Car on fire and insurance won’t pay

spender76

Hi All,
My car was on fire while I was driving it, the insurance are asking for service history which I don’t have as I used a local garage to do a minor service just once as I only had the car 18 month ago, car bought from main dealer, insurance won’t pay even though it was fully com policy, please advise.
Many thanks

tacpot12

You can ask the main dealer if they can provide the service history upto the point you purchased the car (the dealers for a number of makes of car can do this). You should also ask the local garage to provide a copy invoice for the minor service.

Without this evidence of servicing, you will probably have to complain to the Insurance Ombudsman if you want the insurance company to payout.

You could also pay for an independent engineer to inspect the car to see if the cause of fire can be determined. Some cars have a history/habit of bursting into flame due to very specific faulty components. If an engineer can confirm the root of the fire was a known componentst with a known fault (especially one that had a recall that was not enacted on your car, you may have a claim against the main dealer as they should have checked that all recalls were enacted on your car before reselling it)

Good luck

BooJewels

tacpot12 wrote: »

Some cars have a history/habit of bursting into flame due to very specific faulty components

I wondered if that's what they're driving at - that the model is known for such an issue and there was a recall. If the owner didn't avail themselves of a fee official repair, then the insurance won't cover that issue?

dacouch

You can often get a print out if the fsh from a main dealer of any franchised main dealer servicing for a fee.

You may also be able to track down some if it by logging into the mot history (If it is subject to mots)

As others have said an official complaint and then ombudsman may work. However if they have valid reasons for requesting the fsh to investigate the claim this may not work.

What car is it and how old is it?

When was last mot?

Which insurer are you with

benten69

Since when does a service (oil change, coolant change if at that age, timing belt change, again if needed at that time, etc, etc) have ANY influence on fire??

Insurance are having a laugh and just trying to come up with any excuse in the book to not pay. Do your policy documents specifically state the car MUST have full service history in order to be covered for fire? I am willing to bet it won't say that, and if it's not in black & white they can't force unreasonable terms on you after the fact.

I would first ask to be shown where in their terms it insists on full service history. If they cannot provide that information then put in a complaint and ask them for a final response, at which point, escalate to the Insurance Ombudsman.

As mentioned above, an independent engineers report may help your case, but unless they specifically state in their terms the car must have full service history to be covered in the event of fire, you will not need to prove anything to them.

Which insurer is this? So I know to avoid them in future.

angrycrow

To give any meaningful answer on this the op needs to tell us the basis on which the insurers have declined to pay out the claim.

This could be a situation when a mechanical failure has resulted in a fire. The insurance would not pay for the mechanical failure but might pay for other damage resulting from the fire. The problem is that if the original failure would cost more than the cars value to repair then car would have had no value when it caught fire.

Insurers do not require cars to be serviced at any set interval but the policy terms do require the car to be kept in a safe roadworthy condition. Not repairing a known fault that subsequently caused the car to catch fire could breach this term.

spender76

Hi All,
Thanks for your reply, the car was a Toyota Prius and the fire started on the the drivers head light side.

angrycrow

And on what basis did the insurer decline the claim.