Insurance Value of Peronal Imports

[Mel E]

There are many things you will look at when deciding whether to personally import your motorhome. Here's one that (as Michael Caine might say) not many people know about.

 

When you have imported your motorhome, it can ONLY be insured for what you paid for it, and not for the price of a similar purchase in the UK. For example, suppose you import a Hymer priced at £55,000 in the UK, managing to pay only £48,000 in France - a fairly typical saving of £7,000. The insured value in the UK will only be the £48,000 you paid for it.

 

This is regardless of what you put on the insurance form or declare to the insurance company.

 

Should your motorhome be a write-off, your own insurer's loss adjuster will value your motorhome based on his assessment of the price of a similar personal import. If your policy provides full replacement cost for the first year or two, then the most you will get will be £48,000. Even if you are innocent, the Third Party's insurer will discharge their obligation to put you back in the pre-accident state by paying you, at most, £48,000.

 

It is a fundamental tenet of insurance that you cannot be better off after making a claim than you were before. So if you buy abroad, you will have to go back there to get your replacement. Any changes in exchange rate will be taken into account by the loss adjuster valuing your vehicle against prices of similar ones in the UK at the time of your accident.

 

Mel E

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