Advice please: our vehicle stolen from car dealer

Sleepless_in_London

Hi All,

A month ago, my husband and I left our car at a dealership that was broken into this week. Several cars were stolen, one of which was ours.

My husband and I are out of the country for a few months, so we thought the car would have a better chance of being sold there than left in front of our house for the time we're away.

This acquaintance has now told us that our car can't be included on their insurance claim and that we'd have to claim on our own which obviously affects our excess, premiums next year and no-claims discount. Given the circumstances, we doubt very much that our insurance will pay out either, since our keys were in their showroom, or perhaps even in the car (we haven't ascertained this yet).

Do any of you have any ideas or suggestions about what our legal stance is, how we can proceed and what our best outcome would be?

Thanks all.

AdrianC

So this used car sales place is owned by an acquaintance, who had your car on sale-or-return? Was there any formal agreement in place, or was it just a handshake and nothing in writing?

wgl2014

If your car wasn't listed on the dealers trade policy I don't think it would be covered.
You need to find out specifically what happened and get the crime number before contacting your own insurance company. You are right that this will effect your premium but that's the way insurance works, the other option is not to claim and get nothing.

AndyMc.....

wgl2014 wrote: »

If your car wasn't listed on the dealers trade policy I don't think it would be covered.
You need to find out specifically what happened and get the crime number before contacting your own insurance company. You are right that this will effect your premium but that's the way insurance works, the other option is not to claim and get nothing.

I'd guess not, then that would mean a sale without a test drive.

Car_54

AndyMc..... wrote: »

I'd guess not, then that would mean a sale without a test drive.

Surely not. “Dodgy car dealer breaks law” shock horror!

Sleepless_in_London

AdrianC wrote: »

So this used car sales place is owned by an acquaintance, who had your car on sale-or-return? Was there any formal agreement in place, or was it just a handshake and nothing in writing?

No, not even a handshake. It was my brother's suggestion to leave the car with his friend who works at the dealership. It was a week before we left the UK, so we had so much on that the thought didn't even cross our minds. We ended up leaving the car at my brother's and his friend who works at the dealership picked it up and drove it over there.

We've got a crime reference number now and have contacted both the officer on the case (as well as the insurance company). We're concerned that if the keys were in the car at the time and the thieves simply drove out of the garage that it wasn't, in fact, technically broken into and stolen (which is what insurers insure cars for). Any thoughts?

kev25v6

No different from breaking into your house, taking the keys and driving away. It’s the easier way now with new cars, houses are much less secure and easier to break into.

trailingspouse

My first thought is that the car was in the 'custody and control' of the garage, so theoretically their insurance should cover it.
But - proving that they had it in their 'custody and control' might be a different issue.

Sleepless_in_London

trailingspouse wrote: »

My first thought is that the car was in the 'custody and control' of the garage, so theoretically their insurance should cover it.
But - proving that they had it in their 'custody and control' might be a different issue.

When the car arrived at the dealership they sent us photos of the car in their garage as well as a description of the listing it had online. They have also sent us 'security' camera footage of their garage being broken into and of our car being driven away, so we can prove it. The only thing against us is that we didn't sign anything with them. It is all quite stressful being so far away from home and having to procure documents to send to the police and insurance co. with intermittent internet and phone access.

AndyMc.....

trailingspouse wrote: »

My first thought is that the car was in the 'custody and control' of the garage, so theoretically their insurance should cover it.
But - proving that they had it in their 'custody and control' might be a different issue.

Have they advertised it for sale?

Sleepless_in_London

It was in their garage showroom so I suppose that might constitute advertising it.

The thing that is making this whole incident dodgy is that when my brother informed me that our car had been stolen, we obviously started asking more questions and it transpired that this garage changed owners recently (end of August with a new Albanian owner) and that my brother's friend had only started working there. My initial thought was whether the garage had staged it for some reason, but perhaps I'm overthinking it.

Obviously this is very frustrating, but because it was my brother who had suggested several times that we'd have a better opportunity of selling it in his friend's showroom "he has a proper showroom where you could advertise your car and they would write a full listing for you", etc., it made us lower our guard and trust the process more. We had been trying to shift the car on Autotrader for a month prior to that with no takers, so it just seemed like the obvious choice and regrettably we should have been more thorough about it (even though we only had a week left).