Car stolen and claim against me!!!

don2345

Hi,

Long story but on 14/12/11 i had my car stolen from my driveway between 5.30 and 6.30am in the morning and phoned the police between 6.30 to 07.00 and reported to police and my insurance company churchill.

I never heard nothing about my car untill last friday when i got a letter through the post from a solictor that my car has been involved in an accident on 14/12/11 at 20.30. From the letter the other party is claiming for damage and personal injury and that the driver from the stolen vehicle fled the scene. I called the police first and they first thought that i had the car beack but told them that they had not informed me. No apology and was told that it was at a recovery garage. I then phoned churchill who aslo had receieved the info on the accident and told me that as it was stolen they would not deal with the claim and therefore wont affect my policy.

Now today i have recieved a letter from churchill saying that they have not heard from me regarding a claim made for the accidnet. Just phoned them and now they saying that as i was the last person insured on the vehicle it would affect my policy even though i was not driving the car and it was reported stolen.

Sorry for the long story but can anyone give me any advice as to if the above is true. How is it that they can say that it won't affect the policy but then later on someone says it can affect it?????

vax2002

Call the solicitor and tell them Churchill insurance have confirmed to you that they will be paying the claim, give him the number to call.
If they both want to play daft !!!!!!s, then stick them together.

don2345

I totally can't believe it! The police failed to tell me the car was at the recovery. I didn't claim for the car stolen off my insurance either as my excess was £400 and the car was not worth that much. It seems that i am getting penalised for someone else stealing the car and causing an accident!

raskazz

don2345 wrote: »

Hi,

Long story but on 14/12/11 i had my car stolen from my driveway between 5.30 and 6.30am in the morning and phoned the police between 6.30 to 07.00 and reported to police and my insurance company churchill.

I never heard nothing about my car untill last friday when i got a letter through the post from a solictor that my car has been involved in an accident on 14/12/11 at 20.30. From the letter the other party is claiming for damage and personal injury and that the driver from the stolen vehicle fled the scene. I called the police first and they first thought that i had the car beack but told them that they had not informed me. No apology and was told that it was at a recovery garage. I then phoned churchill who aslo had receieved the info on the accident and told me that as it was stolen they would not deal with the claim and therefore wont affect my policy.

Now today i have recieved a letter from churchill saying that they have not heard from me regarding a claim made for the accidnet. Just phoned them and now they saying that as i was the last person insured on the vehicle it would affect my policy even though i was not driving the car and it was reported stolen.

Sorry for the long story but can anyone give me any advice as to if the above is true. How is it that they can say that it won't affect the policy but then later on someone says it can affect it?????

3 issues:

(i) The police will impose storage and recovery charges - unless you cover these charges yourself then your insurer will have to pay them and it will therefore count as a claim under your policy.

(ii) Is your car damaged? If you are claiming for the damage, this will count as a claim under your policy.

(iii) Has the driver of the vehicle when it was involved in the accident been identified? If so, your insurer will be liable under the Road Traffic Act to satisfy any judgment against him in respect of the third party injury. This would therefore count as a claim under your policy. If the driver remains untraced then the MIB will be liable for compensating the third party.

don2345

raskazz wrote: »

3 issues:

(i) The police will impose storage and recovery charges - unless you cover these charges yourself then your insurer will have to pay them and it will threfore count as a claim under your policy.

(ii) Is your car damaged? If you are claiming for the damage, this will count as a claim under your policy.

(iii) Has the driver of the vehicle when it was involved in the accident been identified? If so, your insurer will be liable under the Road Traffic Act to satisfy any judgment against him in respect of the third party injury. This would therefore count as a claim nuder your policy. If the driver remains untraced then the MIB will be liable for compensating the third party.

Thanks for the reply.

I am angry with the police and thinking about putting a complaint in as they did not inform me off the car being recovered. According to the solictor's letter from the other party, the police was called at the accident so why was i not informed off the car being recovered?? According to the letter the driver fled after the accident.

After waiting over a month i finally got a new car last monday thinking i will not get the car back to find last friday that the car was in a recovery garage. I went to the garage and the car was beyond repair and as i was not claiming for the car, i paid £50 to the recovery garage to have it scrapped and therefore avoided the recovery charges.

InsideInsurance

There is a difference depending on if the thief is caught or not.... it has been a while since I dealt with motor claims and these cases were rare but from distance memory, if the thief is caught then the the TP has to claim directly from the thief and if they cannot recover from them then the MIB will kick in with the uninsured driver agreement. If the thief isnt caught however the TP can claim off your insurance as the RTA insurer of the vehicle.

In normal circumstances this doesnt make much difference as it all counts as part of the theft claim so any impact to your NCD/ future policy has already been had because of the theft claim. Obviously the TP is probably thinking it is unfair that they have been hit and injured through no fault of their own and at the moment no one is compensating them for it

I am slightly confused by the fact that you say you didnt claim as your £400 excess doesnt make it worth claiming.... if you are setting the excess to the level that it doesnt make it worth claiming why only £400? You may as well max out the xs to minimise your premium (you only ever pay the xs against your own claims not against claims made against you)

raskazz

InsideInsurance wrote: »

if the thief is caught then the the TP has to claim directly from the thief and if they cannot recover from them then the MIB will kick in with the uninsured driver agreement. If the thief isnt caught however the TP can claim off your insurance as the RTA insurer of the vehicle.

It's vice versa! If the driver is identified then the insurer will have to settle any unsatisfied judgment against him/her under the RTA. If the driver is not identified then it will fall to the MIB under the untraced driver agreement.

WhiteHorse

don2345 wrote: »

I never heard nothing about my car untill last friday when i got a letter through the post from a solictor that my car has been involved in an accident ...

You told the police and Churchill that the car had been stolen. From whom did this other solicitor find out your details?

From the letter the other party is claiming for damage and personal injury and that the driver from the stolen vehicle fled the scene.

They have wrecked their own case: 'stolen vehicle'. You are not liable.

don2345

InsideInsurance wrote: »

There is a difference depending on if the thief is caught or not.... it has been a while since I dealt with motor claims and these cases were rare but from distance memory, if the thief is caught then the the TP has to claim directly from the thief and if they cannot recover from them then the MIB will kick in with the uninsured driver agreement. If the thief isnt caught however the TP can claim off your insurance as the RTA insurer of the vehicle.

In normal circumstances this doesnt make much difference as it all counts as part of the theft claim so any impact to your NCD/ future policy has already been had because of the theft claim. Obviously the TP is probably thinking it is unfair that they have been hit and injured through no fault of their own and at the moment no one is compensating them for it

I am slightly confused by the fact that you say you didnt claim as your £400 excess doesnt make it worth claiming.... if you are setting the excess to the level that it doesnt make it worth claiming why only £400? You may as well max out the xs to minimise your premium (you only ever pay the xs against your own claims not against claims made against you)

I was thinking that if i increase the excess then it will lower the premiums. As my car would be valued at less than £400 (old M reg car) it was not worth the claim. But as the other party is trying to claim off my insurance, will i now have to pay the excess???

InsideInsurance

raskazz wrote: »

It's vice versa! If the driver is identified then the insurer will have to settle any unsatisfied judgment against him/her under the RTA. If the driver is not identified then it will fall to the MIB under the untraced driver agreement.

D'oh.... damn that alcohol killing brain cells




To the OP.... you need to speak to your insurer.... if raskazz is correct rather than me, which I have no reason to believe they arent, then Churchill will repudiate liability on the basis that the thief hasnt been caught and advise the TP to redirect their claim to the MIB.

The excess is only ever payable if you claim for your own losses, you dont have to pay if only the TP claims

raskazz

InsideInsurance wrote: »

D'oh.... damn that alcohol killing brain cells

Sometimes I do wish I would forget all the insurance triva stored away in the grey matter!

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The excess is only ever payable if you claim for your own losses, you dont have to pay if only the TP claims

I would be careful not to state categorically that an excess is only ever payable for own losses claims. In the past you'd normally only get a true "all sections" excess for specialist/fleet risks but there are now mainstream insurers who impose a third party liability excess - XS Direct being one of them.