Car Insurance declairing modifications

marques72

The insurer / intermediary is Esure in my opinion I think the word "modification" is ambiguous not clear. I believe the question is not prominently placed or asked in the right way. It does not explain what fully constitutes a modification and does not explain in full detail what is required as an alteration. The wording of the question is short and precise and not elaborate enough in my opinion and that was why I did not answer "YES" to the question. I answered the question in good faith and to the best of my knowledge. In addition I never called the insurance company when I took out the policy I took the policy out on the internet.
Personally I think the insurance company are trying to pull a fast one but that is my own opinion who knows what the FOS will decide just got to keep my fingers crossed.
The issue is presently with the FOS and I have been allocated an adjudicator and I am just awaiting their decision. This whole ordeal has left me really stressed and has put me off buying another car or driving again in the foreseeable future. I think I will be better off using the public transport as sole means of travel.

caela_2

This is a reply to all the people who have experienced difficulty making claims after failing to notify their insurance company of certain 'modifications'. I have recently been searching for car insurance for a car bought with 'optional extras', fitted by the factory in addition to the standard specifications.
I believe, after searching many insurance websites, that definition of 'modifications' is vague and misleading and my advice to anyone having difficulty claiming, is that they should consider whether the original definition of the term 'modifications' made by your car insurance company was not clarified in layman's English. If you feel you have been mislead to believe factory fitted optional extras do not count as modifications, then you should contact the financial ombudsman. State that the original terminology of your contract was not clarified 'in plain, intelligible language', as deemed necessary in the 1999 Consumer Protection Act (The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999). Therefore, the term 'modifications' was open to translation and the car insurance company cannot maintain that it clearly includes factory fitted optional extras.
The website https://www.Confused.com defines 'modifications' as "non-standard changes made to the car after manufacture, such as new spoilers, alloy wheels, exhaust pipes, changes to the engine capacity etc." In this case, factory fitted optional extas may have been fitted during production and therefore, may not be included in this clause.
Does the term modifications stretch to include replacing a tape deck with a cd player in an old car? It is largely suggested that modifications have an affect on the performance of the car, e.g. alloy wheels or engine alterations.
To my knowledge, I do not believe car insurance companies have made their terms clear and for this reason, customers may be subject to some form of entrapment; being mislead to believe that they are insured through the misinterpretation of vague terminology.
Put it this way, if it was set out so clearly, why are we all on this page trying to define exactly what the term 'modification' means?

dunstonh

The website www.Confused.com defines 'modifications' as "non-standard changes made to the car after manufacture, such as new spoilers, alloy wheels, exhaust pipes, changes to the engine capacity etc." In this case, factory fitted optional extas may have been fitted during production and therefore, may not be included in this clause.

That is wrong. Modifications that should be declared are those which extras which are not standard for that model as well as any other modifications. Whilst factory fitted extras may not result in a claim being rejected, it is a way to get them noted on the policy should you suffer a total loss.

Some insurance companies will tell you they are not interested on those but some will. You should leave the decision to the insurance company or adviser/broker and not make that decision yourself.

Also, it is not the literature at confused.com that matters. It is the insurance companies literature that matters if you want to make a complaint to the insurer. The insurer has no liability on what is said by a broker or intermediary.

cajef

Several years ago my OH wrote her car off after skidding on black ice, unknown to us the car had optional factory fitted alloy wheels which when we claimed on the insurance we were told were none standard for that model of car and we should have informed them that they were fitted when we took out the policy.

However if we agreed to pay an additional £30, equivalent to the two years extra premium we should have paid on the car they would then include them in the claim, which we did and they paid out an extra £600 for the value of the wheels.

dunstonh

cajef wrote: »

Several years ago my OH wrote her car off after skidding on black ice, unknown to us the car had optional factory fitted alloy wheels which when we claimed in the insurance we were told were none standard for that model of car and we should have informed them that they were fitted when we took out the policy.

However if we agreed to pay an additional £30, equivalent to the two years extra premium we should have paid on the car they would then include them in the claim, which we did and they paid out an extra £600 for the value of the wheels.

That is a perfect example of an insurance company acting in accordance with FOS guidelines on issues of inadvertent non-disclosure. Always good to see.