I Wanna Tell You (another) Story

Insurance Companies.

I used to own a rather boring Volvo 850 2.0 GLT (the ‘T5’ and the ‘R’ came later and WERE worth having. I digress). In order to try and add a bit of, err, shine, to this Richard-The-Third, I put a set of alloys on it which made it look quite pretty. I then gave it to my wife, and no, I didn’t hate her that much, she, ungrateful cow, sold it to her brother. Who deserved it!
Luckily or not depending on where you stood, he had an under-bonnet fire which did enough damage to warrant a telephone call to the insurance company. Oh dear, how sad!
Mr Loss Adjuster came out with his clip-board, made a few notes and comforting noises and said the insurance company would be “in-touch”
Now for the naive ones amongst you, let me say a vehicle assessor/ loss adjuster/ call him what you will, is NOT on your side no matter what he says, how much tea you give him, or how much sympathy he offers.
He is a hateful man hiding behind the sweetest smile and in his inside pocket is a chisel with which he will attack the value of your car. Probably.
He, is on the side of the insurance company because they pay his wages.
Back to the Volvo. Being ‘family’ and ahead of any claim authorisation, I got stuck-in and repaired the motor on a promise of “I’ll sort you out one-way-or-the-other Dave” which I took to mean I would get paid regardless……. So with brother-in-law back at work and generally mobile again things went quiet, for a bit anyway. And then he got a letter (you’re ahead of me aren’t you) which told him to go away in jerky movements; they, the insurance company, weren’t going to pay his claim.
He had omitted to tell them about the non-standard wheels and of course, the sharp eyed assessor had spotted this; he obviously knew his onions.
“Dave, what the eff has a set of alloys got to do with a fire” my owt-for-nowt tight arsed brother-in-law bleated, and so I explained about ‘utmost good faith’ and ‘risk’ and lots of other things that he didn’t (want to) understand. When he’d finished his two-day tirade of abuse, telling every one how he was going to “take ‘em to court” (yawn) I believe it actually started to sink in that he would be wasting his time and money.

The moral of this story is:
If you are going to alter the spec. of your motor tell the insurance company. It is perfectly reasonable for them to know exactly what they are underwriting and any relative consequences. They will not necessarily increase your premium but the possible alternative is spelled out above.
There are one or two ‘other’ morals to be gleaned from this little story but I’m sure you’ll work those out for yourselves.

Cheers,

Hooters.