Car theft insurance. Please help

Warwick_Hunt

iammumtoone wrote: »

Just tell the truth and answer questions as asked.

The truth is your car was stolen due to the keys being stolen from your house, those are the facts.

No need to offer anymore information give them the crime number when asked for it, they may not even ask how the burglar got into the house as it is not your house insurance being claimed off.

To put your mind at rest I had a car stolen, the car was recovered crashed at the end of the next street with the keys in it :eek: The insurance company paid out. I had to have a phone interview where I was asked lots of questions. I was honest I had no idea how it happened. I was sure I locked the car as I always did, maybe the keys dropped from my pocket and were found on the pavement maybe I did actually leave the keys in the car (although I doubt it as otherwise how would I lock the car door) we will never know but the insurance company accepted that I normally locked my car and had no reason after I came in to notice the keys were missing (they lived in my coat pocket until the next morning) they paid out, so it can and does happen.

The trouble with that advice is you don't know what's on the crime report.

Remember it will be recorded as a burglary and not a theft of motor vehicle.

Worried-mum1208

I’m not sure what will be on the crime report. I’ve only told the truth so nothing to worry about with that but I’ve not made an official statement yet as the officer in charge of my case has been off for a few days. She wrote some brief notes but that was it. I’m not sure whether a crime report would be my statement or would it be info from the officer that came to the 999 call? ( that makes me sound quite dumb.. I’ve never needed to contact the police or my insurance before I’m clueless)

Warwick_Hunt

Worried-mum1208 wrote: »

I’m not sure what will be on the crime report. I’ve only told the truth so nothing to worry about with that but I’ve not made an official statement yet as the officer in charge of my case has been off for a few days. She wrote some brief notes but that was it. I’m not sure whether a crime report would be my statement or would it be info from the officer that came to the 999 call? ( that makes me sound quite dumb.. I’ve never needed to contact the police or my insurance before I’m clueless)

If you told them the door was unlocked then that's what they'll tell your insurance company.

iammumtoone

Warwick_Hunt wrote: »

If you told them the door was unlocked then that's what they'll tell your insurance company.

Only if the insurance company ask, I am not sure as its car insurance the OP is claiming under and not directly claiming for the burglary of the house they will ask.

Warwick_Hunt

iammumtoone wrote: »

Only if the insurance company ask, I am not sure as its car insurance the OP is claiming under and not directly claiming for the burglary of the house they will ask.

As I said earlier, they are most likely trying to clarify the keys were not left in the vehicle. If the contact the police they will want to know the MO.

Aretnap

You should read your car insurance policy documents to see if there are any exclusion that might apply. As has been hinted at it is fairly standard to have a clause to say that they won't pay if you leave your keys in an unattended car. However I've never seen a car insurance policy that has a clause requiring you to keep your house locked up while your car keys are at home.

As well as specific clauses about what's you do with the keys there is normally a generic clause requiring you to take reasonable care of your car. However the courts and the ombudsman quite rightly don't like insurers using such vague clause to refuse claims and so the level of stupidity that's required before they can be activated is very high indeed - higher than forgetting to lock your door one evening.

Aretnap

Uxb wrote: »

My HOUSE insurance policy is quite clear
If you suffer a loss and you do not have the security protections show below
1. fitted to the home
2. Put into full and effective operation
when you and your family have gone to bed or whenever the house in left unattended then we will not pay any claim for any loss from theft, attempted theft, damage or vandalism.

They then list the requirements
Among them are all external door locks comply with BS 3621 and that all doors are fully secured.

Even with home insurance that's not a standard clause for most insurers - generally speaking home insurance will pay out for burglary even if you forget to lock your door. The clause you refer to is added to individual policies if specific conditions apply - the exact conditions are up to the insurer but most commonly are: high crime area (in the insurers view), previous burglary at the address, or unusually high value contents, especially things like jewelry.

Manxman_in_exile

Shaka_Zulu wrote: »

Our front door is never locked. Having said that keys are not in sight of the door anyway.

Same here, except when we are both out of the house. We have what I understand is a "nightlatch" on the front door. Once closed you can only open it from the outside with a key, but from the inside you simply turn the door handle.


Over Christmas last year it developed a fault and we had to use our second Chubb lock to lock the door from the inside. I didn't want to leave the key in the door (I once saw a locksmith use an articulated "arm" deployed through the letterbox to turn the key on the nightlatch inside after I'd locked myself out) and I wasn't sure where else to leave it in case of emergency (fire etc.).


To the OP - I wouldn't feel comfortable or even safe with a door that you have to lock from the inside. Get a nightlatch and a sturdy chain with long screws fixing it.

Indout96

We had exactly the same (but during the day) but this was back in 2008 so things may have changed.


Car insurance - paid for everything relating to car except changing locks and said that we had to pay for that as the thief still had the keys so they would not cover theft without new locks on car. I think we paid around £700 for locks changing - programing keys ect.


House insurance - not sure if we could have claimed for having house locks changed but as it would have been more than our excess I just changed them myself.