Car Hire Excess Insurance T&Cs - Are you fully covered?

gvlewis

Have just been looking at Excess Insurance for a car I have hired to use on holiday in Greece later this year.

Among the terms of conditions of many insurance policies is an Exclusion Clause which reads along the following lines:
Losses occurring from driving whilst not on a Public Highway.

Whilst this perhaps can be seen as intended to prevent drivers from going off road along forest tracks etc, technically it also means that drivers are not insured whilst parking the car at the hotel, supermarket, restaurant or beach [unless you park on the public highway]. This makes this a more significant and important clause - from my own personal experience a fair number of accidents occur off the public highway - I have been hit twice whilst in my car at supermarket car parks (in this country)

I have sought clarification from a few insurance companies. The responses were generally positive - most advising that supermarket car parks and hotel car parks were covered but one spokesman advised that accidents occurring on a non-tarmacked car park behind a beach for example, would not be insured whilst another unhelpfully advised "all claims will be considered in line with the terms and conditions"

Something to check before taking out insurance?