AA car insurance - need to declare optional extra modifications?

Giggidy

I recently purchased a car which I insured with AA car insurance, I know the car has had about £9k worth of optional extras when the car was manufactured. I didn't think I needed to declare this based on what the AA said on their website:

"....We define a modification as any kind of alteration to a vehicle that wasn't in the manufacturer's standard specification, or wasn't fitted as an option when the vehicle was manufactured. It could range from a cosmetic change – such as alloy wheels or body kits – to more practical enhancements, such as dual control or parking sensors..."

The car has bigger alloys, tints, Xenon headlights and lots of smaller changes, and after chatting with someone they said the first 3 things might still need to be declared, and my insurance premium will shoot up. I am confused now, this was all fitted when the car was first manufactured so surely it is not aftermarket modifications?

Do I need to declare this or not? I called the AA just for a general enquiry, one person said yes, and one person said not necessary. :think:

Scrapit

It isn't aftermarket if fitted on the build. What market did they come from after the build?

hareng

No need to declare they can get hold of the original specs from manufacture.
Anything added since then to be declared where most wont even insure you or severely rip you off.

iainscomputer

Admiral require optional extras to be declared, this is just one reason to avoid using this company. Other companies don't have this requirement,

d0nkeyk0ng

IIRC any factory-fit extras should not need to be declared. Anything dealer-fit or aftermarket should be declared.

AdrianC

Giggidy wrote: »

I know the car has had about £9k worth of optional extras when the car was manufactured. I didn't think I needed to declare this based on what the AA said on their website:

"....We define a modification as any kind of alteration to a vehicle that wasn't in the manufacturer's standard specification, or wasn't fitted as an option when the vehicle was manufactured. It could range from a cosmetic change – such as alloy wheels or body kits – to more practical enhancements, such as dual control or parking sensors..."

The car has bigger alloys, tints, Xenon headlights and lots of smaller changes, and after chatting with someone they said the first 3 things might still need to be declared, and my insurance premium will shoot up. I am confused now, this was all fitted when the car was first manufactured so surely it is not aftermarket modifications?

Do I need to declare this or not? I called the AA just for a general enquiry, one person said yes, and one person said not necessary. :think:

Declare. Always. "To the best of my knowledge, it was fitted with these factory options, but there may be others I'm not aware of."

£9k of options is non-trivial, and you've got stuff there that's going to affect a collision repair or may prove to be more attractive to thieves. If it has a front-end, you don't want the HIDs to be replaced by standard lights. If the wheels are nicked, you don't want to be supplied with standard-fit rims.

If they didn't need to know, it's not a problem.
If they did, then the premium may go up, but it's better than finding out your cover's limited in the event of a claim.

forgotmyname

I had one insurer ask the question are are there any factory fitted options. It was a 5 year old used car, how is the average person supposed to know what options were standard and what were optional extra's?

I just thought wouldnt insure it with you if you were free. May have been the same company that said my licence had expired. No the HGV section had expired not the main licence.
When quizzed on when her HGV entitlement expired she finally got it (i think)?

Why risk not being covered? declare everything and let them decide if it matters.

DoaM

I see the post by the "official" AA rep has been deleted (plus my response).

Johno100

DoaM wrote: »

I see the post by the "official" AA rep has been deleted (plus my response).

Go on, what did they say?

DoaM

They intimated that any modifications applied by the factory don't need to be declared - any done by the owner, do. They didn't address the situation where the selling dealer made the mods (prior to the consumer purchasing the vehicle).

jimbo6977

I have dealer-fit mods on my car that are not OE manufacture (wheels & tints).

I have declared them

It has cost me a few bob and frankly I would have bought the car without them, but equally it would cost money to buy steels and have the tints properly removed, so I keep them.

And keep paying the extra on my insurance!