winter tyres and insurance company silliness

[sawman]

My brother was telling me about his experiences putting winter tyres on his family hack the other day. He wanted to put the winter rubber on some steelies to keep his alloys nice. He phoned his insurers (no idea who) and was told that they insisted the winters where put on standard wheels for his car, otherwise this would be classed as a modification and a charge would be levied - which seems a bit rich as arguably he would be less likely to cause an accident during the winter on winter tyres.

Despite this, he thought he would get some OEM steel wheels, which would satisfy them, and then it would be easier when it comes to swapping back in the spring, but he was told that the refitting summer wheels and tyres would need to be undertaken by a "professional" fitter otherwise his insurance may be nullified

My response was "get a better insurance company" surely this cant be standard practice, I often rotate wheels around the car and periodically take my wire wheels off for cleaning, without the help of a kwikfitfitter, I hadnt considered that I could impact my insurance this way

[Fleckers]

so if you get a flat tyre and you change the wheel yourself does this mean your insurance is invalid ?

[redstu]

There is a list somewhere of insurers who are not intersted, just would like to be told and the greedy fkers who will charge for an improvement in safety.
Seek and ye shall find.

[davepoth]

Fleckers said:

so if you get a flat tyre and you change the wheel yourself does this mean your insurance is invalid ?

No. But the people on the telephone who aren't certified motor engineers have been told to tell everyone that any change to the "as manufactured" spec is a modification. Imagine if, not knowing anything about the issues, they told someone that something was OK, and it turned out to be lethal; you can see why they're cautious. If in doubt, get it passed up the line to someone at the company who doesn't spend all day reading from a script.