Car Insurance declairing modifications

marques72

hi mate dont know if you could help me or put me in the right direction i had a golf gti 1.8 turbo it was nicked outside my yard on the 31st of january this year i obtained a crime ref no after informing the police and also notified the insurance company now they voided my claim and refused to pay because they said i did not tell them the car was modified. I have contacted the FOS and presently awaiting an adjudicator do you know of any cases that have been sorted that are similar to mine.

I took the policy out on the internet and answered NO to the questions asked if there have been any alterations or modifications made to the car because I bought the car from the garage it had tinted windows and alloy wheels which I did not think were modifications initially when I took out the policy but which the insurance company are saying these are modifications and thats why they are refusing to pay out.

codger

Pretty terrifying thread, this.

We've just changed cars (private sale of our own, then private purchase of someone else's).

We notified our insurer of the change and were asked if the vehicle had been modified. We took this to mean after-market modifications: not the installation, by the manufacturer, and then the manufacturer's authorised dealer of approved optional equipment, as promoted in any and every car manufacturer's glossy product brochure.

Net result of the upgrades to our car make it more comfortable to live in (dual climate control instead of aircon; leather instead of fabric seats; parking sensors all round (instead of none at all); alloy wheels of a different design to the alloys included in the base price; etc etc etc.

The car doesn't go any faster. Its performance is exactly the same as without the incorporation of the manufacturer's extras.

When asked to value the vehicle, we told our insurer what we paid and that was it.

Is it now the case -- a mere fortnight after having spoken to our insurer about this -- that we should now ring up and say well, look, when you said about vehicle modifications, did you really mean the existence of manufacturer-supplied options?

Because if that's the case, then it's about time the insurance industry got its own act together and started using the plain English it seems so often to pride itself on.

And motor manufacturers had better stop using the word "options", too.

In fact, we might just as well go the whole hog and forget about "options" and "extras" and "modifications" and resort to the simple old-fashioned word:

"Changes".

Which, of course, was not a word our insurer used when talking to us. Had the simple question been asked:

'Has the standard specification of this particular model been changed in any way?" then we could have answered that it had.

Never mind customers communicating with insurers. The suspicion lurks that insurers are deliberately obfuscating their own communications with customers in hope of creating yet further loopholes to avoid paying out a claim.


:mad:

Swans1912

If I bought a used car (I haven't) and it had been modified (new alloys for example) and I didn't tell the insurance company because I didn't know about it then I wouldn't be insured?!

latecomer

Check the terms and conditions of your insurance, they normally state that if you have not declared something you should have then it might invalidate your insurance.

Personally I think its about time the insurance people had a list to work from where they could ask whether the car had allows, air con, body modifications etc to which you say yes/no and elaborate if required. They could then check it against a standard equipment list and then there would be no confusion.

SandC

It seems quite clear in the quotes listed above what the insurers mean by modifications. It is up to the customer to check all the small print and it is up to the customer to know whether their car is fitted with all the standard things for that model or they have been 'upgraded'.

It's not about a car being faster or looking like you are a boy racer but about the car being more desirable to a thief and also their premiums are based on a standard model - if you've paid for extras, even if it's just to make it look more pretty then it stands to reason that your premium might be higher, but even if it isn't then they need to know.

I can understand, however, the confusion when you are asked 'are there any modifications?', which implies you having changed aspects of the car after purchasing it. Perhaps insurers should have a tick list after asking whether your car is a standard model or not.

I suspect people might then moan at the increase in questions asked 'just for a bleddy motor quote'.

codger

Looks like we're all agreed then that yes, there's a duty upon the customer to provide her / his insurer with all relevant information. . .

And there's a duty on the insurer to seek that information from the customer in as clear and as unambiguous a way as possible.

raskazz

marques72 wrote: »

hi mate dont know if you could help me or put me in the right direction i had a golf gti 1.8 turbo it was nicked outside my yard on the 31st of january this year i obtained a crime ref no after informing the police and also notified the insurance company now they voided my claim and refused to pay because they said i did not tell them the car was modified. I have contacted the FOS and presently awaiting an adjudicator do you know of any cases that have been sorted that are similar to mine.

I took the policy out on the internet and answered NO to the questions asked if there have been any alterations or modifications made to the car because I bought the car from the garage it had tinted windows and alloy wheels which I did not think were modifications initially when I took out the policy but which the insurance company are saying these are modifications and thats why they are refusing to pay out.

If you could tell us the name of the insurer / intermediary then we can check the wording of the question. If the question was clear and unambiguous, and if you (a) did not disclose the information at inception and (b) did not correct the proposal form (or call the insurer to alert them to incorrect information on a statement of fact) then you don't have much grounds for complaint. The two modifications listed both materially affect the theft risk.

Personally I would find it hard to believe that anyone would think that tinted windows were fitted to any car as standard.

raskazz

latecomer wrote: »

Personally I think its about time the insurance people had a list to work from where they could ask whether the car had allows, air con, body modifications etc to which you say yes/no and elaborate if required. They could then check it against a standard equipment list and then there would be no confusion.

That's a nice idea but totally impractical - the list of potential modifications or extras is as long as my arm! I imagine most normal people would give up on getting a quote after scrolling through a gigantic list of things like induction kits, blueprinting, dump valves and so on. Far better to ask a straightforward question and make it clear to the policyholder that incorrect information could invalidate the cover, which is what insurers actually do.

codger

raskazz wrote: »

Personally I would find it hard to believe that anyone would think that tinted windows were fitted to any car as standard.

Try Vauxhall, then.

Or Volkswagen.

Or any of the other manufacturers who fit tinted glass -- "privacy" glass -- from the B pillar back as standard on various models in different ranges.

raskazz

Which specific cars have privacy glass as standard? Could you link to some information on that? I thought that Vauxhall offered it as a no-cost factory option, which is not the same as it being 'as standard'.

In any case, the insurer's action will always hinge on the policyholder's explanation for the non-disclosure. So if the the policyholder genuinely thought that the car was standard, there weren't multiple modifications and he actually examined the car and tried to find out if it had been changed then in many cases there won't be any issues.

However, omitting one extra/modification might be a mistake, missing two or three - or making no effort to actually check the car before answering the insurer's question - looks like carelessness. Fundamentally - if you disclose everything you will be fine; if you make assumptions, don't even bother checking or deliberately conceal features then you are asking for trouble.