I've got an iPhone that's damaged, it's insured but does the insurer have the right to send a replacement instead of repairing without asking?

I have a 24k good iPhone and it's damadged quite bad (internally). I want to send it to be repaired but am worried the insurer can send me a new phone (standard edition) and keep my limited edition one as it was custom gold plated. I live in the UK and don't know much on the laws around this. If they can't repair it am I allowed to ask for my damadged phone back rather than a replacement sent?

Why don't you ask your insurer? Point out it's a limited version.

If you insured it as a standard model then yes. The insurer can replace your phone if repairs make no economic sense. If you insured it as a special gold plated version then the insurance would cost vastly more to take account of the increased costs they'd have to cover to replace the phone with another gold plated version.

I suspect that you insured it as a standard unmodified model. If so the solution is fairly simple: contact your insurer to explain the situation and to ask if you can buy the salvage of your old phone. If they agree, you pay them a fee equivalent to what they'd have got for selling your broken phone (remember, they were expecting an unmodified model so negotiate the price accordingly) and you then pay someone to transplant the innards of your new phone into the casing of your old phone. You'll then be able to get a small amount of money back by selling the unused brand new casing of your replacement phone.

The law is very simple: if you didn't insure for a modified phone then you can't expect the insurer to deal with it as being any different to an unmodified model. Even if it is correctly insured, the policy will still state that they can send a replacement if the phone is uneconomical to repair, although they'd then have to replace it with a similarly modified example.

Generally they will just send a new phone.
also you will most likely have to pay full price to get the phone repaired (apple it VERY bad with warranties as not much is covered and it runs out very quick)

Generally with limited editions you don't USE them… They just stay in a box and keep increasing in value.
the more you use them the less they are worth. Its possible you won't have a choice in getting a standard as the replacement.

Best case they would swap the insides fully with new hardware and keep the gold back. But its unlikley.

The photos and videos and bookmarks and etc can't be replaced. It would be odd if they sent a replacement phone (same edition or different) and not have stuff on the next phone.