Motor Own Damage Exclusions Clause
The motor own damage exclusions clause generally removes certain causes and circumstances – in particular wilful acts, gross negligence, motorsport, and war, civil commotion and nuclear risks – from the scope of partial and fully comprehensive motor own-damage cover.
- Clause type
- Exclusion
- Origin/Market
- DACH – statutory
- Favours
- Insurer
- Negotiability
- Market standard
Standard wordings
- GDV AKB 2015 A.2.9.1–A.2.9.5 (motor own damage exclusions)
Purpose
Partial and fully comprehensive own-damage cover insures the policyholder’s vehicle broadly, but not without limit: a standardised set of exclusions carves out events that either fall outside the insurable element of chance (wilful acts), involve a knowingly accepted, elevated risk (motorsport), or are systematically priced and covered differently as accumulation or war-type risks, typically through state or specialist pools (earthquake, war, civil commotion, nuclear risks).
Effect and limits
Wilfully caused damage is always excluded in full; for gross negligence, the reformed contract laws in Switzerland, Germany and Austria instead permit only a reduction proportionate to the degree of fault rather than an automatic total exclusion – in practice, drink-driving above the threshold of absolute unfitness to drive routinely results in a reduction to zero. The motorsport exclusion covers not only competitions themselves but also related training, testing and demonstration drives, provided the activity is aimed at achieving a maximum speed.
Negotiation and practice
Individual exclusions can be bought back for an additional premium, most notably the waiver of the gross negligence defence; the exclusions for motorsport, war and nuclear risk, by contrast, generally remain mandatory and are at most supplemented by specialist add-on policies for track days or political risk. Policyholders should in particular check the precise blood-alcohol threshold and the scope of the motorsport exclusion in the applicable wording.