Car torched. Whose ins to claim off...?

harveybobbles

My Sister in Law an her fella moved into a new build appartment last month. They all have their own parking bays. Hubby came in from work one evening and noticed a car parked in the bay next to theirs, thought nothing of it until 4am when the Fire Brigade were knocking on the door telling there the car is on fire.

All the near side panels are stripped down to bare metal, the wheel arch liners are melted, the near side tyres are melted, the front bumper and near side mirror is melted, the wipers are melted. There is a good chance that there is lots of wiring melted too and will be wrote off.
The car is a 2003 Pug 206 GTi.

The car which caused the damaged had been broken into and torched.

Should they be claiming off their own insurance company or the owner of the torched car?

hewhoisnotintheknow

yes off the other insurance for starters, its not your fault their car started the fire (for whatever reason)

Might not work though!

harveybobbles

They have been intouch with their own ins company and they will have to cought up £100 for a loan car. told them not to do anythung thru their ins until they have spoken to the owner of the torched car and the Police etc...

redux

No, the terms of your insurance are that you deal with them, you don't contact or respond to or in any way negotiate with other parties or their insurers directly

If that isn't clear, then read the terms of the policy

raskazz

hewhoisnotintheknow wrote: »

yes off the other insurance for starters, its not your fault their car started the fire (for whatever reason)

Might not work though!

No. The OP's sister in law will have to claim off her own policy.

The third party and their insurer have no liability, as they have not been negligent - it is not their fault that their car was torched. The only liability rests with the arsonist.

vikingaero

raskazz wrote: »

No. The OP's sister in law will have to claim off her own policy.

The third party and their insurer have no liability, as they have not been negligent - it is not their fault that their car was torched. The only liability rests with the arsonist.

I agree. It sounds unfair but that's the way it is.

One of my good neighbours asked me some advice last year. During a storm a roof tile slipped off his roof and damaged next doors car. The next door neighbour was an a-hole so I said that unless the owner of the damaged car could prove that the roof was unsafe then there was nothing he could do to claim against the good neighbour.

vaio

I’m pretty sure if your car catches fire and damages third party property then your insurance company is liable.

MrsTinks

Hmmm interesting... I would have thought the insurance of the stolen car should cover this although your SIL's insurance company should be the ones to deal with them.
In Denmark for example if your car is stolen and consequently involved in a crash then YOUR insurance has to pay for the damage to the 3rd party as they are innocent parties (as technically are you but as your car caused the damage it is then up to the insurance company to try and recover anything from the criminal... (HA!) )
My view is that the claim should be directed at the other vehicles owners insurance company but through their own insurance company... It is up to them then do decide on wether to pursue any recovery of the payout or not from a 3rd party. But that is just my understanding of it

KeithP

MrsTine wrote: »

Hmmm interesting... I would have thought the insurance of the stolen car should cover this although your SIL's insurance company should be the ones to deal with them. <snip>

Stolen car??
What stolen car?

harveybobbles

It was just parked there. It had been broken into and torched. So I think people on here assumed it'd been stolen. I'm unsure if this is the case as I haven't spoken to SIL since Sunday morning.

It just seems unfair that they will have to claim on their insurance for something which wasn't their fault. But then I guess that's the reason we all have insurance. Be it house, car, pet etc...

sarah_elton

They will go through their insurer, but their insurer will then try to recover the loss from the insurer of the torched car. If they can do so, it won't be marked down as a claim by your SIL and she can keep her no claims discount.