Undeclared 'Modifications' - car insurance

The_Maestro

Hi,
In the event of a claim where undeclared 'modifications' are found to a car, are insurance companies allowed to charge you the an additional premium and increase you excess even if the modifications had nothing what so ever to do with the circumstances of the claim?
In my case my car had metallic paint and alloy wheels which were just optional extras but my insurance company classes them as 'modifications'. The car was written off by flood water entering the engine due to a flash flood on the road while travelling at around 5-10 mph. As far as I can see the metallic paint and alloys are irrelevant to this event. They want to increase my premium by 106 pounds and my excess by 200, so it will cost me 306 in total. This is what they say the cost of my polict would be if I had declared them. Does it not seem a little high? My premium was only 450 so they are saying that alloy wheels would have added nearly 25% to the premium!!

I'm just wondering what FSA regulations would apply to this? I didn't think that Insurance companies were allowed to penalise policy holders for minor contractual breaches unless it actually had resulted in a loss to the insurance company.
Does anyone know the FSA regulations, I am struggling to find anything but brief overviews on Google.
Cheers,

Quentin

But your "minor" breaches did result in a loss - they rated your car wrongly and undercharged you (as well as permitting you a lower excess which would have been a further loss to them had the breaches not come to light).

bryanb

I would argue that to modify something is to change the original. It seems that your paint and wheels were original and unchanged, provided they were fitted at manufacture (the wheels that is)

bevanuk

bryanb wrote: »

I would argue that to modify something is to change the original. It seems that your paint and wheels were original and unchanged, provided they were fitted at manufacture (the wheels that is)

I would argue this too.

Astaroth

Modifications can either be something that has been done to the vehicle after it has been manufactured OR anything that deviates from the manufacturers standard build. Both are accepted definitions and you need to check with each insurer as to which they are using. It is possible to make a car worth almost 50% more if you add paint, leather, alloys, aircon, sat nav, xeon etc.

They are certainly allowed to charge the AP for any undeclared modifications as per their definition even if the modification has nothing to do with the incident. They are unlikely to be able to void the claim however if the modification is unconnected to the incident.

olly300

As the OP has found having non-standard wheels is a pain. Lots of insurers will add on about £100 just because you have alloyed wheels that aren't standard on a model.

Even worse a few of them won't pay the extra value the wheels have supposedly added on to your car if something happens.

Quentin

bryanb wrote: »

I would argue that to modify something is to change the original. It seems that your paint and wheels were original and unchanged, provided they were fitted at manufacture (the wheels that is)

No, the OP had both these items as optional extras.

Many insurers do require factory fitted optional extras to be notified to them. (Rightly so -eg. a car with alloys fitted is obviously more of a risk to be covered than the same model with ordinary wheels)

Oscar_The_Grouch

Let's turn this on its head shall we? Let's say that at a car dealers, two same make cars are sitting next to each other.

The two cars are the same model, the same age, with the same mileage. The difference is that one is blue with standard wheels and the other metalic blue with alloy wheels. The metalic blue car is priced £500 more than the other one.

Now, let's say that two identical twins who live in the same house, work at the same company doing the same job buy both the cars. Twin 1 buys the metalic blue one and twin 2 the other car and they insure them with the same company. On their way to work one day after buying the cars, twin 1's car is hit in the rear and pushed into the back of twin 2's car. Both are written off.

Would you expect them both to receive the same payout? Of course not - you would expect twin 1 to receive £500 more than twin 2 as his car was worth more (1 day after the cars were purchased, the insurance company would just pay the purchase price). So if you would expect twin 1 to receive more money, why would you expect both twins to be paying the same premium?

Having alloy wheels and metalic paint doesn't make a car any faster or more dangerous, but it does cause a change to the underwriting information (value of the car and attractiveness to thieves) and the insurer is entitled to charge a premium and apply terms retrospectively if they find out that material information has not been disclosed.

Astaroth

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

Now, let's say that two identical twins who live in the same house, work at the same company doing the same job buy both the cars.

Been reading the Direct Line scripts again??

mikey72

I'd challenge it in writing, then take it to the ombudsman.
There is no way that any "modification " over the base spec could be interpreted as a real modification.
My Zafira comes with a base spec of a non metallic paint. 99% of them are actually metallic silver. Am I suppposed to have declared this?
Most german cars come with no radio, it's an optional extra, does this count as well. Mates Audi, they paid extra for the sat-nav, and a blue trim on the seats.
We looked at a few cars for the scrappage. All of them came with a non metallic option. So if I took the one they happened to have, (in metallic silver), I have to declare it now?
If you go out and fit alloy wheels to your car yourself, yes, that's a modification, but not if it's part of the car when you buy it from the manufacturer.

Astaroth

Yes, if the individual insurer specifies a modification as something that isnt included in the base model of cause you are supposed to delare it!

My previous car had 33% of the value made up optional extras, you dont think I should pay anything more for the additional value they are insuring?