Car theft - piggy in the middle with GAP provider and insurer

henry24

How big is your house? They threw a brick though the window climbed in without getting cut found your car keys climbed back out started the car while you could only get to the bedroom window

mgldev

henry24 wrote: »

How big is your house? They threw a brick though the window climbed in without getting cut found your car keys climbed back out started the car while you could only get to the bedroom window

The keys were underneath the coffee table in the middle of the room. They didn't climb in through the window - they must have used an improvised prop to hook the keys - which then raises questions about having been monitored / surveyed in terms of knowing where they were kept.

I'm a deep sleeper and the window smashing was enough to wake me up, but by the time I'd realised what was happening they'd had enough time to get the keys, start the car and drive off.

Police recommend that people do not keep their keys upstairs to avoid any possible confrontation - however in future I would keep them in a kitchen drawer and not in the living room.

neilmcl

henry24 wrote: »

How big is your house? They threw a brick though the window climbed in without getting cut found your car keys climbed back out started the car while you could only get to the bedroom window

For all you know the keys could've been on display in easy reach of the window.

CB1878

Conditions

2. You must contact Us prior to accepting any Motor Insurance Settlement. Where You do not contact Us prior to
accepting any Motor Insurance Settlement, We reserve the right to use the Market Value of the Insured Vehicle as a
substitute for the Motor Insurance Settlement

This is quite typical of the older style wordings used in motor dealer policies for Gap which can put the onus on you to chase around to get an increased offer.

The online providers tend to have a more customer focused approach with a 'best endevours' type wording whereby the Gap claims team reserve the right to attempt to get a higher settlement on your behalf.

Something like

Best Endeavours

Prior to accepting any motor insurers settlement, you must be able to demonstrate to the claims administrator that you have used your best endeavours to obtain the maximum settlement under your motor insurance policy. If you accept any settlement which is less than the Glass' Guide Retail transacted value of the vehicle at time of total loss the claims administrator reserves the right to seek an increased settlement on your behalf. You must give the claims administrator every assistance.

By the way this was taken from a current online policy wording underwritten the same insurer as the OP has with the dealer policy.

To be fair the Gap Insurance underwriter has to ensure that a motor insurer could not offer a ridiculously low figure, if they find out that the policyholder has a Gap Insurance and they think they can get the Gap to pay something the motor insurer should be. However it would increase the workload of the Gap claims team if they had to challenge every claim so hence why the older dealer policies probably still have the wording the OP has seen.

You can get a fairer approach on newer Gap policies these days.

sheramber

When our car was written off Tesco offered £1000 below Glasses value..

When my husband argued for the Glasses valuation they put him on hold for 5 minutes then came back with the full offer.

jonathon

when my sons car was written off under 12 months old on a pcp deal the insurer just replaced the car with a new one

dacouch

I recommend you read this link a few times as it explains exactly how your Insurer should value your vehicle. Pay particular attention to the requirement for the Insurer to obtain valuations from the three different price guides as many Insurers only use one valuation guide.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150901004439/http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html
I suggest you digest this and see if your vehicle Insurer has valued the vehicle in line with the way the Ombudsman requires them to.

If they have not you need to draw your Insurers attention to the this.

If they have valued the vehicle correctly you may be able to get the Ombudsman to enforce the Gap Insurer to adopt the same method to value the vehicle eg obtain three valuations etc etc

neilmcl

jonathon wrote: »

when my sons car was written off under 12 months old on a pcp deal the insurer just replaced the car with a new one

This was a theft, it's common for insurers to offer new car replacement for total write offs within 12 months but not theft.

mgldev

dacouch wrote: »

I recommend you read this link a few times as it explains exactly how your Insurer should value your vehicle. Pay particular attention to the requirement for the Insurer to obtain valuations from the three different price guides as many Insurers only use one valuation guide.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150901004439/http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html
I suggest you digest this and see if your vehicle Insurer has valued the vehicle in line with the way the Ombudsman requires them to.

If they have not you need to draw your Insurers attention to the this.

If they have valued the vehicle correctly you may be able to get the Ombudsman to enforce the Gap Insurer to adopt the same method to value the vehicle eg obtain three valuations etc etc

Thanks for this - I'll have a proper read tomorrow and form an email to my insurer.

I will report back and let you know how things are progressing.

Thanks to all for your replies so far - looking forward to getting this resolved.