Help - Insurance company wont pay out for car as keys stolen

RScholefield

Hi,

I need some advice - here are the details;

I am insured through Swinton and brokered through them to Highway Insurance company.

Last week my Vaulhall Zafira (2000 X) was stolen from the driveway directly outside my house. I live in a well lit area and it was left locked with the key (so immobilser active etc) plus we have 2 x German Shepherds.

The car was fully taxed, had apptrox 6 Months MOT and was in excellent running order (Cam done etc last year).

The police recovered the vehicle a few days ago in a field somewhere in the countryside, it has been banged around and found with beer cans in it (from which they have taken swabs etc) and whoever took had had started a fire inside the vehicle that had caused alot of damage but not fully burnt out the inside.

The support officer had also said it was the 2nd Zafira recently stolen from the area.

I have 9 years no claim bonus and have never made a claim or ever had any car of mine stolen.

Around 7 weeks ago after returning home from work I had gone into my house and presumably left the keys in my car (just gone into the house, carried stuff in from boot - got distracted by kids etc), a few hours later I went for my keys and couldn't find them - after looking around for a bit in the house (as my youngest 3 year old has a habit of hiding keys etc) I then remembered that I thought I had left them in the car.

When I went to the car I discovered that my keys were missing.

After doublechecking again I decided to report my keys as missing to the police as a precaution (as we live next to a park that has alot of teenagers go to it past our house) and I changed the locks for our front door to the house.

I did not change the lock to the car as we had spare keys and as far as I thought I was not insured to get the locks replaced, when I scanned over the paperwork for the car insurance I read ' 1. keys are only covered if attached to the key fob provided by Boomerang-Tag.'

Turns out this is actually the paperwork from Swinton to do with thier Drivers Legal protection policy and not the actual insurance companies policy - which is that as I was fully comprehensive I could have had them replaced (which would have not affected my NCB as its protected).

I just didnt realise this as I scanned over the paperwork in the folder I store insurance details in (who actually reads the contracts right?) and didn't read it properly.

Anyway after contacting Vauxhall and getting an estimate for approx £500 as we had keys that were working and I could still lock the car and like I said at night it's on my drive and well lit and we have the dogs i thought nothing more of it.

Until this week that is when my car was stolen.

Anyway the crux of the story is that the insurance company have said in thier opinion the car was stolen using the missing key ( as thier engineer has stated this - car was not hot wired) and as I did not replace the locks at the time of the keys going missing I have not taken reasonable precautions for keeping the car safe (despite being locked etc) and will now not pay up.

I have read through the small print of the insurance contract and found the following;

7. "Important notes When leaving your vehicle at anytime always close the doors, windows, sunroof, and lock the vehicle removing the keys. Failure to do so may result in a claim for theft being refused."

Fire and theft - "If you do not remove your keys or leave your car unlocked when it is left or you fail to comply with security requirements we may refuse to pay any claim for theft."

Ok - well my car wasen't stolen when the keys were took, and also on the night it was taken it was fully locked and no keys were left in the car.

The policy does not say anything about what these 'security requirements' are listed in thier policy contract, neither does it say anything about if your keys are stolen you must get them replaced.

I have contacted the police and asked for the information on how the other Zafira was stolen as I have no idea if dupe keys or other methods can be used to steal cars but I have no idea and the police could not confirm that the two cases were related although it is possible.

The other thing I noticed when I went to visit the vehicle is that the car log book / mot / service manual etc were gone as I kept these in the car, now they were probably used as fuel for the fire but if not why would these have been taken etc? and could it have anything to do with the theft?

Anyway I am now stuck without a car, no insurance money to replace the vehicle which I need for work as both myself and my partner work and I do shifts on day's and nights etc and on top of this they are going to charge me for the vehicle recovery and storage as they say its not covered.

My personal opinion is that this is disgusting behaviour from my insurance company that are just wriggling out of paying but it's leaving me in a bad situation of no car, nothing to reaplce it with and a bill of over £500 after being the victim of a theft!!

Please help in what I can do here to tackle or challenge my insurance company on this?

stator

I think your insurance will include a clause about reasonable precautions. If the keys were stolen and you didn't change the locks then this could easily be seen as negligence and I don't think you have a leg to stand on. Your only chance is to find the lost/stolen keys, because if they were not stolen then it doesn't affect your claim.

talksr

Oh dear, not a very pleasent story. You often hear people on these sorts of forums asking What the hell do we get for our money? when paying out on large premiums.

I guess the lesson to learn from this is to never loose sight of your keys. Keep them locked away and safe at all times! There are strict contracts and there may well have been something in the small print about the keys.

raskazz

talksr wrote: »

What the hell do we get for our money?

You get a contract of insurance which, not unfairly, requires you to take reasonable precautions to protect your vehicle and minimise losses.

RScholefield

Selden wrote: »

Is your policy
If so, take a look at page 41:

You must take all reasonable precautions to avoid loss of or damage to the insured car...

You should also take all reasonable care of the keys to the insured car to prevent them being lost or stolen. You must always take the keys out of the ignition and remove them completely when the insured car is left at any time whatsoever (regardless of whether the vehicle is still within your sight)...

If you do not take reasonable care of the insured car and meet any security requirements, this contract of motor insurance may no longer be valid and we may not pay any claim...

The first condition is a reasonable care condition. Following Sofi v Prudential Insurance [1993] 2 Lloyd's Reports 559 it is clear that to breach such a condition you must be more than merely negligent - you must be reckless. Recklessness requires you to recognise a risk and either to take no steps to avert it or to take steps which you knew to be inadequate.

Unfortunately in your case I think the insurer has a good chance of showing that you were reckless. You clearly recognised a risk as you had the locks on the house changed. Yet you did nothing to avert the risk in respect of the car.

Added to which the original theft of the keys resulted from you breaching the second condition quoted above...

You do, of course, have

Hi,

The summary sheet I have along with the policy certificate etc and on the summary sheet there is no mention that you must replace locks if a set of keys are lost or stolen.

The green booklet from which you quoted the stuff on page 41, I have never seen or been provided with.

So what I have says this:

You must keep your vehicle and its keys safe at all times for a
claim to be valid. When leaving your vehicle at any time you must
ALWAYS close the doors, windows, and sunroof and lock the
vehicle removing the keys.
Failure to remove your keys and lock your car may result in a

claim for theft being refused.

Well the keys that I had were kept safe and the car was locked fully, with all doors and windows locked.

As far as I understood it I was in full compliance with the policy.

As stated I didn't know if the other keys were stolen or misplaced.

The car was always left where we were in attendance, on the driveway , fully locked and they had to damage the fence that surrounds half of the driveway to squeeze it past my partners car.

If the policy summary had said 'if your keys are lost or stolen and you do not replace the locks on your car it would invalidate your policy' then I would have done something about it.

or even if it had said ' If you cannot account for all of your keys to your vehicle this could invalidate your policy' it would be clear.

But what they have written in my book says neither of those 2 things and certainly not clearly - which may be thier intention, as the more I dig the more I have found out about Highway and many many customers that have been screwed by them for simular instances.

I am going to fight this all the way as I think it is a very poor way to treat a customer to try and worm out of paying up on a car insurance policy for a genuine theft (which they do not dispute).

And the only reason I changed the house locks was because there house would be left empty when either myself or my partner would be at work, whereas the car, while not only in view would be in attendance when we were there.

dunstonh

Well the keys that I had were kept safe and the car was locked fully, with all doors and windows locked.

Thats different to what you said in the first post where you clearly stated that you lost them and they could have been left in the car.

As stated I didn't know if the other keys were stolen or misplaced.

You knew they were either lost or stolen. You just didnt know which.

If the policy summary had said 'if your keys are lost or stolen and you do not replace the locks on your car it would invalidate your policy' then I would have done something about it.

It does say that:
You must take all reasonable precautions to avoid loss of or damage to the insured car...

You should also take all reasonable care of the keys to the insured car to prevent them being lost or stolen. You must always take the keys out of the ignition and remove them completely when the insured car is left at any time whatsoever (regardless of whether the vehicle is still within your sight)...

If you do not take reasonable care of the insured car and meet any security requirements, this contract of motor insurance may no longer be valid and we may not pay any claim...

You lost your keys and couldnt be sure if they were lost or stolen and thought you may have left them in the car and decided not to replace the locks. You took a risk which hasnt paid off.

I am going to fight this all the way as I think it is a very poor way to treat a customer to try and worm out of paying up on a car insurance policy for a genuine theft (which they do not dispute).

It is your right but its fairly standard to have a rejection like that. Especially if your first post is any indication of what you told the insurance company.

One thing that may work in your favour is that the value of the car is likely to be near scrap level and the payment to you after excess is probably going to be similar to the cost of them having a complaint investigated. So, they may decide its cheaper to pay you a couple of hundred quid rather than fight it.