My Vrs was rammed from behind two weeks ago, The other guy accepted fault and everything was going smoothly when suddenly I get a call from his insurance saying, "Your car has no rear crash bar, thus is modified and we aint paying as its not a declared mod", WTF the car is going to cost 2100 pounds to fix, I have a right old go at them telling them they are utterly retarded and useless and why the hell would I remove my crash bar, they replied because they are 21 pounds in weight and people take them off as part of modding their cars, I was livid and got the inspecter back out to meet me at the body shop, on inspection the bodyshop guy says the car had a rear shunt in the past and was fixed, he also said where the crash bar bolts to the car are sprayed red and look like since the previuse repair their was never a crash bar fitted, the inspecter hummed and arrhed about it, I called the garage where I purchased the car from as a demonstrator and wo and behold they fessed up that the manager used the car to drive too and thro work sometimes and one time it was hit and repaired, they even had the invoices and such on record and said yes their was a crash bar fitted then, I handed the phone to the bodyshop guy and he told them that due to lack of paint removal and such around the pins he highly doubted their was a crash bar fitted.

Anyhow, the inspector accepted the bodyshop guys chat and autharised the car to be fixed so thats good, but wtf with the skoda dealer not telling me it was involved in a crash and wtf with their repair shop not fitting a crash bar, everybody said their was alot of damage for a 20 MPH crash....

Jeez, sorry to hear about the smack. Its a good job your head is screwed on or you could have been £2100 out of pocket.

Do people actually remove their crash bars as a performance mod, sounds dangerous to me.

Oh have you got whiplash?

hehe nah I dont got whiplash

why would they inform you its been in an accident?

did you ask if its ever had paint or damage repaired?

tbh as long as its safe and fully repaired i wouldn't care. quite annoying the insurance company tried to pull that one on you though :thumbdwn:

Why would they? because I asked them if it had ever been in an accident as everybody who buys used cars does right?

They were trying it on anyway.

Undeclared modifications affect *your* insurance but not that of any third party that drives into you.

Why would they? because I asked them if it had ever been in an accident as everybody who buys used cars does right?

as i said if you asked they should have said, but otherwise they are under no obligation to say so.

Well i wouldnt be so sure, they produced some legal gumpff that stated, if your car is un insured and it would be with undeclared mods, they can then take you to court and the judge will declare your un-insured thus shouldnt of been their thus the insurer is not libal to pay, also you will then be arrested for driving a motor car illegaly...

Its irrelevant. You have a right to have your car repaired to the condition it was in prior to the accident, even if you weren't insured...

As a main dealer I would expect honesty tbh Bengie, who cares if it had alittle knock, you just want the invoices and such so if the welds are faulty or parts are missing IE crash bar's you can sort it, I doubt they have an obligation but they have a reputation right...

Well i wouldnt be so sure, they produced some legal gumpff that stated, if your car is un insured and it would be with undeclared mods, they can then take you to court and the judge will declare your un-insured thus shouldnt of been their thus the insurer is not libal to pay, also you will then be arrested for driving a motor car illegaly...

Hmmm, maybe the law has changed but many years ago I had a minor bump and there was some question about whether the person who I hit had insurance (the details she gave me were never successfully verified by my insurance company), however, they told me, irrespective of whether she was insured or not, she could still claim off my insurance.

She never did claim

I just hope you all have your mods declared if you are of this view because the letter I was presented with that I will try and get online looks like they dont and you will be in trouble....

Well i wouldnt be so sure, they produced some legal gumpff that stated, if your car is un insured and it would be with undeclared mods, they can then take you to court and the judge will declare your un-insured thus shouldnt of been their thus the insurer is not libal to pay, also you will then be arrested for driving a motor car illegaly...

That's factually incorrect on a number of points.

That's factually incorrect on a number of points.

Im just saying what I was told, if anybody can get me proof that I can present to his insurer I reckon i could swindle them haha

Out of curiosity who is your insurer, I'm assuming the list of mods on your signature were declared.

hehe nah I dont got whiplash

You ain't got whiplash?:eek: I thought "everyone" got whiplash if shunted from the rear.

Yea my mods are declared lol, my car as standard was only 280 for me n the wife to insure fully comp with mods its 600, Admiral muilti car is my insurer, we have the Audi S3 as the main car and the octy as the second, we pay 1100 a year all in for both cars fully comp for us both.

Good think you kept at it - otherwise that would have been a right mess.

Glad to hear you got it sorted in the end...(no pun intended mate)...

Cheers

Bas

bit harsh of your insurance company to react that quickly. i always was under the impression if you can prove you where unaware of it i.e bought it like that and never knew it was modified.

atleast youve got it sorted im still sorting a claim from july all because my insurance company kept telling me to keep the hire car (even though they had told enterprise i would be paying for it)

i bet the bodyshop manager got a right rollicking off the sales manager. i bet the bodyshop charged the sales account for the repair. finding out hes beend one by his own bodyshop must hurt his pride a bit!!

at least you now even without the crash bar the octys got one strong rear end!

I removed my crash bar from the rear and fitted a different one that came with my towbar. Now as the towbar is not a proper skoda one, nor was it factory fitted does that mean my insurance is not valid?

minefield really but i'd say yes. its not as skoda intended.

They say in the terms of contract that anything that is differant to how the manafacturer shipped the car is a modification and should be declared to your insurance, but thats Bull**** and is full of loop holes, IE Exhaust, if you blow your stansard jobbo and goto a garage they aint fitting a skoda one for sure, same with bulbs and wipers and the like, Insurance companys I feel just go OTT and if your silly enought to say oh an exhaust place fitted a new exhaust because the old one was blowing then sure they will prob try and do you lol....

I hate insurance companys they are leagaly ripping us off much like banks and such

I removed my crash bar from the rear and fitted a different one that came with my towbar. Now as the towbar is not a proper skoda one, nor was it factory fitted does that mean my insurance is not valid?

You and me both! Mine came from Towsure and as there is 'Type Approval' on towing brackets these days and you just can't just knock one up out of any scrap you have kicking around, then I should think that its ok.

I would guess that if you had no mod declared they would have fixed the car without inspecting or checking for mods, but as they had a list of mods to work from he went looking for an item undeclared to provide a get out for the insurance company. Or am I just paranoid!

No your just wrong lol ;p, the inspector was from the third partys Insurance so he knew nothing of mods until he saw the car.