Items stolen from locked boot - am I covered?

rpharms

I'm very lucky that my limit is £15,000 (we have high value home & contents insurance including worldwide personal possession cover) and the wording is force OR violence. At the moment I'm just waiting for Land Rover to get back to me, the claim is with the insurance company and they've said they will get back to me within 48 hours. I don't hold out much hope at the moment of them paying out unless Land Rover can tell me how they got in the car. The only thing they've told me is that they've found two abrasion marks on the inside of the boot and they're looking at those to see if they can't find out what's caused them.

The thief did get ridiculously lucky, I was thinking that they'll be selling everything on for peanuts which is infuriating but when they are targeting expensive cars maybe they know the value of what they're stealing? Who knows, I've been keeping an eye on gumtree and eBay but nothing has come up yet.

It's not a false claim, I understand that many people can't understand how someone could have items of that value in their boot but I did, I have the receipts and if I was trying to defraud anyone I could have bumped the value up to the full £15,000 I'm covered for as I have plenty of items at home that I could have said I'd taken, but I'm telling the truth and have been very unlucky. I'm thanking my lucky stars that they did it while I was out of the car as if they had bumped me/flashed their lights to get me to stop they would have made off with my main handbag, phone, engagement and wedding rings and my watch.

Chickenlips

Hi Rpharms. I work in Insurance, having read your post it is possible that your Insurers may send a Loss Adjuster to your home. There are two reasons for this:

1) £8,000.00 of contents in the boot of your car is an awful lot.

2) Your contents sum insured appears to be £15,000.00. The quantity in your boot represents more than half of your sum insured. It is likely that Insurers will want to know if you are underinsured and by how much. If, for example, you own all of the carpets and furniture in your home, it is likely that £15,000.00 will be insufficient. In my experience, the average value at risk (the cost of replacing everything a person owns) is £40,000.00; however, the policies i deal with are people who do not own a lot of designer clothing and jewellery.

Prior to submitting your claim, i would recommend preparing your proof of ownership - as it is likely Insurers will want to see this.

It may also be worth seeing if there have been any recent court cases involving keyless cars. I would also see if the FOS have reviewed any similar cases - if you're unhappy with your Insurer's decision, the FOS are where you would escalate the matter to - it is always good to know in advance how they might rule on the matter!

dacouch

I think the OP has a Mid or High Net Worth Policy with the likes of Hiscox or Chubb etc with an overall contents sum insured well above the value of the amount stolen

rpharms

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

Firstly to clear a few things up... the £15,000 is only for personal possessions outside of the home, the full contents insurance is obviously significantly more than that. I have this level of personal possession insurance because my personal possessions are obviously quite expensive.

Yes, the contents of my boot was worth a lot of money, I know I was very unlucky however I totally understand that driving round in my car does make me a target for thieves as it is such an expensive car. I had receipts for approximately 80% of what was taken so proof of ownership was not a problem.

So an update on my claim...

Firstly the insurance company told me that I'm not covered as they don't cover items left unattended in a motor vehicle. Luckily for me I had all of my original policy documents where it stated that I was covered for theft from a motor vehicle as long as they were left locked in the boot out of sight and force OR violence was used. I was told this had been changed and they no longer covered theft of any kind from an unattended motor vehicle. I told them I didn't accept this as when I originally took out the policy it would have been covered. The claim was referred on to the underwriters and I had a call 2 days later to say that they had found in my favour and that they agreed I did have a claim. However, I was then told that I was only covered for a maximum of £1,500 and they would pay out no more than that. Again, my original policy documents showed that I was covered for £15,000 (original documents are from 2015 and this is not on my new documents that I was sent when I renewed so very lucky that we had the originals as it meant I felt confident when challenging what I was being told). Again they came back to me and said I was right and was covered for the £15,000 but a loss adjustor would have to come out to see me.

The loss adjustor visited my home and I could tell immediately that he'd been sent to refuse my claim. There was no damage and that's all he was interested in, I told him I knew 100% that the car was locked, the car was locked when I got back to it and I had no idea how they'd gained entry but obviously whoever did it knew exactly what to do. He ran through everything with me and took my full account of what happened, he also checked the car over and told me he didn't believe I had a claim as there was no damage therefore no force. My answer was that damage and force are not the same thing and if they didn't have the key and the car was locked then they absolutely did force their way in. I told him that really what it comes down to is that we're arguing over the legal definition of the word force and that if they weren't willing to cover me because there was no damage to my car then surely the wording on the policy documents should be force AND violence, not force OR violence. It may not come across well here but the loss adjustor was a nice guy who was just trying to do his job (I understand that if they paid every claim they'd soon be out of business so I didn't take it personally), he was reasonable and took on board everything I was saying and by the end of the appointment I felt like he was on my side rather than on the side of the insurance company.

Two house after he left I had a call to say my claim had been accepted and was given a settlement figure very close to what I was claiming for (which is actually more than £8000, when I sat down and worked it all out and looked at the receipts etc, it mounts up quickly). I've been told I should receive the money via bank transfer within 7 working days.

I'm very lucky that I was able to challenge the insurance company and that I had everything needed to show my claim was genuine. I think a more timid person or someone without their original policy documents would have been more likely to just accept they weren't covered.

ThePants999

Well done! You were very organised and prepared. I'm glad you got the right result.