Seeking advice: stolen car damages property and car

Ravstar

[FONT=&quot]Hi All,

I’m hoping some fellow members on the forum will be able to provide some beneficial advice about an incident that occurred 3 months ago which is still ongoing. Apologies in advance for the long thread. Please see below details of the incident:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
A car pursued by the police crashed into our boundary wall at high speed damaging my car and driveway in the process. The suspect was apprehended at the scene. The police officers informed me the car was stolen hence why they were in pursuit. I did a roadside check via the askMID service and it turned out the stolen car was insured at the time. I was then given a police log number to forward onto my insurance company which contained all the details of the event.

I contacted my car insurance company to inform them and passed on all the necessary information to make a claim to get my car repaired and to find out what could be done with regards to the property damage as our house didn’t have any valid building insurance at the time – bummer. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I got my car repaired and paid the policy excess upon completion to the body shop – I’m still waiting for this to be reimbursed to me. My claim handler told me at the time to get a few quotes for the property repairs and email them in along with pictures for reviewal. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As far as I’m aware, this claim is being handled under section 151 of the Road Traffic Act Insurers as the third-party car was insured at the time and the thief was identified. The third-party insurance (TPI) will have to satisfy any judgements made against them and deal with any arising claims - that’s the notion anyway.

I’ve had to enlist the help of an architect due to issues sourcing the existing brickwork. He said that the whole wall which is roughly 40 metres long needs to be knocked down (we're a corner house; the middle section of the curving wall was demolished to the ground) as it’s unstable and swaying out due to the impact. This meant that we’ve had to put in a planning application to the council for a new wall using different brickwork.

I’ve received two quotes for the wall and one quote to repair the concrete driveway - the total bill is approx. £17,000. I’ve emailed these off to my car insurance company along with the professional fees I’ve had to pay out which I’m also looking to reclaim (e.g., architect fees and planning application costs) but haven’t had a response back yet.

Presently, the TPI are disputing the claim and saying they’ve never had any reports of that car being stolen and it’s not their insured car or something daft along those lines. My car insurance company haven't received the police report - it’s been over 3 months since they’ve requested it. I don’t see this being resolved until that comes through but with no timescale, it’s becoming frustrating.

Also, after speaking to another claim handler it appears that I was “misinformed” about the procedure of emailing in property repair quotes back when I registered my claim and that my car insurance company won’t deal with the property damage and it needs to go through the building insurance company (which we didn’t have at the time). However, I was told previously that they would assist in this matter - conflicting information here with no clarity. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]If anyone has experienced a familiar situation or is knowledgeable in this area, please could you kindly provide me with some advice about the best course of action moving forward?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Thank you. [/FONT]

paddyandstumpy

Your car insurance will have nothing to do with your property claim!

If you know the TPI then I suggest you contact them. Or, is this a case for the MIB?

I hope you've now got property insurance, and declared the loss which has occurred!

buglawton

A relative of mine had a hole knocked in the house wall due to a similar incident. Claiming through the house/buildings insurance was straightforward.

molerat

buglawton wrote: »

A relative of mine had a hole knocked in the house wall due to a similar incident. Claiming through the house/buildings insurance was straightforward.

But unfortunately

Ravstar wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]
............ as our house didn’t have any valid building insurance at the time – bummer. [/FONT]

If the driver has been identified surely this is a MIB claim ?
https://www.mib.org.uk/making-a-claim/claiming-against-an-uninsured-driver/

ThePants999

(post deleted to avoid confusion as it was flat-out wrong - see Aretnap's post below if you really want to know what rubbish I spouted!)

Ravstar

Many thanks for the responses.

I’ll need to double check any old documentation to see the previous home insurance policy details but I believe it had expired. I’ve since taken out a new policy but I can’t claim off it as the incident happened prior to the policy start date.

I’ve never been in this position before so I’m new to the insurance claims industry. Can you please elaborate on the procedure about declaring uninsured losses and what happens next?

At the time of making the claim I had legal cover on my car insurance policy, do you think I’d be able to use that and ask the insurers to instruct a solicitor for me to chase the TPI for the uninsured property losses?

I’ve got the details of the TPI from the askMID roadside check I did. I’m going to call them directly tomorrow and see how far I get but seeing as they’re refuting the current allegations against them from my car insurance company, I doubt I’ll get far until a police report is sent to them.

Initially, the claim handler thought this was something that had to go through the MIB under Article 75 Insurers which is basically the Uninsured Drivers’ Agreement but then later confirmed with a supervisor that it would be proceeded under RTA Insurers Section 151 as the car was insured at the time of the incident and the driver was identified as I mentioned earlier. The TPI have to pay out any claims and recover their cost from the identified driver - that’s what I’ve read up online.

I’ll keep everyone posted on any new developments. If anyone has any further suggestions, feel free to post a reply.

Thank you.

Aretnap

ThePants999 wrote: »

People are insured, not vehicles. If the car involved was stolen, it doesn't matter that its rightful owner was insured - it's the person who stole it who you need to claim from. Since it's quite unlikely that they had insurance covering them driving that car then the MIB is what you're looking for.

This is not correct. Section 151 of the Road Traffic Act makes the car's insurer responsible for satisfying any judgement obtained against the driver of the vehicle, regardless of whether the driver is actually covered by the policy. So it's the owner's insurer the OP needs to deal with - and if they won't pay up ultimately he forces them to do so by making a court claim against the driver, then by sending the insurer the bill once he gets a judgement awarded.

The MIB would only get involved if the car had no insurance whatsoever, or if the driver could not be identified to issue a court claim against (and indeed, I believe that a recent appeal court judgement has made it possible to claim directly from the car's insurer even where the driver cannot be identified).

ThePants999

Aretnap wrote: »

This is not correct. Section 151 of the Road Traffic Act makes the car's insurer responsible for satisfying any judgement obtained against the driver of the vehicle, regardless of whether the driver is actually covered by the policy. So it's the owner's insurer the OP needs to deal with - and if they won't pay up ultimately he forces them to do so by making a court claim against the driver, then by sending the insurer the bill once he gets a judgement awarded.

The MIB would only get involved if the car had no insurance whatsoever, or if the driver could not be identified to issue a court claim against (and indeed, I believe that a recent appeal court judgement has made it possible to claim directly from the car's insurer even where the driver cannot be identified).

Thanks for this - always good to get educated when I'm talking nonsense.

Ravstar

[FONT=&quot]Quick update:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I've been in touch with the TPI and they've told me that their client is saying their car wasn't stolen, damaged or involved in this incident altogether! [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]It couldn't have been on false plates because the police would've informed me in writing after the incident if that was true and they didn’t. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Anyway, I've told them I have pictures of their client's car wedged in my wall clearly showing the licence plate front and back. The police will have their own pictures in their report. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The TPI have now asked me to email in the pictures of their damaged insured car to support my claim along with the quotations for the property repair. However, they're not going to pay anything out until they have been given the police report to confirm our allegations against them. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Does anyone on here know how long a police report can take to come through from past experiences? [/FONT]

ciderboy2009

Presumably you've checked that the make, model & colour of the car match up with that shown if you do a car status check?

paddyandstumpy

Could it be a cloned vehicle?