Building contract

It was an established principle that where a proposal form contained a “basis of contract” clause: (i) the proposal form had contractual effect even if the policy contained no reference to the proposal form; and (ii) all statements in the proposal form constituted warranties on which the insurance contract was based. Those principles could not be displaced merely by omitting the proposal form from the list of contractual documents set out in the policy. If the parties intended to deprive of contractual effect a proposal form which purported to be the basis of their contract, they had to do so by clear and unequivocal language.