Corvid-19, Motorhome Insurance suspension

Peatmoor

Peatmoor

Joined
Aug 19, 2014
Posts
46
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49
Location
Matlock Derbyshire
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32,924
MH
Dethleffs Premium Liner
Exp
Since 1986
I am fortunate to have my motorhome locked away in a secure building. I have been a Comfort customer for 9 years, I wanted to suspend my motorhome insurance with Comfort / Aviva during the present corvid-19 outbreak, they informed me that that's not possible, they went on to say the only solution was for me to cancel my insurance, and I will then have to take out a new policy when I required it as the corvid-19 restrictions on travel are lifted. I asked if the present renewal cost would be valid when I took out a new policy, and I was informed I would be treated as a new customer. It would therefore appear the economics of cancelling my policy may cost more in the long run because the new policy cost could significantly increase therefore cancelling out any gain by cancelling at this time. Surely the insurance companies are now profiteering because there will be far fewer claims, their risk is severely reduced because we are unable to use our vehicles. I expected Comfort to be more considerate in these exceptional times.
I suggest those of us who wish to suspend our insurance should lobby our insurance companies or possibly our MP's to allow us to suspend our policies until such times as we can use our vehicles. Has anyone else had the same response from their insurance company?
Funsters comments invited.
 
I would not cancel my insurance as even if off the road I still want cover for fire, theft and accidental damage.

Our MH is on the drive and as safe as we can make it but there is always a risk of damage from debris during a storm or another vehicle backing into it - even the lawnmower.

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Jim said:
I certainly would not cancel the insurance. Things are stolen all the time from secure places, vans burn of their own accord, secure building can burn too.
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Hello Jim

My motorhome is located in a substantial building beside our house, in a remote rural situation. The likelihood of theft or fire is highly unlikely as the very securely locked and alarmed building is constructed of stone concrete and steel. The MH batteries have been removed from the vehicle and the building. The vehicle itself has one entrance door with two high quality deadlocks, is alarmed and live tracked. My risk is therefore as minimal as it is possible to be.
My original post was highlighting the stance of the insurance companies, I understand that this is a uniform response from most UK insurance companies. I believe the option to suspend insurance in such times as these should be available. Alternatively a partial refund should be available from the insurance company to reflect the non existent road risk which they are currently experiencing and profiteering from. They are usually quite happy to charge you extra if you wish to increase your stated mileage or add further to their risk by other means, so what is wrong with a refund for reduced risk? Some American insurance companies are presently partly repaying premiums to their clients.

Best regards

Keith. Stay Safe!
 
Peatmoor said:
They are usually quite happy to charge you extra if you wish to increase your stated mileage or add further to their risk by other means, so what is wrong with a refund for reduced risk?
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I increased the mileage allowance on our car just before the lockdown - actually doubled it due to the number of trips to my parents and the increased premium was ...... £5 :)
 
I would not cancel my insurance just for a few weeks not worth it financially.

Keep it running.

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Just renewed with Comfort, reduced mileage to their minimum of 1500 cost me £255.00 so if off the road for three months going to cost me approximately £63.00.
I can rest easy knowing that theft or spontaneous combustion will be Comfort's headache and not mine.
 
I run four vehicles and have sorned three of them and reduced the ins to fire and theft.
 
Peatmoor said:
I am fortunate to have my motorhome locked away in a secure building. I have been a Comfort customer for 9 years, I wanted to suspend my motorhome insurance with Comfort / Aviva during the present corvid-19 outbreak, they informed me that that's not possible, they went on to say the only solution was for me to cancel my insurance, and I will then have to take out a new policy when I required it as the corvid-19 restrictions on travel are lifted. I asked if the present renewal cost would be valid when I took out a new policy, and I was informed I would be treated as a new customer. It would therefore appear the economics of cancelling my policy may cost more in the long run because the new policy cost could significantly increase therefore cancelling out any gain by cancelling at this time. Surely the insurance companies are now profiteering because there will be far fewer claims, their risk is severely reduced because we are unable to use our vehicles. I expected Comfort to be more considerate in these exceptional times.
I suggest those of us who wish to suspend our insurance should lobby our insurance companies or possibly our MP's to allow us to suspend our policies until such times as we can use our vehicles. Has anyone else had the same response from their insurance company?
Funsters comments invited.
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Perhaps cancel, New customers generally get a better deal, you could even look at Supersure, who have a 1/2 price intro offer, used mine last year, cannot remember if this only applies to Swift MHome. Cheers Smudger55
 
Peatmoor said:
Hello Jim

My motorhome is located in a substantial building beside our house, in a remote rural situation. The likelihood of theft or fire is highly unlikely as the very securely locked and alarmed building is constructed of stone concrete and steel. The MH batteries have been removed from the vehicle and the building. The vehicle itself has one entrance door with two high quality deadlocks, is alarmed and live tracked. My risk is therefore as minimal as it is possible to be.
My original post was highlighting the stance of the insurance companies, I understand that this is a uniform response from most UK insurance companies. I believe the option to suspend insurance in such times as these should be available. Alternatively a partial refund should be available from the insurance company to reflect the non existent road risk which they are currently experiencing and profiteering from. They are usually quite happy to charge you extra if you wish to increase your stated mileage or add further to their risk by other means, so what is wrong with a refund for reduced risk? Some American insurance companies are presently partly repaying premiums to their clients.

Best regards

Keith. Stay Safe!
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I think that you are in a tiny minority and, as such, your circumstances are of no/little interest to an insurer/underwriter.

Insurance premiums are based on statistics and, based on your circumstances described above, you are an outlier.

You entered into a contract with your insurer and now wish that your insurer should be benevolent towards you because you’ll do fewer miles than originally expected. How would you react if, following an accident, your insurer indicated to you that they didn’t expect you to have an accident and thought that they shouldn’t now have to pay out in full?

Ian
 
My motorhome is well alarmed and immobilised on our property in view of our windows, and hidden from general view. But I would never even think for a minute to not have it insured.

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Tbh this is a rediculous thought unless your MH value is less than your insurance.
What if there was an electrical fault in your storage area?
I love mine too much to not insure it even if I am just looking at it on the drive lol
 
The insurance period is for the period quoted....to ‘suspend’ it would move the calculated risks to another period where risks may be different to those anticipated.......hence the reason you can’t ask them to suspend cover and move it to another period without a recalculation of any new risks anticipated? For the sum involved I’m not sure the battle is worth it......I don’t think any of us would expect an insurance company to increase premiums mid way through the quote period if they saw increased risks they had not anticipated at the time of the quote? If cost is an issue it may be cheaper to cancel your current policy and get quotes on the new info of reduced mileage, storage etc etc but not sure if it would be that much cheaper. I don’t think they are profiteering. Unusual times........
 
Just an aside to this, don't know whether the op is right or wrong with his idea, and I know I am always banging on about this, but the nfu never put the price up in this circumstance, no crazy increase, and no decrease for new policy.
One phone call and it's stopped another away you go again (y) (y):Smile:
 
Pausim said:
Not if you have taken the batteries out. If you have left the engine battery in to power them then there is still a risk.
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I should have pointed out that my security system runs on a hidden remote lithium battery which will run all of the system continuously for up to 12 months.

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Realist said:
I would not cancel my insurance just for a few weeks not worth it financially.
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Hi Brian

So you think this is only going to last a few weeks?????!!!!!!!!! I am well over 70, I guess we old timers will be locked away for a good few months, not weeks, and certainly until all danger of picking up the virus has abated.
 
I’m thinking for the piece of mind knowing your Motorhome is insured and covered, these days where money is tight people will attempt and succeed in knicking them at any cost and possibly cause damage.
 
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whiskyman said:
Just renewed with Comfort, reduced mileage to their minimum of 1500 cost me £255.00 so if off the road for three months going to cost me approximately £63.00.
I can rest easy knowing that theft or spontaneous combustion will be Comfort's headache and not mine.
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Did you ask about the cost of raising it up again? I did this as ours was due for renewal (end of this month) and was told that if I renewed at 1,500 and then wanted to raise it to 6,000 (they don't do 5,000) if would cost the same as if I'd done it for 6,000 originally (ie no pro-rata reduction for the time at 1,500) and on top I'd have to pay an amendment fee so it would make it MORE expensive than just doing it at 6,000 now.

Instead I went with to A-Plan which is cheaper and they DO have a pro-rata discount however as the cost between 1,500 and 5,000 wasn't much different to what I'd have to pay for a change I went with 5,000 anyway as hopefully we will get to use it at some point.
 
Here all vehicles you own must be insured on or off the road. I guess for all the reasons given . Our two old cars are stored in our barn beside the house. Isetta very rarely on the road but still insured.

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spitfire said:
Here all vehicles you own must be insured on or off the road. I guess for all the reasons given . Our two old cars are stored in our barn beside the house. Isetta very rarely on the road but still insured.
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Here we have continuous insurance with automatic renewal. It is possible to cancel but only within 1 month of renewal cancelling so you can change company or by selling/scrapping the vehicle & providing the paperwork
Sorning a vehicle here , called a "Baja" , leads to immediate nullification of the vehicles ITV (Mot) meaning it has to be tested before you can "unsorn" it & legally that means the vehicle can only be trailered or on a recovery truck to get to the testing station. + you pay for the Baja , then you would have to pay to get it to the testing station+ pay for a new test then pay to get it un "Bajaed" :rofl:
 
You wouldn't expect your insurer to raise the premium mid policy if matters outside your, and their, control increased risks - perhaps the weather was especially icy leading to a spate of prangs, or some scroat was active in an area causing much greater likelihood of vandalism. So why expect mid term a reduction or suspension of a policy as the risk is perceived to have reduced?

In my case I had a mileage limited policy. Without the lockdown I was going to exceed my allowance and would have needed to pay to upgrade. Now I won't need that. But should I expect a refund or discount of some of the premium as I can't use the van for a couple of months. No, especially since I've already used or front loaded my mileage rather than spreading it proportionately over the year.

But as insurance is risk based, and will depend on claims history, less vehicles on roads will result in less claims and I would hope that next renewal premiums might be a tad cheaper, albeit some insurers will be seeing higher operating costs on the claims that are occuring.

It is worth noting that my MH insurance, on a vehicle worth over twice the value of my car, is 2/3 that of the car, for similar mileage limits, despite that I didn't have a no claims history that I could apply to the MH as that was used for the car. It strikes me that MH policies are already comparatively good value, and reflect that for large periods of time the vehicles do stand more or less idle, so a double discount for added idleness seems unlikely.
 
gus-lopez said:
I really struggle understanding no insurance or even sorning a vehicle.
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Agree about the insurance, certainly wouldn't take that risk, but SORNing is a no-brainer really if you're not gonna use it.
 
gus-lopez said:
Here we have continuous insurance with automatic renewal. It is possible to cancel but only within 1 month of renewal cancelling so you can change company or by selling/scrapping the vehicle & providing the paperwork
Sorning a vehicle here , called a "Baja" , leads to immediate nullification of the vehicles ITV (Mot) meaning it has to be tested before you can "unsorn" it & legally that means the vehicle can only be trailered or on a recovery truck to get to the testing station. + you pay for the Baja , then you would have to pay to get it to the testing station+ pay for a new test then pay to get it un "Bajaed" :rofl:
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Yes continuous insurance here as I found out in our first year here ! Bought an annual travel insurance and next year it was renewed and I did not want it ! I thought because it was for travel it would not be renewed , wrong ! all are automatically renewed lol
No road tax so no SORN .
 
Just to highlight, the risk. Report in the "classic" press, some time back. Guy spent several years refurbishing a Triumph Vittesse convertible, (the 6 cyl version of my Herald). The Owner, had not renewed the insurance prior to using it on the road and the car caught fire when being run on test in his driveway, Failed Fuel hose, Alleged to have been degraded by Ethanol?. What he was left with was virtual scrap. Had it been insured he would have received an "Agreed Value" of several thousand pounds. Enough to pay for a decent restoration. Moral of the story?, even when not used, INSURE, against at least Fire & Theft. BTW. I get quotes for older cars, from time to time, and I find that TPF&T can be as expensive as Full cover!. Another anomaly, adding the wife can reduce the premium, even though she no longer has the C1 to drive it!.

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