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Insurance of Modifications


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I insure through Lancaster Insurance and get a sensible annual premium. Being a good boy, every time I put in another laning/expedition modification to the 90 (snorkel last night), I ring up the insurance broker and tell him. Every time they confirm that there is no change to the premium and for a while now they have then charged me a £17 admin fee each time.

As I have a done number of mod's, these admin fees are mounting up and I would rather spend my £'s on bits of aluminium and steel than bits of paper. I questioned this today and unless I take the vehicle off the road , do all the mod's and put them together when I put the vehicle back on the road, I am going to get hit by a fee for each mod. This is not an option for me. If I don't tell them about a mod, tell them too late or too early, and have an incident, then the vehicle will not be as described in the insurance and they can duck out of paying up.

Does everyone else get this reaction, if not, which broker/insurer should I go to next time ?

All wisdom appreciated.

Regards

Richard

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When I insured my 90 with Flux I anticipated several staged mods and negotiated with them so they only charged me for the first one. Made sure I got it in writing too!

They normally charge £25 a pop too!

I would go back to them and try to agree something similar.

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Strange that - I renewed with Lancaster 1 week ago, and also added the other half and added a load of mods, and no admin fee at all. I would query it with them if I were you. Unless it was because it was up for renewal anyway?

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Each time they re-issue the paperwork to me, so I guess the £17 covers that. If I put on new mod's at renewal, there's no fee, however that means doing mod's between expiry time and renewal time, not much chance to get work done with a full-time job and young family.

I may be being a bit fanatical about declaring stuff to the insurer, but I have had some past experience with them.

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I may be being a bit fanatical about declaring stuff to the insurer, but I have had some past experience with them.

Sounds like good sense to me.

I advise my insurers (NFU) everytime I do something to the car:

a) Put a roof rack on

b) Changed the wheels from alloy to steel

c) Added a CB

I even joked with them that I should really phone them every morning and tell them what colour of pants and socks I am wearing.

Lead balloon down it went!

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Sounds like good sense to me.

I advise my insurers (NFU) everytime I do something to the car:

a) Put a roof rack on

b) Changed the wheels from alloy to steel

c) Added a CB

I even joked with them that I should really phone them every morning and tell them what colour of pants and socks I am wearing.

Lead balloon down it went!

don't forget hair colour :P

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when i was modding my 90 after i got it, i fell into the £15 admin trap with lancaster (admin fee has gone up!) so what i did was declare the mods i had done and all the mods i wanted to do over the following year and declared them all at once and only paid one fee.

that way i could make the changes to the 90 as and when i could afford them and not have the hassle of paying admin fees.

the way i looked at it was if my motor was stolen, and my insurance said i had a winch but hadnt yet got around to fitting it... my insurance wouldn't be invalidated and i would get paid out for the vehicle plus winch!!!!

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when i was modding my 90 after i got it, i fell into the £15 admin trap with lancaster (admin fee has gone up!) so what i did was declare the mods i had done and all the mods i wanted to do over the following year and declared them all at once and only paid one fee.

that way i could make the changes to the 90 as and when i could afford them and not have the hassle of paying admin fees.

the way i looked at it was if my motor was stolen, and my insurance said i had a winch but hadnt yet got around to fitting it... my insurance wouldn't be invalidated and i would get paid out for the vehicle plus winch!!!!

My concern is that declaring mod's in advance would be seen as bad as not declaring them. Potentially if they find out I had not yet fitted the winch when my truck got knicked (heaven forbid), they could take the view that I was fraudulently trying to claim for the the winch and then refuse to pay up anything. For those of us who put in mod's one after another through the year while keeping the vehicle on the road, this admin fee thing is becoming a serious irritation. I will certainly be bringing the issue up at my next renewal.

Regards

Richard

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A £17 pound admin fee sounds excessive. Ask them to justify their costs or refund the money. That is how the bank charge reclaiming works as the charge is not a reflection of the costs incurred and is punitive and constitutes an 'unfair contract term'.

Chris

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Sureturm

£50 to change anything but my mate has a policy with them which they charge him £100 to change anything.

Don't get me started.

The customer services is also carp even a new level of carp..............they can't get anything right the cover notes were all wrong and slipped in full thatchum immobilisers on the policy which had not been agreed (in the very very small print)

I used them because I wanted to use a car and it had no cover so I rushed and got it covered on a Sat afternoon and have regretted because I will have to pay when I start modifying everything on the truck.

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I use NFU and they've been spot on, i didn't even need an alarm, all of the other companies wanted a cat 1 immobiliser, but i have the meck lock which apparently isn't thatcham approved.

when we got our quote i told them about the roof rack/snorkel etc and they weren't bothered, said it made no difference. i think if you have large lifts or huge wheels it will make a difference as those mods (asking for it here) make the vehicle less stable on the road.

to be honest i think with insurance companies they change the rules every few hours and it depends what mood they're in as to what prices you get! they're all robbing b******s really... :angry:

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NFU (Blackburn) are spot on - modifications to them is an extra axle or a different car, and even then they don't charge (I've changed my policy about five times in a month - no charge).

When I first rang them (after 30 minutes with other insurers only to discover the wouldn't quote because my 109 had a performance enhancement (overdrive :blink: ) and electrical modifications (fog lights :blink::blink::blink: ) their only question was "anything fitted that Land Rover never fitted" - a breath of fresh air! I suppose if you insure combine harvesters and the like you get used to the unusual!

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