Hire Purchase Help

onorakellan

Hi
I'm new to this site but what has happened to me today i'm struggling to comprehend and believe that it's actually legal!

I bought a laptop on hire purchase and took out insurance for the laptop with it so that if it was stolen, damaged etc it was covered.

I recently also took out contents insurance for my house.

I was burgled last week while i was in the house (i was upstairs and some lowlife walked through my back door), they took my laptop, ipod (which was attached to my laptop on charge) and some keys (which luckily don't belong to my house).

I'm claiming on my house contents insurance for the items that were stolen but like the honest citizen i strive to be i contacted the company i got the laptop from to seek advice about what info they may need about my new laptop (serial numbers etc).

The manager of the company then told me that I can't claim for the laptop from my contents insurance... i have to claim from their insurance at an extra £100 excess, and wait.... when i claim its not to replace the laptop but to pay off the finance agreement (hire purchase agreement) on the laptop. Then after paying the £100 excess will only get another laptop if I take out a new agreement and lose all the money i have paid on the old laptop!

Is this legal?!!!!

Comyface

First of all, I'm sorry you were burgled, it's horrible, I know.

The way I understand it, insurance is there to put you back in the position you had been in had you not suffered the loss. So you can't claim on both insurances for the same incident, as you'd have a new laptop and the finance paid off, putting you in a better position (I know that's not what you're trying to do btw, just clarifying).

If you just claimed on your contents and not the laptop cover, you'd have a laptop and the original finance would still be in place, back in the position you were. If you claimed on both, but missed the laptop off your contents claim as this manager is suggesting, you'd be back in the same position again with a laptop with finance (newer laptop so finance back to the beginning agan) so either option would do.

Unfortunatley, I think some home insurance companies say that if you have alternative cover (such as you do) you have to claim on that first and they'll only pay out if the other cover won't . I might be completely wrong about this, haven't experienced it, but I'd check with them.

Doesn't seem fair that you'll now have to pay 2 excesses, though. I presume that the laptop cover covered you for more (taking it out of your home and such like?) and your contents cover doesn't?

onorakellan

but if i claimed on my contents insurace for the laptop then the company i got the laptop from are saying that the replacement laptop wouldn't belong to them but if i claim from their insurance i wont be getting a new laptop at all... i'd be paying them £100 for the priveledge of losing the money i've already paid. The only thing i'd get out of it is the remainder of the hire purchase agreement would be cancelled!

onorakellan

oh and my contents cover also covers me for taking it out of my house... i only took the insurance because i couldn't have the laptop if i didn't! because at the time i didn't have contents insurance.

I was led to believe that if i got contents insurance that covered hire purchase items then i could cancel the extra insurance, when i took out my contents insurance i specifically asked them if hire purchase was covered and they said yes because i was legally responsible for the items!

But it seems the hire purchase company are saying that there is no insurance company that would cover their items because they require the oustanding finance balance (including interest) to be covered and not just the cost of a replacement and no insurance company would cover something for more than its worth.

Comyface

If the contents insurance company give you a new laptop and you keep paying the finance as you were before then I can't see the finance companies problem, really.

Sorry I don't know more, maybe someone in the insurance thread could help?

Typhoon2000

Just claim on your contents insurance, and go buy yourself a new laptop. You will still need to keep paying you original HP agreement as you have been it its finished. No need to mention to your HP company that the Laptop has gone missing.