Car Insurance - Debate on Modifications & Consequences

[bobins]

In my experience, insurers will try to worm their way out of a claim and tell you why they're going to - it's only when you call their bluff that they concede. I've had personal experience within the last five years of a major online insurer making up the case against me and trying to tell me i've got to pay the excess, it's only when I went to the effort of finding out that they hadn't even bothered to gather the other persons statement that they conceded 'there'd been a mistake'. Yeah, right There was another case on here earlier this year with an insurer refusing to pay out on a C5 X7 with a fusebox fire - it's only when pushed that they conceded they'll pay out.
My point being - insurers may not be able to get out of claims so easily in the end, but they'll try their hardest to by telling the customer all sorts of stories. Insurance companies (and brokers) have their profits to look after - and there's only one way they're going to make money

[Hell Razor5543]

Insurers also may try to reduce their costs by getting the claimant to accept some responsibility. A case in point was that somebody I knew had parked his car, nipped into a shop, only to find that (when he came out) somebody had run into the back of his car. The insurers tried to get him to accept some liability (saying the car was badly parked), to the point where they told him that they were going to claim this in spite of him. He said he had access to CCTV footage disproving this, but they were not listening. It was only when he told them this CCTV footage was from the Police Station a few doors up that the insurance company stopped trying to get him to accept some blame in the case.

[bobins]

No MoT...your insurance is invalid. Rubbish. No VEL...your insurance is invalid. Rubbish. Not declared a speeding ticket...your insurance is invalid. Rubbish. The list goes on, as do the myths. Under certain circumstances, your insurance may be invalid, of course, but it annoys me when people quote things 'they've heard', or tell us 'a mate's brother had it happen to him' as if its gospel.

Pete

It's easy to see why people may come to the conclusion that insurers may invalidate your policy though. On the nebulous subject of 'roadworthiness', Aviva currently have this to say:

Aviva policy - fair use

https://www.aviva.co.uk/content/dam/avi ... 249_v3.pdf

My interpretation would be: "If you don't maintain your car in a roadworthy condition, then we're not insuring you"

Direct Line take a similar view. No doubt most of the others do as well.