please help with car ins claim problem

thecrown

we are at the end of our tether

Last May our car was stolen, we had missed a payment on the insurance and called Zurich directly to rey and pay the installment over the phone, they advised that they were trying to debit the amount again from my bank and unable to take the payment over the phone, I explained to them there was no money in that account and it would bounce again, Zurich said they would need to wait until this happened and would be in touch, a couple weeks later our car was stolen, I phoned them about the car being stolen and also about the missed payment and they said this would not be a problem as it would be covered once the claim was paid out. They asked us to send all relevant documents and two sets of keys, if we did not send two sets of car keys the claim would become void. We sent everything to them and after months of twoing and frowing they made a decision not to pay out, they advised us there was a few discrepanices with the claim, these being, two sets of keys being sent they said " unless the car was physically lifted they could not see how it had been stolen"..... the missed payment, but as long as we resumed payments they would continue with the claim.....and lastly there was an issue with the finance company, as I paid the monthly installment on the car late this clinched their decision not to pay out!!!! We are now having to pay finance for the next four years on a car we dont have...... Is there anyone out there that can give us some advice and let us know where we can go from here

Many thanks

dacouch

What you need to do is an "Executive Complaint" to Zurich to give them a chance to resolve the matter (Details of how to do this are in your policy booklet). When / if this fails go to the ombudsman who will look at the claim in depth and will hopefully resolve the matter to your satisfaction providing it is a genuine claim.

For the record there are a number of ways a car can be stolen without the keys and unless the car has incredibly high security eg BMW etc then the ombudsman will not accept the Insurer saying "We cannot see how it was stolen".

You might find these cases from the ombudsman helpful reading http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/72/72-mv.html

thecrown

Thanks so much, will give that a go