Insurance - a heartfelt warning!

[EMPI VeeDuvb]

Good afternoon all,

I'm a long time lurker on this forum, but have never posted before - I just wanted to share a cautionary tale about insurance...

About 2 months ago I was involved in an minor accident - a car pulled straight out in front of me from a side road and i ploughed into the side of them, I'm sure that the other driver was fully at fault, but as the other driver and 2 independent witnesses both said I appeared to be travelling "at speed" the claim was settled 50/50.

I was driving my 2003 S40 diesel which sustained damage to the front wings, bonnet, bumper, grill and radiator - the other car (an Astra) had severe damage to all the O/S panels.

My insurer (Admiral) sent someone to examine the car - he had a look round, took some photo's and told me the car would be a write off and that they would be in touch with an offer and to arrange collection. Before he left he remarked that the stereo looked like an aftermarket one - I told him it was, and that after the original Volvo stereo had broken I had fitted one that I had in the shed from a previous motor - nothing expensive or fancy.

Anyway, a week later I hadn't heard anything and so phoned them to query this - the guy I spoke to said there was a problem with my claim and he would get someone to call me back.

A couple of hours later I took a call from someone from their fraud department - he told me that they would be declining my claim because I had fraudulently insured the car without informing them of some modifications - when I asked which modifications he told me that I had upgraded the stereo and fitted non-original alloy wheels.

I agreed with him that I had changed the stereo, but only because the old one had broken. However, the wheels were genuine Volvo items and were fitted to the car when I bought it. I was informed that as part of the claim they had requested the original build spec for my car from Volvo UK - they had supplied this and confirmed that the car was originally sold with 15" wheels and that the current 17" wheels had been fitted at a later date.

The end result of this is that Admiral have refused to pay out for my car, have billed me for 10 days hire of a courtesy car (£800!), cancelled my insurance and lodged a fraud marker against my name.

Last year my insurance cost me about £200 fully comp, the cheapest quote I can now get with a history of cancelled/fraudulent insurance is £2100 to insure a Fiesta - Third Party only. I also have a classic Beetle which I have previously insured on an "agreed value" policy for under £200 per year - the classic insurance comapny I was with have now cancelled this policy and I'm looking at another £2,000 to insure the Beetle...

A family friend who has always worked in insurance has helped me to appeal this via Admiral and the ombudsman, but to no avail - I have now discovered that I will have to declare the cancelled insurance for the rest of my life, and that it is unlikely that any mainstream insurer will ever touch me again.

Ironically, I only moved to Admiral on a friends recommendation, even though my previous insurer (Hastings) were brilliant the only other time I had to claim (after a hit and run when my car was parked up).