Hello,
I'm sure this has been done to death...
I'm buying a van next week, and in the process of trying to sort insurance out. It's been insulated, ply lined, and has a leisure battery fitted. There's also a wooden platform for sitting/sleeping, but this is removable (held in place with screws presently). There is no 'fixed' infrastructure for cooking or sleeping (does held in place with a few screws and designed to be removable count?)
I'm currently with Aviva, just spoken to them explaining it was a day van and they were a little bit funny about insuring it. Is this people's experience with Aviva and day vans?
Are Aviva recommended for this sort of thing, or am I better off going to one of the specialists?
Cheers
I insured a caravelle last week, planning do some form of modification not sure what yet. Was with direct line for car and they wouldn't insure as I planned taking 2 seats out, apparently a modification too far 🙄
Got quote off Brentacre who were great on phone and really good price. Tried Adrian Flux - not so good on phone and couldn't match other quote.
So in my, limited, experience go with specialists - seem cheaper and know what you are talking about. Also brentacre don't need notifications of non-performance modifications which is handy.
Another one for Brentacre, as mentioned any mods you just ring them to let them no and there is no cost involved unless it improves performance of greatly increases the price.
Remember the rules of insurance have changed so they can only turn down a claim if a change has had a material affect on the claim. So someone crashed into the back of you they couldn’t turn the claim down as you had taken some seats out.
I used to be insured with Aviva though Stewart Collins, but they wouldn't reinsure me unless I taxed my van again. Sorry, but no. It's a camper and it's SORNed for half the year. I'm insured with The Caravan Club now, even though I'm not a member. They were half the price of Stewart Collins, fine with it being a conversion, fine with me SORNing it for half the year, and I've got fully comp cover for the whole of Europe for 364 days a year. 365 next year...
I've been with brentacre for about 8 years now. I've even given up phoning round as their renewal is cheaper than anyone else.
Plus when you ring it takes less than 60 seconds to get through to someone.
That's interesting. Was it an issue with permanent removal? The thing about the Caravelle (and Caddy Max) is that the rears are designed to come out (certainly on my dad's Caravelle they do).
We are looking at a Ford Grand Tourneo Connect - buying the 7 seater (for resale and short delivery date) but will probably want to unbolt the back row and leave it out sometimes.
There's an option (no cost) to delete the seats at the factory on a lot of these veicles so it's not clear why any insurer should chuck a hissy fit over that "modification" since your risk of loss on injury claims just went down by 2/7! Extra non manufacturers seats I can understand being an issue.
I've not asked the insurer yet, going to test drive tomorrow and decide if we want it before opening that can of worms!
Apologies on minor hijack.
@garage-dweller with direct line I thought better keep legit when she asked about mods I said was taking 2 seat out thinking nothing of it and she went off to check the permissable mods list. When came back she said they wouldn't be able to insure it! Not even a stupid high price to discourage me, flat refusal to insure it.
Been with Direct Line for donkeys years, and they wanted every minute detail and cost of the mods on our new van, never an issue with the Caravelle we had. We ended up with A-Plan, Adrian Flux and another which I can't remember were silly money compared to them. Regarding seats out of a Caravelle though, as others have said, they're designed that way and we ran two middle seats out for a couple of years.
Brentacre on my hiace. They were fine about me removing the bulkhead(the top half of it) and fitting a rear seat.
Can't remeber who I was wih when I got my first van seven years ago but that was silly expensive so cancelled that policy and went with someone else for a year, I forget who. Then it became a self-build camper (even a panel van and an intention to convert at some point during the year) and I went with Adrian Flux, been with them ever since. Tried Brentacre, same cover, only abot £20 more so stuck with what I know but both seem fine on the phone, no idea what it's like when you have to claim though, and hope not to find out.
Greenlight here -- they are more than happy to deal with modifications on vans.
If all you want is to be "legally insured"
By all means use Adrian flux.
If you actually want insurance. Don't use Adrian flux. Their underwriter markerstudy are utter cowboys.
When I had a van, Aviva didnt care about the fact it had a 500ltr water tank bolted inside. They where a lot cheaper than A1 or Adrian flux who said it was modified and wanted silly money.
Infact I got my Leon estate and Vivaro van insured fully comp together cheaper than the other companies with all the extras added through Aviva direct.
Try A-Plan. Reasonable quote, not funny about all the mods on the van.
You get a discount if you quote some of the VW forums, like Just T4s.