Modified Vehicle Insurance — NZ

Any non-factory modification must be declared at application time. Undeclared modifications can void cover at claim time, even for claims unrelated to the modification.

Many mass-market insurers exclude or sub-limit certain performance modifications (turbos, supercharger conversions, lowered suspension, engine swaps). Specialist insurers (Initio, Star Insure) write these properly.

Modifications need a declared total value — many policies cap modification value as a percentage of the vehicle's declared sum-insured. Exceeding the cap leaves the excess unrecovered.

WOF compliance is a baseline — if a modification doesn't pass a Low Volume Vehicle (LVV) certification where required by NZTA, it likely isn't covered either.