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Do these things void insurance?


Vinnyzf
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Hi,

I'm planning on doing some little things to my car and want to know whether I should inform my insurance about it? This is what I'm planning on doing...

1: De-Badge

2: Stickers in the back window

3: Boot Build

I don't think it'll make a difference but I just want to be sure :)

Vin

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I assume you mean should you declare to your insurer.

Debadge and stickers; probably not, but worth checking with your own insurer as some have strict rules for young drivers.

Boot build; you may have to declare for additional value and increased interest from thieves it may attract.

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Audio won't make a blind bit of difference unless it's something out of this world.

If stickers void your insurance I've been driving round uninsured for the last 3 years because I put a Club Lupo sticker above the Lupo logo and also a Quicksilver sticker in the rear window.

Not sure about the boot build, depends how visible it is I guess to thieves.

Can't see why it's necessary to declare a debadge, but it might be worth asking.

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Some very poor advice is being offered to you on this thread

Hi,

I'm planning on doing some little things to my car and want to know whether I should inform my insurance about it? This is what I'm planning on doing...

1: De-Badge

2: Stickers in the back window

3: Boot Build

I don't think it'll make a difference but I just want to be sure :)

Vin

If you want your insurance to be valid, declare all changes, no matter how small they might be.

None of what you list should effect price but all need to be declared but pick you insurer carefully.

I am shocked that this answer was not given to you already. :thumbdown:

Ollie

Sky Insurance

tel: 01707 642552

http://www.skyinsurance.co.uk/modified-car-insurance.html

Edited by Sky Insurance
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Some very poor advice is being offered to you on this thread

If you want your insurance to be valid, declare all changes, no matter how small they might be.

None of what you list should effect price but all need to be declared but pick you insurer carefully.

I am shocked that this answer was not given to you already. :thumbdown:

Ollie

Sky Insurance

tel: 01707 642552

http://www.skyinsurance.co.uk/modified-car-insurance.html

Ol,

No disrespect but if its the lads 1st car say, and he buys it with all the above mods fitted already how the bloody hell would he know!?

If the bumper badge was smoothed re-sprayed and lupo badge tdi or similar was taken off prior etc and has a couple of extra speakers in the back

Seems like a wasted phone call to be honest

Engine and major cosmetic changes agreed but stickers ffs?

Does a 30 old woman have to declare a baby on board sticker

Oh have I just took the bait on a practical joke

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A boot full of audio equipment is not something you would want your customers to declare to you?

Every time I've phone insurance I've went to tell them about the audio install and they always stop me in my tracks and say that audio is covered up to £500. Or is it the fact that it is an actual boot install?

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Ol,

No disrespect but if its the lads 1st car say, and he buys it with all the above mods fitted already how the bloody hell would he know!?

If the bumper badge was smoothed re-sprayed and lupo badge tdi or similar was taken off prior etc and has a couple of extra speakers in the back

Seems like a wasted phone call to be honest

Engine and major cosmetic changes agreed but stickers ffs?

Does a 30 old woman have to declare a baby on board sticker

Oh have I just took the bait on a practical joke

I was gonna say something similar to this. When I bought my fist car it had a "west end garage" sticker on the back. Should it be declared?

Insurance is a ****ing joke.

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Some very poor advice is being offered to you on this thread

If you want your insurance to be valid, declare all changes, no matter how small they might be.

None of what you list should effect price but all need to be declared but pick you insurer carefully.

I am shocked that this answer was not given to you already. :thumbdown:

Ollie

Sky Insurance

tel: 01707 642552

http://www.skyinsurance.co.uk/modified-car-insurance.html

I'm with one of the strictest insurers around. They despise mods, internal or external and they especially don't like young boy racers who add their shitty tail pipe trims on. I'll let you guess who.

I phoned them up to tell them about my new internal sat-nav, entertainment system, and the guy quickly responded "yeah yeah that's fine you have up to thousand pounds audio entertainment cover as standard, you don't need to declare that". So yes, £1000 would easily cover a good head unit, and boot build and I WOULDN'T need to declare that.

So it's not bad advice at all, it just differs to your experience or perhaps how sky insurance deals with their customers.

As for a de-badge and stickers (as pointed out by loepan and Pete), I've often viewed second hand cars that have been de-badged, fully intent on buying them. What do I tell my insurance company? I didn't de-badge it and even if I declared it, what could they say? Put the badge back on? How? I don't own the badge now do I?

It seems very pedantic to expect such non-intrusive mods be declared. A massive spoiler and bodykit... now that's different.

Edited by Skezza
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Ol,

No disrespect but if its the lads 1st car say, and he buys it with all the above mods fitted already how the bloody hell would he know!?

If the bumper badge was smoothed re-sprayed and lupo badge tdi or similar was taken off prior etc and has a couple of extra speakers in the back

Seems like a wasted phone call to be honest

Engine and major cosmetic changes agreed but stickers ffs?

Does a 30 old woman have to declare a baby on board sticker

Oh have I just took the bait on a practical joke

Hi,

you need to bare in mind that I can only offer the 'strictly speaking' answer - which is - declare all changes made from when the car left the factory, that means stickers, audio, bodykit or a supercharger conversion.. ANY change made.

How each insurer deals with the modifications is up to the insurer but you will only be safe if you declare all the changes. I would advise getting confirmation in writing.

I've heard of many horror stories over the years, one that sticks out (although I take with a large pinch of salt) is an insurer who refused to pay a claim over a non-disclosed guide dogs for the blind sticker.

Hence, my answer.

If you are unsure if the car has modifications, then get an engineers report.

If you have a modified car then speak to an insurer who deals with or specialise in modified car insurance, there are plenty of us about. We would also cover all modifications on a like for like basis. No minor cosmetic modification should effect the price you pay.

You may think my post is of a pedantic nature but it comes from years of experience of dealing with modified car insurance.

Thanks

Ollie

Sky Insurance

tel: 01707 642552

http://www.skyinsurance.co.uk/modified-car-insurance.html

Edited by Sky Insurance
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I can see where he's coming from to a certain extent. You might have a big "JVC" sticker right across the back window which just adertises the system. Or the boot build might be quite obvious and stand out from the window.

The thing is, where do you draw the line with what to declare?

At the sticker?

At the air filter?

At the alloys?

At the window tints?

At the full body kit?

At the Remap?

At the Turbo conversion?

At the Engine conversion.?

The answer is, - declare everything - let the insurer do the rest. Ignorance (ie I didn't know that button released a 50 shot of NOS) is not going to get you very far in the event of claim investigation.

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From another forum, posted today at 1pm. I see this sort of thing almost daily.. food for thought :thumbsup:

Back to the original question, ANYTHING that isnt fitted to the car by the manufacturer, that you or a previous owner have added afterwards, is counter ad a mod!

Ive fitted the imscher double d back box, and irmscher boot spoiler on my astra, both of these were optional extras, but because they werent fitted originally, and i have retrofitted them, they count as a mod, they havent put my insurance up as theyre only cosmetic items, but they still warrant declaring!
Ive even declared my heko wind deflectors, and my irmscher cross-hatch grille aswell!
I know a lad who had his ford ka crashed into, he had the url stickers in his quarter windows for a local cruise/car club/site, the insurance assessor tried to claim they were a non standard styling decal kit, put his claim into doubt/on hold for a month or two!
He got paid out eventually, but they were trying to void the claim due to them, insurance companies and indeed the police have been clamping down on illegal mods for a while now, ive seen modified cars being pulled over and photographed before, the photos being sent to the insurance companies to double check against their records!
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This is getting bloomin ridiculous, URL sticker ffs.

I have seat covers to protect my seats from my work clothes, declare ?

Non standard dust caps, declare ?

Non standard number plate bulbs, declare ?

"Superstar Dad" suction thingy in the rear window, declare ?

Where does it end ?

"Not factory supplied air in the tyres, sorry sir insurance void"

Insurance company's just love taking extortionate ammounts of money from you but hate paying out when you need it the most to get you back on the road.

Doesn't help when claims come from thieving scum claiming for whiplash hike the prices up.

Rant over.

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This is getting bloomin ridiculous, URL sticker ffs.

I have seat covers to protect my seats from my work clothes, declare ?

Non standard dust caps, declare ?

Non standard number plate bulbs, declare ?

"Superstar Dad" suction thingy in the rear window, declare ?

Where does it end ?

"Not factory supplied air in the tyres, sorry sir insurance void"

Insurance company's just love taking extortionate ammounts of money from you but hate paying out when you need it the most to get you back on the road.

Doesn't help when claims come from thieving scum claiming for whiplash hike the prices up.

Rant over.

Well, I guess it depends on the company but I know my mate is having a nightmare with Churchill, that old dog seems to be a lot friendlier on the advert than in real life.

In January, I had an unfortunate accident in my green machine. Despite desperately trying to find someone to buy it as a non-cat declared repair, it has now been taken away for a claim. Would have been a great car to fix up. I reckon the engine had anywhere from 80k-100k miles left in it, as I'd always had it regularly serviced and used only the best quality oil... plus it had a brand new cambelt, new water pump, brand new windscreen (only fitted a month before), new aftermarket high capacity battery, 4 Michelin tyres, the newer brake light switch that is more reliable, new lambda sensor, new throttle position sensor, a newer and better temperature sensor, new three piece high quality exhaust fitted by staffs tire and battery, new headlights, an absolutely perfect interior + a whole load of other things that screamed "buy me, fix me for about 250 quid (unsprayed parts I priced up from various vendors) and you've got a pretty much perfect 1.0 Lupo worth just over a thousand" but nobody wanted it, people (including those on here) are happy to buy tatty, scraped 1.0 Lupo's (and Arosas) with 150k miles for £800, but wouldn't even consider mine which, when fixed up, would have been an absolutely perfect low mileage Lupo. There was no pre-accident damage, it was begging to be fixed and restored to it's state.

Anyway (my own rant over)... so yep, it's had to go as a claim, the last thing I wanted to do. Considering the way some insurance companies have been slippery with customers, I thought these might cause me problems:

  • I had a number of non-decorative stickers on the car, one for Lifeboats charity, one for Help for Heroes and another for the Army Benevolent Fund.
  • I had one decorative sticker, a Club Lupo one above the Lupo logo.
  • Just before being taken away by the recovery firm from my house, I switched the brand new, never seen the road, spare wheel with a Michelin tyre on, for a very worn, very battered rim with a barely legal tyre on that had been outside my house for the past 12 months. (Risky admittedly as I wasn't convinced it was road legal)

They got back to me a week later, no problem made me an offer, it's been settled and a cheque will be in the post soon enough. Clearly if you go with a reputable company with a good reputation (Google can be a saint for that), you'll be okay.

Oh and by the way, for what it's worth, they paid out the highest value they could pay for a Lupo with this reg plate, which is what the guy on the phone referred to as 'Dealer Value'. He explained the way they work is by using Glasses guide, which provides market value which they usually knock money off based on the amount of pre-accident damage. He said if a car has perfect body work prior to the accident, immaculate inside etc and would be worth more than what would be considered market value based on the age, they can up the offer to 'Dealer Value' which is what it would be priced at in a car dealership. It's not much more on a car as old as my old Lupo (just over £100) I think, but it just shows someone could have got a real belter.

Edited by Skezza
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Woah this got a bit crazy.

I phoned my insurance and they told me "if you're taking the badges off, you are taking someone OFF the car so there is no need to declare" Sounds a bit bad but that's what she said. I will phone my insurance and tell them about stickers I want to add, I just find it rediculous.

I recently had my motorbike stolen and they wouldn't pay out.. It's just stupid what I pay for my insurance, and I'm not even allowed to do tiny things to it? I thought lowering the car actually made it safer to drive? (Handles better?) But they want over a GRAND for me to do that. What guy my age has that kind of money hanging around? It's stupid.

Bottom line, insurance are w**kers.

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Why wouldn't they pay out for the motorbike then?

They swindled me with my excess. It was probably my fault. My excess was a grand, and my bike was only worth 650. Where is the sense in that? Surely they would of advised me against it? I should of read my policy better (Which I now do) But it still hurt when I didn't get any pay out.

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