or postponed whilst the Government still prohibits large gatherings such as weddings, or the Government introduces new restrictions, your claim may be excluded from cover. This exclusion applies to weddings in the UK and overseas, based on the applicable local laws and regulations at your wedding destination.

To request an amendment to the dates on your policy please contact our customer service team by email at customer@wedinsure.co.uk and we will amend the dates accordingly and send you a revised policy schedule.

We are working hard to contact our policyholders about this and you should receive a personal communication in due course.

In circumstances, where you have already rearranged your wedding and received a free date change of your Policy from Wedinsure (if you meet the above conditions for a free date change), you are still eligible to submit a claim for increased costs associated with the re-arrangement of your original wedding, if you have not already done so. However, as you will appreciate, any claim will be assessed against the terms and conditions of the Policy so there is no guarantee that your claim will be covered.

We also confirm that any extension to your policy, does not have any impact on whether or not you have a covered claim under the Policy, be it for your original wedding date, or your rearranged wedding date.

We also bring to your attention that the cover limit stated in the Schedule of your Policy is the maximum value of all claims that you can make, both in relation to your original and rearranged wedding. For example, in the unlikely event that you need to rearrange your second wedding date and your claim is covered, your total claim payments cannot exceed the cover limits stated on your Policy Schedule for rearrangement cover.

If you have any questions on your Policy or concerns regarding your wedding and would like to speak to someone then in the first instance you can contact our Customer Service Team by email at customer@wedinsure.co.uk. If your query is urgent then you can also speak to us on 0800 005 1261. If you need to submit a claim, then you should download a claim form from the website and send this to claims@wedinsure.co.uk. If your claim is urgent you can also contact the Claims Team on 0333 003 3182.

Please note that due to the significant volume of enquires and claims we are currently receiving; our response time is slower than usual. We very much appreciate your understanding and patience during this time.

We have managed to rearrange our wedding to a later date or would like to consider doing so. Can we amend the dates on our existing policy to cover the new date?

Post: Wedinsure Complaints Team, 282 Leigh Road, Leigh on Sea. SS9 1BW

Email: complaints@wedinsure.co.uk

Telephone: 0800 005 1261