No nevery heard a case.

 

Daughter-in-law works for a large insurer and I asked this question recently. She told me due to the downturn and more competition from "cheaper" companies most are now taking a profit hit.

They are shedding staff to save money and she said they are looking a lot more closely at anything that gets them out of paying up.

If you get a switched on assessor who picks it you may find you have a very big problem.

If you read your policy fine print you'll see it states your vehicle must be roadworthy. Most raised 4x4's with big lifts and 33's or 35's aren't, so the insurance company has a big get out of paying card don't they?

At the end of the day it all depends on the assessor and the company involved, so it's your choice, do you want to take the risk or don't you?

If they take the option not to pay your claim and if other vehicles are also involved you could also be liable to pay for any damage done to them as well. Their insurance will pay their damage but then they will chase you for the money.

BTW, she has told me she does know of claims that have been knocked back due to the vehicles being heavily modified without notifying them. Her words were I would be surprised at the amount of claims refused.

 

I've been wondering about insurance and modifying for a while.

I've heard a lot of people saying that the insurance companies try to get out of paying but it's always third, fourth or fifth hand.

My mate rolled his truck off road and it had the usual lift and bigger tyres.
3 days later the asseser came round, confirmed it as a right off and gave him a cheque for $15,000 (his agreed value) no questions asked.

So has anyone 'personally' been refused an insurance payout due to mods?

 

Cheers for the replies.

If you look at all the modified 4wd's out there I either assume that insurance company's usually do pay out....or that we are all living with a false sense of security and not actually covered in the event of an accident where larger tyres could be blamed - i.e. slower braking etc....

Has anyone found a soultion to this predicament? I have read on here that getting a letter from Nissan saying that the larger tyres do not pose a problem for the car can help, however the dealerships i spoke to say they will not provide this endorsement in writting...while they acknoledge they all run the larger tyres themselves. They suggested speaking with actual tyre suppliers.

 

The best thing to do is to ring your insurance company and ask. They all have different procedures. On my GQ AAMI were happy with everything but they posed a restriction that no one under the age of 21 could drive it because of the 50mm lift. When I later switched to NRMA they didnt impose any restriction.
So I just recommend telling them and then adding it to the policy. That way you dont have to have any doubts about possible scenarios

 

its a grey area im with shannons and have been told they will not cover 4x4 driving but this week i had the shannons assessor in at work(im a panel beater) and chatting with him he told me of a gu he was looking arfter that was at the shop across the road from us the owner has it insured with shannons with 35 grands worth of extras on his policy and he put it on its side 35 grand repair cost (12 in arb products alone)and at first he had to ring his boss to ask would they cover the claim as he did it of road,he was told yes they will cover it as he had 35 grands worth of extras listed for 4x4 driving what where they expecting him to do just stick to sealed roads. sorry this has not a lot to do with your tyre question just showing how you can get different responses on who you deal with.

 

.
.
.

 

My patrol got written off and it had 285/75/16 and a 3" lift. Major crash went over it and gave it the all clear. The assessor checked it and gave it the all clear. They paid out the fully insured amount. They accident was the other drivers fault.

If the modification did not attribute to the accident then it doesn't affect the insurance. Don't quote me on that, but it's what the assessor told me.

Hypothetically, what if your patrol was parked on the side of the road wearing 37" tyres and someone smashed into it? Would they refuse the claim? What if the car was parked with no wheels on it because they were getting punctures repaired? In both instances, the vehicles were technically "unroadworthy" so would the insurance pay out? Just some food for thought.

 

old44

Ask your insurance company in writing, if they agree, the written reply constitutes an acceptance of the tyres in case of accident.

 

Nab you are correct, the modification has to have contributed to the accident in order to have the claim refused due to it. Same with alcohol, you can be p!$$ed as a parrot and get hit in the rear and you would still be covered as alcohol would not have contributed to what happened. They can cancel the policy after the fact due to non roadworthy vehicle but they can't deny the claim. Check the Insurance contracts act - all insurance companies in Australia must abide by this

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ica1984220/s54.html

 

Nab you are correct, the modification has to have contributed to the accident in order to have the claim refused due to it. Same with alcohol, you can be p!$$ed as a parrot and get hit in the rear and you would still be covered as alcohol would not have contributed to what happened. ...l

dunno about that. If I ran into the back of you and you were pissed as a parrot.. my argument would be - it was illegal that you were on the road in the car. Therefore if you hadnt broken the law the accident wouldnt have happened.

Same applies for driving running into a driver without a licence, or even an ploughing into an illegally parked car.

I doubt that it would apply, but nonetheless. driving a car with illegal modification technically shouldnt be on the road - thus this whole grey area with insurers/liability/public indemnity etc.

its bollocks, i dont think i can even find a non standard tyre to fit my truck to make it perfectly legal - speed rating of 190 or so.. why would i need that..
so theres gotta be some flexibility..
When i asked my insurer, they said "Whatever is legal, we will cover" and didnt comment any further.. so do my non 190kph rated tyres mean it is illegal.. doubt it.

 

not true at all, technically you shouldn't be on the road drunk or in an unroadworthy vehicle, this is a legal matter and yes the police can charge you for this, as far as insurance is concerned if you can prove that the modification/drunkenness etc did not contribute then an insurance company has to cover you as per the law (read the link in previous post) The insurance ombudsman would rule against the insurance company if they did knock back a claim on such grounds if it ever proceeded that far. I work in insurance claims and have seen both accepted and refused claims where the vehicle was not roadworthy. It all comes down to if the vehicle was roadworthy, would the accident have occurred, and if so, would the damage have been as severe?

Your insurance company saying 'whatever is legal, they will cover' is correct in a fashion although not a complete answer. If your vehicle has illegal mods and if they were damaged in an incident they didn't contribute to the insurance company would not cover those mods, only the cost of what is factory standard for those parts. If an insurance company is aware of an illegal mod or one that does not meet their guidelines they can cancel your policy for non disclosure, but if you have a claim they have to cover it unless the mods contributed (they can cancel the policy after the claim and probably would) Insurance companies don't really like this information being common knowledge or there would be a lot more vehicles being insured that should not really be on the road, and they want to discourage this

 

ahh cheers Kitiara, some good info

nothing better than a decent set of tyres and a bit of suspension lift..
if I had to have a std 4bie, id probably sell it and get back into modifying street cars and driving like a maniac.. now you tell me what is more dangerous...

4bie mod laws need to be in place, but there needs to be more scope a reasonable approach (and cheaper) way of getting your vehicle validated by an automotive/mechanical engineer.

 

We can flap on about this for ever and a day, but one thing that is a must, the vehicle must be kept in a roadworthy state, i.e. not defectable. If you modify it to make it unroadworthy they can and maybe will refuse the claim. For an update on the regs in QLD read this I posted from an email I got from the Motor Trades Association

http://www.patrol4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36758

Everybody is in their own little world thinking nothing will ever change, but trust me, it will. I sat in a meeting with Qld Transport the other day and things will eventually change, they hope sooner, we hope later. It is only lobby groups and the commercial financial reality of what it could do to the motor modification industry that is holding them back.

 

I know this is an old post, but I have a solution. (In NSW at any rate) A mate of mine in a Prado wanted a little more height so he bought the next size tyre up from standard. His insurance company said this was illegal. To remedy this all he needed to do was fill out a form from the rta, and pay an engineer 50bucks for a certificate saying that the speedo was not affected by tyre change. Fixed insurance problem.

 

I have been told by my insurance broker it all comes down to disclosure as long as you tell them and they accept it wether it legal or not or unroadworthy or not it would all be on your policy and that is what they pay although I will b e double checking this as my insurance is up for renewal shortly