Another thread about Insurance & PPF

[JohnnyUK]

My daughter had an accident in France in her UK registered and insured car.

After some time, it was flat bedded back to the UK and sent to a repair centre.

The Assessor from the Insurance company eventually inspected the car and noticed that it was PPF'd.

It was referred to the underwriter and today the insurer voided the insurance policy!

This whole process has taken 65 days!!

We have raised a formal complaint and eventually may have to go to the ombudsman.

These two cases form the basis of our complaint:

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DR...

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DR...

Any thoughts or experience of this please?

I informed my insurance company and they charged me an extra......£13.

Cheers!

[Voldemort]

Did she buy the car from new? Did she have the PPF fitted?

[BertBert]

One thing I would do would be to get a fake quote for the same circumstances car, person, address etc. with nothing to connect to you. Declare ppf and see if they give a quote

[JohnnyUK]

The car was bought from new, but subsequently had PPF fitted.

The insurers modifications do not list PPF.

[Cats_pyjamas]

I don't get this. As if ppf has increased the risk. Panels should be just repaired and returned without ppf. What is the issue with these companies?

[JohnnyUK]

Cats_pyjamas said:

I don't get this. As if ppf has increased the risk. Panels should be just repaired and returned without ppf. What is the issue with these companies?

Indeed. Hence the Complaint.

[119]

JohnnyUK said:

Cats_pyjamas said:

I don't get this. As if ppf has increased the risk. Panels should be just repaired and returned without ppf. What is the issue with these companies?

Indeed. Hence the Complaint.

I don’t think it’s got anything to do with risk .

[JohnnyUK]

That's the essence of insurance though - insuring a risk

[Durzel]

Nothing you can do except go through the ombudsman, as others have done. Some have had success, others haven’t.

How much of the car was PPF’d? Did it not occur to anyone to declare it, or at least ask if it needed to be declared?

[BertBert]

You wouldn't think to declare it because it's not thought of as a modification. I've modified my car by having ppf fitted is not a sentence you'd say

I've protected my car by having ppf fitted, yes.

[Gulf7]

Perhaps I should declare the ceramic sealant I put on the car after washing it

[ADJimbo]

I have a number of processional vehicles in my business which our Detailer has PPF professionally applied to the vehicles when they’re first fleeted.

Our insurers view it as a wrap for some bizarre reason.

[carreauchompeur]

This is a very strange situation and one where I wholly side with the claimants. Maybe this is just something which needs to form a call to insurer, who won’t find it on their list of modifications but have been formally told.

The above Ombudsman decisions apparently stand you in good stead though. Cancelling from inception sounds remarkably harsh though, I stopped a vehicle earlier in the year whereby they’d turned a van into a pickup and modified every possible aspect including a larger engine, and in that case they only cancelled it from that day!

[Cheib]

Family car has PPF. Has an insurance claim car was PPF’d not declared to the inusurer…not only did they not void the insurance policy they paid for the car to be PPF’d after it was repaired.

Insured with Zurich Private Client. Yes it is more expensive than some policies but the cover is absolutely great.

There is no such thing as cheap insurance. You can pay less but you get different cover, insurance companies tend to have very similar profit margins they just make that money in different ways.

[StoutBench]

JohnnyUK said:

My daughter had an accident in France in her UK registered and insured car.

After some time, it was flat bedded back to the UK and sent to a repair centre.

The Assessor from the Insurance company eventually inspected the car and noticed that it was PPF'd.

It was referred to the underwriter and today the insurer voided the insurance policy!

This whole process has taken 65 days!!

We have raised a formal complaint and eventually may have to go to the ombudsman.

These two cases form the basis of our complaint:

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DR...

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DR...

Any thoughts or experience of this please?

I informed my insurance company and they charged me an extra......£13.

Cheers!

Very unfortunate to hear. Unfortunately lots of people below have absolutely zero understanding of the insurance market and the insurance act of 2015.

I would recommend finding out if they would insure the same car now with the same modifications. If they would cover it then you need to raise a complaint about how the claim was handled and hope that they haven't changed their opinions on the modifications since the policy incepted.

In short as long as the modifications would have been accepted at the point of quote and inception then the claim should be honoured and paid with the deduction of the additional premium that would have been due and/or the additional excess that may have been payable.

[JohnnyUK]

OP here - thanks for all the replies.

Time to name the Insurer - Aviva

PH folks with PPF & insured by Aviva, I strongly recommend you tell them - I've been driving 42 years including 10 years working for an insurer - I never knew this nonsense.

[Jim on the hill]

JohnnyUK said:

The car was bought from new, but subsequently had PPF fitted.

The insurers modifications do not list PPF.

They also don't list sticking a gold bar to the inside rear window. If you modify the car you declare it or take the risk.

Why do people struggle with such basic contact law?

[Steve H]

Jim on the hill said:

JohnnyUK said:

The car was bought from new, but subsequently had PPF fitted.

The insurers modifications do not list PPF.

They also don't list sticking a gold bar to the inside rear window. If you modify the car you declare it or take the risk.

Why do people struggle with such basic contact law?

Would you declare a window sticker? How about a rug over the back seat because the dog sits on it?

I understand that PPF can have an influence on repair costs but for the most part it is irrelevant and is typically a sign of an owner that cares for their car and is a probably lower risk. Certainly not hard to believe that an owner wouldn’t think of it as a modification and so wouldn’t mention it unless specifically asked the question.

[Durzel]

ADJimbo said:

I have a number of processional vehicles in my business which our Detailer has PPF professionally applied to the vehicles when they’re first fleeted.

Our insurers view it as a wrap for some bizarre reason.

PPF *is* a wrap, albeit a transparent one. What else could it possibly be?

It’s applied the same way, it requires the same expertise to apply, it complicates repairs (time, cost) in the same way (even if it’s not being replaced, how do you partially respray a panel that has been PPF’d?), etc.

I’ve got full PPF coverage on my car, and found out that hardly any insurers cover it.

Having said all that this is a rare instance where I completely sympathise with the OP. I don’t think the vast majority of people would consider “paint protection film” something they need to declare.

Edited by Durzel on Saturday 1st February 20:59

[JohnnyUK]

Durzel said:

PPF *is* a wrap, albeit a transparent one. What else could it possibly be?

It’s applied the same way, it requires the same expertise to apply, it complicates repairs (time, cost) in the same way (even if it’s not being replaced, how do you partially respray a panel that has been PPF’d?), etc.

I’ve got full PPF coverage on my car, and found out that hardly any insurers cover it.

Having said all that this is a rare instance where I completely sympathise with the OP. I don’t think the vast majority of people would consider “paint protection film” something they need to declare.

Edited by Durzel on Saturday 1st February 20:59

Thank you

We didn't expect them to pay to replace the PPF - but we certainly didn't expect them to cancel the insurance!!