Insurance - Really?

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Here's a story to make you think about track day cover.

When one of our members took out insurance cover a coupe of years ago year, he got a quote from the broker over the phone and specifically asked for track day cover. The insurance broker quoted verbally and got the business. The necessary forms arrived and were filled in, and there was no mention of track days. Our man ignored it, but when he asked for details later it turned out that it was not included. Something to do with the underwriter changing their minds!

Our man got upset and even though there was nothing from them in writing, the notes he had made of the original phone call were so accurate (with the terms & conditions for track days), they grudgingly admitted he was right. He could either cancel his policy (way past the normal cancellation by now) & get his money back or pay them more and upgrade to a different insurer's policy with the track day cover. After some persuasion from the member, the broker agreed to pay the extra premium - hey presto! happy customer. He got the broker to put the details in a letter to be on the safe side.

Stage 2.
When the policy documents came through, there was no mention of tracks days. Here we go again. Our man spoke to them and was told that the Insurance company had changed their minds about the administration of the scheme. Rather than include it in the policy, you had to phone the broker and get a cover note for each track day. Of course the broker didn't tell anyone. So the track days which our man did in the intervening period had actually not been covered. At this point he went mental (to coin a phrase), wrote to the MD of the brokers, threatened legal action & got a letter saying that as soon as the actual T&Cs for the track day cover came through, he would get them. They never arrived. So on we go...

Stage 3
He did many track days under the cover note system, no problems at all (apart from being a pain to remember to phone prior to the event). Happy customer until...

Stage 4
When he tried to do this on a Monday they said that the Insurer had had 2 big claims and had pulled the cover. Our man explained to them (somewhat explicitly) what he thought of this mid-term (as they call it). The broker have subsequently got the Insurer to agree to honour existing policies & give track day cover until the end of the current term of each policy provided that the policy-holder has used the facility at least once during the term so far. The brokers said that they couldn't write to all policy-holders with track day cover and tell them, as they couldn't get a list of all their customers who had track day cover from their computer!

So yet again our man has had to threaten legal action to get track day cover. He is pretty sure that if he had a claim, the only way that he would have got any money would have been via the courts.

Moral
This story involves one of the most popular insurance brokers for specialist & kit cars so beware, make sure you get what you ask for in writing (the initial quote, the application forms, the policy, the method of using the cover and T&C's explicitly for the cover) and if you want track day cover, make sure it's in the documentation. Some years ago, I got my insurance through this broker too, I also remember this form of administration, and, like our man I never received any T&Cs for track days either. So you can probably guess what was happening can't you?

I seem to remember the Insurance Ombudsman ruling in favour of a motorcyclist on a track day when he had an accident, on the grounds that the track day did not involve "time trialling, racing, rallying or pace setting" (the terms usually used on normal insurance policies) and therefore the insured was covered by his standard road policy. (Indeed, many of the track days I have taken part in, have specifically prohibited timing equipment being used.) Furthermore, when asked whether this would mean that insurance companies would levy an extra charge for track day cover, the response from the Ombudsman's office was that this would be against the spirit of the ruling.

As the season for track days is really getting under way, maybe now is the time to check your own documentation.

If I hear of any more I'll let you know.

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