Winter Tyres - Are you still insured?

There has now been a consensus amongst UK insurers that they will not increase premiums by treating winter tyres as a modification. This happened a couple of years ago when some jobsworths decided to stick to the exact letter of the law as far as the small print is concerned and treat different tyres as a change of specification.

However, some do insist that you inform them of the change. This is for a very good reason, which is that they want to know that you are replacing like with like in terms of tyre specification, such as aspect ratio, speed rating etc.

This seems reasonable to me.
 
Surely fitting winter tyres should be rewarded with a reduction in insurance cost, if Govts are tying to encourage the usage of them. After all I could be skidded into by someone without them more than the chance of me skidding into them.
 
Here in Germany, it is actually the other way round, in that your insurance can be invalid if you *don't* have winter tyres in winter! It's now also a legal requirement in Germany to have the appropriate tyres for the season.
 
On a general theme, an insurance contract is a contract of ' utmost good faith' therefore anything which could affect premium or risk must be declared.

this even extends to towbars scooter racks etc being a modification that should be declared.

A few years ago, I bought an Izuzu Trooper with dealer fit side steps, and direct line wouldnt insure the vehicle, meanwhile e sure were quite happy too

Channa
 
***** said:
Our Daughter had a Ford KA with Alloy wheels which were dealer fitted from New. The original steel wheels had never been used.
The insurance company insisted that this was a modification as Not factory fitted and the insurance premium went up a little as they made the car more attractive and more likely to be nicked by a boy or girl racer.
My first M/H was covered by insurance before I went to collect it and on my return home I noted all the extras and telephoned the insurance company. They removed cover immediately on this Saturday afternoon because it had a reversing camera fitted on the rear and a fixed sat nav into the dash. The reason was that it was more nickable and they would have to speak to the underwriters before continuing with cover and they could not do this until Monday morning.
So my M/H was uncovered over the weekend. I did telephone other iinsurers companies and it would have been the same.
On the Monday, the insurance was covered again at no extra cost.
Click to expand...

I rest my case.

This season I had to change my insurers safeguard to NFU Safeguard considered that working on a campsite where the Motorhome was parked constituted commuting even though the vehicle never moved.....the explanation was their policy covered SDP....because I was working it fell outside that remit,

Any change of circumstance, accessory added etc contact the Insurer would be my advice to avoid pain in the event of a claim would be my advice.

Channa

Channa
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top