Car theft insurance. Please help

Worried-mum1208

I’m new to this site and after some advice.

Over the weekend my house was burgled, car/ house keys and car stolen.

It appears my husband didn’t lock the front door ( he thought he did) we would never intentionally leave a door unlocked during the night.

So the burglars entered through an unlocked front door.

We were awoken early hours to the sound of the door handle which also woke the dog and alerted us to what was happening. We went straight downstairs, saw the keys were missing from the inside of the door and the car lights come on. We couldn’t leave the house as they locked us in, so we basically watched our car drive away and couldn’t do anything about it.

The police arrived within minutes and my car was found 2 hours later crashed with bad damage.
All that was left was the ignition key they had taken all my house off and also taken my spare keys which also had my house keys on and a relatives so I think they had every intention of coming back.

My question is.. is my insurance company going to deny the claim because my house door wasn’t locked?

I am worried sick, my children are petrified and won’t sleep in there own bed. I am petrified of any noise I hear at night incase they try and come back ( the locks have been changed but its very worrying still) also I have a son with Ill health that we need a car for.

Please can someone help advice me on what’s likely to happen with the insurance.

Please no negative comments on how we should have checked the door was locked.. I know this and I can’t eat or sleep through thinking it’s my fault for not double checking, knowing my error has left us without a car and my children terrified will be forever on my mind.

Warwick_Hunt

The best person to answer your question is your insurance company. If there's a clause stating they won't pay out due to an insecure front door then they won't pay.

What have the car insurers said?

Car_54

Worried-mum1208 wrote: »

Please can someone help advice me on what’s likely to happen with the insurance.

Please no negative comments on how we should have checked the door was locked.. I know this and I can’t eat or sleep through thinking it’s my fault for not double checking, knowing my error has left us without a car and my children terrified will be forever on my mind.

It's now Tuesday night and you've wasted two days.. Tell the insurers ASAP and get a straight answer, instead of waiting for negative and ill-informed answers on here!

Good luck.

Worried-mum1208

The insurance have been informed, I’m awaiting a telephone interview on Thursday with the team that deals with car theft so there’s nothing I can do but worry until then.

Car_54

Worried-mum1208 wrote: »

The insurance have been informed, I’m awaiting a telephone interview on Thursday with the team that deals with car theft so there’s nothing I can do but worry until then.

No-one on here has a crystal ball. There's no point in worrying about something you've got no control over.

Spend the time in recording all the details you can remember, and listing everything you've lost.

Warwick_Hunt

Car_54 wrote: »

No-one on here has a crystal ball. There's no point in worrying about something you've got no control over.

Spend the time in recording all the details you can remember, and listing everything you've lost.

I don't think there's many details to remember, the door wasn't locked and the car was stolen.

There's no point contradicting the crime report and statement already given to the police.

zagfles

Are you sure the door was unlocked? Could it have been locked and the burglars hooked the key through the letterbox? That's quite a common way to get hold of keys that are left in the door or on a hook/table near the door.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

I'd say it would be unreasonable to withhold the claim due to a momentary lapse. You normally lock the door. Multiple people are responsible. In the endd it was an act of theft. This is not the same as leaving the keys in the ignition at a petrol station.

Someone entered your home to take the keys, a criminal act. I don't think occasionally not locking your front door counts as negligent.

Warwick_Hunt

IanMSpencer wrote: »

I'd say it would be unreasonable to withhold the claim due to a momentary lapse. You normally lock the door. Multiple people are responsible. In the endd it was an act of theft. This is not the same as leaving the keys in the ignition at a petrol station.

Someone entered your home to take the keys, a criminal act. I don't think occasionally not locking your front door counts as negligent.

The insurance company may not agree.

w06

Different issue but changing your house locks won't cost a fortune and will make the keys they still have useless

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Warwick_Hunt wrote: »

The insurance company may not agree.

They may not agree, but that would not necessarily be reasonable. A reasonable person may occasionally forget to do something. In this case, the owners believed that they had locked the house, and they did immediately respond, they had a dog alarm fitted. It does sound within the realms of possibility that the house was locked and the burglars were able to access the keys by fishing.

It is worth noting that the insurers may attempt to deny claims, but the FCA may take a different view and expect a reasonable approach and if the insurers did deny the claim I would immediately complain and escalate to the FCA.

Given that there was presumably no indication that the door was unlocked, as opposed to it being left open, then there is a level of intent rather than opportunism in the theft.

I would not state that the house was unlocked as you do not know that this is the case. The facts are that the husband believed he had locked the door. The door may have been unlocked or the keys may have been fished, both of those are speculations.