# Liverpool Victoria - Caution Required



## madadd (Jan 30, 2004)

Just a word (or a few) of warning.

Liverpool Victoria are not as good as they seem. They quoted me 850ish for my R33 GT-R with mods (About 15K of them). They said that there was no extra charge. Just get photo evidence. Great I thought. And what a price! Unbelievable!!

The paperwork all arrived. But when I read the fine print, it says it excludes modified vehicles. So I phoned and checked. And they said, no it was fine. I asked them to double check. They went away, and asked exactly what I had done. I explained about the engine mods, and that it has more power than it should. The girl came back and said. Sorry. Our mistake. Our insurers decline. We cannot cover you at all. Sorry! 

I have since double checked. And it seems she was right. The 'As long as you havent altered the engine capacity' statement they first told me is totally untrue. However, many of their employees are slightly mis-informed. And remember they are only a broker, so you could end up with a problem if 'shit happens!'

In the end, I used Adrian Flux. I am 33, 7 Yrs no claims, owned my car for 5 yrs. And it cost £1400 all declared. (7 Pages of policy docs I had to fill in!!)
Direct line want £800 standard, modified they want £2900

No other insurer seemed interested in covering me.


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## Nick MW (Aug 15, 2003)

I had exactly the same speel about not changing the engine capacity and photo evidence of what is done.

Surely if you have based your policy purchase on this - would they not be liable as they have sold you the policy on that basis - or am I being very nieve here?


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## toffy (Oct 9, 2002)

How many engineers would know a std Liner from a modded 1 anyway?? Unless you have a real bad crash & the car ends up getting seriously checked over. 
For your every day prang all they`ll do is send round a 50 yr old guy in a Vectra who doesn`t even know what a Skyline is. He`ll look at it, he`ll look at the green air filter,he`ll see the words HKS,Nismo,Apexi etc & he wont have a ****ing clue what he`s looking at. 
Its a risk i know & im bound to get slated for this but **** em. We get ripped off enough as it is & i for 1 am taking the chance. I always have. 

Also `ive had the above happen to me & they repaired over £1k worth of damage. 
The engineer came round opened up the bonnet and he saw the green filter. He shut it. He saw the alloys. I hid nothing.
Did he know it was lowered? I doubt it. Did he know i had GTR brakes? Did he ****. He got inside & read the milage. Did he see the Turbo timer? Nope. They were all there for him to see. 

What you`ve got to remember is. 

We`re into this modding & skyline scene. They are not. They dont know what you & i know & 
"what they dont know wont hurt will it".

You do the same to your wife & girlfriend.


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## madadd (Jan 30, 2004)

*Insurance men*

On the same note however..

I once had an Integrale, and I had an accident investigator
give it the whole works! He even opened up the ECU casing to check if the chip was standard! (It was, we changed it over before he arrived!).

It is very easy for someone to see things like an APEXi badge on the ecu and know it is not standard. Or even suspension isnt hard for someone who has been doing it for a long time.

I admit, i have not declared my car as is for the last 4 years.

But now I'm going clean I am! ;-) There are too many visible none standard parts on it.

As for LV quotes.. It is what you sign that counts. Not what the sales girl on the phone says!! She is inviting you to enter into a contract with them. If the contract doesnt state what she says, then it probably isnt so!


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## Big Mark (Nov 27, 2002)

I had the same problem with LV when I recently called for quotes.
I called up, told the car, even gave them the long list of mods and they came back with £950 fully comp with protected NCD.

The next closest I had to this was £1500 so was a little wary..... I called bback to check and was told that modifications are fine as long as they DO NOT INCREASE the POWER OUTPUT  I proceeded to confirm this with two more phone calls to line managers and ended up having to go with another company as my quoted power figure was too far from the standard output for them to even consider.

So, as the thread title says, be very careful.....you'll probably be able to get away with it on a mildly modded car and their prices are excellent, but you could be running a big risk!


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## JasonO (Jun 29, 2001)

I can recomend Tett Hamilton as a suitable alternative, the guys know their Skylines and won't waste your time trying to quote you for something they can't touch. They are familiar with the various models of Skyline, and the different modification levels, so they will know what your talking about.

Give them a call on 01275 792270, and quote reference SKY1 for the best quality of service available.


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## davewilkins (Jun 30, 2001)

Jason...Is Damian back at Tett Hamilton yet?


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## Harry (Sep 1, 2002)

JasonO said:


> *I can recomend Tett Hamilton as a suitable alternative, the guys know their Skylines and won't waste your time trying to quote you for something they can't touch. They are familiar with the various models of Skyline, and the different modification levels, so they will know what your talking about.
> 
> Give them a call on 01275 792270, and quote reference SKY1 for the best quality of service available. *


sorry Jason, my own experience doesn't rate them as "the best quality of service".....once signed up all further correspondence from them was by mail...even the ones that said please contact us we have a question....

as far as sourcing cover, the initial switch to them from my other broker was a simple change of broker using the same underwriter (who coincidentally was one of the ones they use). When that underwriter had some issues with my changeing cover requirements, they (as a broker) werent particulalry proactive in providing alternative sources - it was all too hard and I moved on...

I've now left them and am with Footman James, who, so far, are giving "excellent service"

cheers


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## JasonO (Jun 29, 2001)

Sorry to hear this Harry, but you've done the right thing. (That being to vote with your money and take your business else where.)

I do hope you tried to explain to them what they were doing wrong, because if they don't know they've boobed, it can't be remedied.

I do hear good things about Footman James, maybe I need to give them a call sometime to see if they can offer us something of advantage.


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## Harry (Sep 1, 2002)

JasonO said:


> *I do hope you tried to explain to them what they were doing wrong, because if they don't know they've boobed, it can't be remedied.
> 
> I do hear good things about Footman James, maybe I need to give them a call sometime to see if they can offer us something of advantage. *


yes to the first (although I suspect part of the problem was that Damian wasnt there and the "file" was successively passed "down")

and yes to the second....


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## G_SLeigh (Mar 5, 2004)

I ahd the same thing on my car..

Over the phone they tell you anything, when you get the paper work its ca completly different story.

I am sure they by law can not do that but hey! bastards


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## Lee Loader (Nov 25, 2003)

Norwich union tried to stitch me up, I got quotes for changing vehicle to the Skyline before I bought it too make sure i could insure it......they could only give me an estimate for a years price but told me on 3 occasion what my monthly repayments would go up to......bought the car and rung them the day i was due to pick it up to change the policy and they turned round and said "sorry we don't insure them vehicles" needless to say they made an exception for me, no way i was going to stand for that!!!!!
Then when i moved house, 2 mile down the road 2 months later they wanted another £250, when me girlfriends and my bike insurance didn't change!!!!!! 
needless to say i changed companies at that point, went with A Plan and they gave me a price they had quoted 2 months earlier!!
Very very helpful people.........


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## st3v3_M (Oct 26, 2003)

I had the same speal from LV, I asked 3 times about my mods on the R34 GTR and they said the same everytime, no charge unless engine CC changed, get photo evidence, which I did. And I was like "No, are you really really sure mods are ok"..Yes they all said. Bet that transaction wasn't taped for training purposes.

Unfortunately I did smash up the car and it was a write off  

LV paid out in full, infact they gave me more than I asked for in the settlement 

After reading this I think I was lucky, still with LV now but not with the 'Liner. I have my other car a Jaguar XKR with them and it's on the same policy. No extra charge after a full payout   
and protected NCB intact


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