'Unattended vehicle Theft Exclusion'

Turvill

Help please! My company owns a van. The van was left outside my employee's house one night in June, it was broken into, and various very expensive bits of kit, worth around £5K were stolen from it. We reported this to the ploice and I duly claimed on my commercial policy. My insurers, a company called Towergate, have told me only today that they are not prepared to pay out as my vehicle 'shows no signs of forcible or violent entry'.
It seems barking mad to me that I'm apparently responsible for how someone gets into my vehicle illeagally, but my insurers are adamant. I've complained to them, and am awaiting a response, but does anyone out there have any experience or advice ?
I'd be really grateful. This is the only claim I've ever made and this has properly shaken my faith in human nature.
Thanks for your help
Stuart

stebiz

Turvill wrote: »

Help please! My company owns a van. The van was left outside my employee's house one night in June, it was broken into, and various very expensive bits of kit, worth around £5K were stolen from it. We reported this to the ploice and I duly claimed on my commercial policy. My insurers, a company called Towergate, have told me only today that they are not prepared to pay out as my vehicle 'shows no signs of forcible or violent entry'.
It seems barking mad to me that I'm apparently responsible for how someone gets into my vehicle illeagally, but my insurers are adamant. I've complained to them, and am awaiting a response, but does anyone out there have any experience or advice ?
I'd be really grateful. This is the only claim I've ever made and this has properly shaken my faith in human nature.
Thanks for your help
Stuart

You are not going to like this Stuart but here it goes. Yes they are quite within their rights to do this. The policy holder has a duty of care too. Leaving a van open, whilst inside a house is asking for trouble.

Good Luck
Stebiz

lisyloo

You aren't responsible for what theives do, but everyone is responsible for making sure that vehicles are locked and keys are kept safe.
Obviously in your case youa aren't the driver, so it's not you directly, it's someone else.
But if they had (for example) left their back door unlocked and the keys were taken then they haven't taken proper care.

What has the driver said?
Was the vehicle definitely locked?
Have the keys gone missing?

On modern vehicles it's practically impossible not to do any physical damage if it's locked and you don't have the keys.

Is it an older vehicle?

dogbot

Lisyloo/op,

lisyloo's comments about modern vehicles are certainly true for private vehicles - i.e. car's, but not the case for a lot of commercial vehicles. UK car's have the highest security standards in the world - buy a same spec vehicle in france, germany, russian etc and it will be missing a huge number of security features. This is because UK vehicles are rigourously tested at Thatcham and the UK private motor insurer have the stick of a group rating system to beat them with.

Unfortunatly this is not the case in the commercial vehicle market, and vehicles vary hugely. Some are good, some are just shockly easy to break into. That said, vans all have locks so there must have been some signs of a break in if the vehicle was not locked.

dacouch

I agree with the above posters but would add it might be worth you having a scan of the local papers and ask the police if there is any history of vans being broken into and there being no signs of a forcible entry. I suspect there won't be.

If there is it MIGHT help your case unless your policy has a condition that they only pay claims where there are signs of a violent or forcible entry which the vast majority do. In fact a lot of these types of policies do not actually cover theft from an unattended vehicle during night time unless it's in a guarded compound or a locked garage

Dangermac

Turvill wrote: »

Help please! My company owns a van. The van was left outside my employee's house one night in June, it was broken into, and various very expensive bits of kit, worth around £5K were stolen from it. We reported this to the ploice and I duly claimed on my commercial policy. My insurers, a company called Towergate, have told me only today that they are not prepared to pay out as my vehicle 'shows no signs of forcible or violent entry'.
It seems barking mad to me that I'm apparently responsible for how someone gets into my vehicle illeagally, but my insurers are adamant. I've complained to them, and am awaiting a response, but does anyone out there have any experience or advice ?
I'd be really grateful. This is the only claim I've ever made and this has properly shaken my faith in human nature.
Thanks for your help
Stuart

I would recommend that you obtain a copy of the alleged 'visible signs' clause (which means that there must be signs of forcible & violent entry). I havent come accrosss this clause in respect of tools/goods in transit cover before. Most policies state that the doors/windows must be locked. It is conceivable that the vehicle could have been broken into without the actual key.

In summary, I think that it is worthwhile you pursuing this a little longer.

hartcjhart

I had a van broken into a few years back,but you could see no sign of it,infact it wasnt till I got to the gig(disco) that I realised some scrote had nicked 3 flight cases of CDs,vehicle insurance refused to pay so had to claim on my house contents insurance

olly300

stebiz wrote: »

You are not going to like this Stuart but here it goes. Yes they are quite within their rights to do this. The policy holder has a duty of care too. Leaving a van open, whilst inside a house is asking for trouble.

Good Luck
Stebiz

The OP didn't say the van was left open.

One of my old cars was easily opened with a coat hanger from the outside.However the only sign you could see that this was done was a small dent in the door seal. There as I know other people who have had older cars that were easy to break into have had scratches on the door interior.

Therefore as others have suggested have a look to see if there are any small signs of "forcible" entry.