My dad is thinking of putting some morette headlights on his subaru impreza, does he have to tell his insurers?
Adam
by law.. yup
any modifications should be declared.. or be prepared to accept the sh1t you will get if things go wrong.
Mark
Will the rates go up?
Adam
indeed, they will seize upon any excuse to avoid paying out. plus, they might regard it as an increased theft risk due to desirability.
My insurers charged me £21 "administration fee" for the first mod (an exhaust) but second time they wanted to put the premium up too, so i didnt bother. Its not really worth risking voiding your policy for the extra theyll charge.
Unless the mod is performance related, you don't have to tell the insurance, but if you have an accident, any non standard items will not be
covered above the cost of standard items.
I get this all the time at work where people have put in fancy stereos, and get really shitty when we replace with the standard fit jobbie.
It also applies to non standard paint jobs, unless you report, you are not covered.
The usuall trick is an admin fee and raising the policy excess by the difference between std fit and the modified items
£99 for some morette look alikes, brand new. Just bought them on ebay, usually £250. The morette ones are £400!! Also thinking of a high level rear
spoiler, is that performance related?
Adam
Andrew, I guess the exhaust counted as a performance related modification.
Adam
Performance related is usually considered to be engine or suspension. The insurance companies recent dislike is the lowered Saxo brigade, not that the lowering causes more accidents, its the profile of the driver that changes (they also keep the profile on the shared database so another ins co can bump up your premium, even on a different unmodified car). They are really getting clever these days
Thanks mark
Adam
quote:
Unless the mod is performance related, you don't have to tell the insurance, but if you have an accident, any non standard items will not be covered above the cost of standard items.
With elephant I got charged extra for my option pack on my car but they said they'd only replace with the standard parts (specifically heated
windscreen and electric mirrors replaced with normal and manual respectively ). All a bit nutsack really.
But yes, most insurers specify that you must tell them of any changes made to the specification of the car.
and any details of the driver.
looks like my father is about to have an insurance claim refused.
My parents are both with 'more than'. Each has a policy on their own car, but with 'spouse to drive' on the policy.
In the last year (according to mum) she has had 3 'no fault' accidents in her car.
She then had a 'fault' accident in my dads car. Minorish front of wing damage and a busted light.
So, dad fills in claim.
gets back something like this :
"Both you and your wife are insured with us with seperate policies. However, this doenst mean that the info is shared between policies in the
company. Can you please explain why you did not tell us that your wife had 3 accidents in her own car on her own policy. Please also provide copies of
both driving licenses, the log book for the car, and the original bill of sale. At the moment your claim is in referral, and may result in non
coverage of this accident and you may have your premium refunded".
Moral of the story - tell your insurerers AS SOON AS you get an endorsement and anyone thatd driving gets a claim (even tho it was no fault) or the
bastards will wriggle out of the claim.
My father has been with this company over 12 years and never made a claim. (Mother is a different matter).
atb
steve
My dad is 44 with 22yr no claim bonus. £700 fully comprehensive on insurance for a standard subaru inpreza WRX.
Adam
22yrs!
id expect free insurance after all those years of paying the gits!
Only ever had minor incidents which were usually the other persons fault, when it wasn't he generally had enough money (or spares
) to put it
right without a claim. I expect once it gets past a certain point (10yrs?) it stops making a difference.
Adam