Cyclist denied car insurance claim for fitting bike carrier with removable towbar

A cyclist says he was denied a car insurance claim by an insurance company on the grounds of him fitting a removable towbar to the rear of the vehicle for a bike carrier, leaving him with a bill potentially going up to £100,000 along with “stress and anxiety”.

Stewart Crooks told road.cc that he had purchased the Allianz-owned Flow insurance policy via the MoneySuperMarket website. However, when he tried to file a claim after an incident in February this year, he was accused of trying to “deceive” the company for failing to list a towbar as a modification.

“I am at my wit's end in a nine-month dispute with my car insurance company,” Crooks said. “Following a routine vehicle collision, they have refused to honour my insurance at the last minute leaving me with a potential six-figure cost and the incredible stress and anxiety this has caused me and my family.”

He said that when he was applying for a quote, he selected ‘unmodified’, having clicked on the website’s ‘help’ link to determine what the question meant.

MoneySuperMarket states that a modification means a “change from the manufacturer’s original specification, such as alloy wheels, air-conditioning, bodywork, exhaust system or tinted windows”. However, it doesn’t mention whether a towbar is a relevant modification to a car’s original specification from an insurance perspective.

Crooks explained why he selected ‘No’ in the modifications section when filing the claim, saying: “Our previous insurer did not care when I called them to advise them we were fitting a towbar. In the modifications section of the purchase journey on MoneySuperMarket when asked if the car has been modified if you click on the ‘Help/What does this mean' section it lists alloy wheels, air conditioning, bodywork, exhaust system, suspension or tinted windows. This is why we selected no.”

He added: “What we now realise is that if we had selected yes, we would then have been presented a long list of options in which towbar is one. Given that my previous insurer had stated that the towbar did not affect the insurance and the guidance from the help button on MoneySuperMarket I had no reason to click yes instead of no.

“Similarly, as far as I can see, Flow asks for performance and cosmetic changes to be declared but nothing explicit about needing to declare a towbar. At no point was I asked directly if the car had a towbar.”

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After acknowledging that he had not intentionally misled them, Flow then claimed that it does not insure cars with towbars. “I challenged this as I could not find anything on the website or documents to validate this. Instead, I found a number of articles advising how to tow safely,” he continued.

“At this point, a number of friends of mine with towbars contacted their insurance companies to make sure they would not fall foul. All were told that this did not affect their policy. In fact, two were told that a towbar makes the car safer, and one was given a small reimbursement.”

Crooks mentioned that the towbar wasn’t even on the car as it was detachable, nor was the rear area of the car involved in the incident. However, the insurer dug in, saying that the towbar was not original and hence the policy would be void.

He said that after the lengthy dispute with Allianz/Flow, he contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), with an investigator agreeing that the company was treating them unfairly and recommending to the Ombudsman that Crooks’ insurance should be honoured and compensated.

However, matters were made worse after the FOS decision ruled in favour of the insurance company. The Ombudsman cited the Consumer Insurance Disclosure and Representations Act on ‘misrepresentation’, which applies when information provided by the consumer to the insurer is incomplete or misleading, be it “carelessly, deliberately or recklessly”.

Crooks added: “I challenged his [the Ombudsman’] decision asking how he could have the opposite opinion to his colleagues, a selection of insurance experts and a number of lawyers, whilst reiterating that I have zero proof that Flow would not have insured us. In fact, I have the opposite with a number of examples of Flow advising how to tow safely. However, his final response did not address any of my points and instead just reiterated the decision.

“The fact that the Ombudsman has taken a polarising stance to everyone else and has not provided a single piece of evidence to justify so reeks of inappropriate behaviour somewhere in the relationship between the Ombudsman and Allianz-Flow.”

“The consequences of this decision are catastrophic. Aside from being without the car since February, the concern and stress of arguing this coupled with the colossal consequences have caused severe anxiety and depression (requiring medication) and other health implications let alone weeks of sleepless nights.

“The impact of this decision will leave us in monumental financial debt and heavily limited ability to procure future insurance if we are ever able to afford another car.”

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An Allianz spokesperson told road.cc: “We understand the distress caused by this accident. Making modifications to your vehicle can have serious implications for your car insurance policy if they are not declared, and can lead to a policy being invalidated.

“The policy chosen did not allow modifications and had we been informed that a towbar had been fitted we would not have provided insurance. The Financial Ombudsman Service has reviewed this case and its decision, which is binding, has found that the outcome we reached in this case was fair and reasonable.”

A spokesperson for MoneySuperMarket said: “We advise that if you make any modifications to your vehicle – or you purchase one that has been customised from the factory model – you should let your insurance provider know as it could impact your premium or invalidate your insurance.”