What grounds would they have to sue him? He paid his premiums and when he place a claim they denied it. They had no out of pocket expense.

 

I appreciate all of your input but one thing to keep in mind is that I told my agent before I started any modifications what I was going to be doing to the car and he said "as long as you hold on to all of your receipts you will be covered". Obviously there should have been an "unless" clause to his statement. And also, like Dan said, there was no out of pocket expense directly attributable to the incident. I hit a pot hole. That would have nothing to do with the mods. Regardless, they have yet to show me any documentation showing that certain mods would cause me to become ineligible for coverage. I have come to hate Nationwide Insurance. I have never had more problems in dealing with a claim then with this company. Bah!

 

It also could be due to the high incidence of false claims these days. They are becoming much more strict on any matters dealing with sporty cars and various performance upgrades. Since so many people have made false claims, the insurance companies have really been on the lookout for possible fraud. If you have your receipts, they shouldn't be giving you such a problem though, especially since the damage has nothing to do with the turbo or other stuff.

 

That's horrible man.....not a fan of Nationwide. After my Teg was stolen back in the day I had to argue with them over the value of the car, they were trying to lowball me big time. And then either they dropped me or I dropped them, I can't remember.

With Allstate now.

 

If they are dumping you and denying coverage because of aftermarket parts, I would think the least you should get back would be your most recent premium (for your sake I hope you pay six months rather than month to month) If they are claiming that you would not be covevered for anything, than they were in effect providing you with NO coverage, and should have to refund what you paid.

 

Hmmm. . . I'm an insurance agent with one of the main insurance companies and I personally have never had a problem with this. A lot of insurance company's do try and find any excuse to not pay a claim, but to drop somebody is pretty drastic unless they were trying to find a reason to drop you b/c of high claims/accidents on your record. Normally, insurance companies won't pay for after market parts, but we won't deny a claim. I looked over our auto policy and the only clauses I found that they might be able to legally deny your claim are these:

THERE IS NO COVERAGE FOR:

"If the declarations state the 'USE' of your car is other than 'PLEASURE or BUSINESS'."

- they might say your car is used for racing, not personal use.

"There is no coverage under this policy if YOU or any other PERSON insured under this policy has made false statements with the intent to conceal or misrepresent any material fact or circumstance."

-they might say you concealed the fact that you modified you car.

Every state's insurance regulations are different and each company has it's own rules. Also, if your agent said everything would be covered and it wasn't, you might be able to make a claim against your agent's "Errors and Omissions" policy. Each agent keeps that for situations where it's the agent's fault, not the company's that a client was misrepresented. Ex. I tell you I insured your car, but forgot to send in the application and you wreck. If your agent is honest and admits he told you that your car would be covered, then you might be able to move on that.

Hope this helps, friend. Good luck.

**EDIT** Have the claims adjuster specify to you the exact clause in your policy that they denied the coverage upon. It's required by law. Let me know and I'll see if there is anything you might be able to argue against.

 

yeah the right thing to do would be the INS co to cover it.
but i'm sure they'd find any reason to deny coverage to someone

 

i could swear that TURBO and SUPERCHARGED cars carry a higher risk premium. in fact, i think many insurer's models have this as a Yes/No condition.

 

I read the specifics of my policy and couldn't find anything that prohibits me from modifying my car. However, it did mention that there would be no covered for damages incurred during racing/track use.

As a rule of thumb, should you tell your insurance agent when you modify your car or submit receipts to them?

I've modded most of the cars I've owned, but I've never had to file a claim for anything.

 

Hope this helps--your agent agreed to insure you even knowing what items you had on your car. If the items were in fact in violation of Nationwide's policy and elligible vehicle list, then he made a mistake and it resulted in financial harm to you. When this happens it's usually the agent's fault. For this reason they are required by law to have E&O insurance (errors and omissions). Worst case scenario you can file against their e&o policy for your damages, and the agent's deductible is usually so high that they'll sometimes just offer to pay your bill so they won't have to mess with their insurance.