Study On Legal Issues Of Premium Payment Terms In Property Insurance

If the policyholder fails to pay the insurance premiums in accordance with the contract and an insured event occurs during the overdue period,the practical and academic circles have different views on whether the insurer should bear the insurance liability.In order to avoid risks,insurance companies usually set various types of premium payment terms in property insurance contracts to clarify the issue of liability in such cases.It can be seen from judicial practice that the disputes about premium payment terms mainly focus on such terms as the insurance liability begins after payment.Its common expression is "the company begins to assume the insurance liability after the policyholder has fulfilled the obligation to pay insurance premiums." Courts and academics have very different interpretations of the meaning of this term,which may cause the insurer to be liable for insured accidents that occur during the postponed insurance liability period,and have a great disagreement on the result of effectiveness judgments.I believe that to resolve the differences in interpretation,the core concepts such as "insurance period","insurance liability period" and "core payment terms" must be clarified first.The term that starts insurance liability after payment is a term on the starting point of the insurance liability period,that is,the agreed insurance liability period begins when the policyholder pays the premium in accordance with the contract.In addition,the insurance liability period ends with the expiration of the insurance period and cannot be postponed.If there is no special agreement or an agreement reached through separate negotiations,the insurance liability period may be shortened due to the default of the policyholder.After the interpretation of the term that starts insurance liability after payment,the content control rules of the insurance contract standard clause need to be used to evaluate its effectiveness.At present,the content control rule system of China's insurance standard terms is not perfect.In the relevant provisions of the Contract Law and Insurance Law,there are many problems such as overly abstract and overlapping rules,lacking of principle rules and legal examples.Although the Civil Code Contract Draft made some changes,it did not solve the core problems of the content control rules of the standard terms.Based on the justification of content control of insurance standard terms,I explored the application scope and the evaluation standards level for content control rules of insurance standard terms,and explored its specific path after clarifying the principle status of the "fair principle".Since the term that starts insurance liability after payment is within the content control scope of the insurance standard clause,and belongs to the field without arbitrary legal norms,its effectiveness should be judged according to the two major evaluation standards specified by the "fair principle".Based on the characteristics of the property insurance and the legal basis of the content control of the insurance standard terms,the term that starts insurance liability after payment would not cause an imbalance in the rights and obligations of the insurance parties.It is in line with the "fair principle" and should be determined as valid.Therefore,if the policyholder fails to pay the insurance premium in accordance with the contract and an insured event occurs during the overdue period,the insurer could refuse to bear the liability for compensation according to the term that starts insurance liability after payment.It should also be noted that according to the scope of protection,insurance can be divided into life insurance and property insurance.However,according to Insurance Law,the rights and obligations of life insurance parties in terms of the payment and claims of insurance premiums are significantly different from those in property insurance.Therefore,this article only discusses the issue of the interpretation of insurance premium terms in property insurance,specifically about the interpretation and validity of the term that starts insurance liability after payment.