Car stolen and recovered 6 hours later. Do I need to claim?

Murlton

Hi all.
My car (Fiesta) was stolen yesterday afternoon and I managed to find it dumped down a side street about 8 hours later. Some youths broke in using a screwdriver and started it up somehow, then eventually got bored and left it it seems. The damage could have been a lot worse, I have a scuffed alloy and my door lock needs replacing as it was destroyed by whatever they used to get in. There is also a scratch under the lock. I contacted the police immediately and called my insurance, but was able to recover pretty quickly.

My question is this - if my mechanic can sort the door lock and my friend buffs out the scratch, do I need to tell my insurer about the damage? I'd rather not claim from them, but they are obviously aware it was stolen and will have follow up questions. The police took photos so evidence of minor damage is available, but does that mean they expect to be the ones fixing it?

Thanks

molerat

You now just need to inform the insurer that the vehicle has been recovered and you are not making a claim.  Your premium is going to increase now anyway.

Sandtree

You are under no obligation to make a claim if you don't want to. You will have to declare the incident to your future insurers and there may not be a big difference in premium for an unclaimed incident or a theft claim.

It doesnt sound like it has but obviously keep your eye out for letters turning up if the vehicle has potentially hit someone/something else during the joyride... have had a few claims get out of hand because the PH was throwing away letters that were coming from Aviva or Axa etc assuming they were marketing but were actually claims for what they'd assumed was a hit and run by our policyholder (though in reality was a thief doing the hit and run)

chrisw

Your premium will increase as you'll have to declare the 'incident' for the next 3-5 years, however, if you don't claim for any damage then your No Claim Discount should be unaffected.

MalMonroe

Contacting your insurer has ensured that they will have made a note on the national MID (motor insurance database). 

I made the mistake of contacting my insurance company once when someone's car rolled into the back of mine at traffic lights one day. I simply phoned to ask if I should make a claim because although I couldn't see any damage, I knew from past experience that damage could have occurred somewhere that was not visible. It was a useless call as they put it on MID and said it was up to me. I decided not to pursue a claim.

However, for five years after that, every time I applied for motor insurance I had to declare that no fault incident, it wasn't even an accident. Although I was told that it shouldn't affect my insurance prices, I'm sure it did as now it's off the MID I can get really cheap car insurance.

You can call and inform your insurer anything you want to now but that incident's going to remain on MID for a few years.

If it's going to cost more than your excess charge to have the damage fixed, you may just as well claim it on the insurance, since it'll make no difference now. Especially as the police must have given you a crime/incident number. Premiums may increase now too, as molerat says.

Police will not be expecting to fix the damage, no. They'll just put the photos on their crime database.

I wouldn't report anything now to my insurance company - unless the car was a write off. It's not worth the hassle and you have to pay excess anyway.

Sandtree

MalMonroe said:

I made the mistake of contacting my insurance company once when someone's car rolled into the back of mine at traffic lights
<snip>
 I had to declare that no fault incident, it wasn't even an accident. 

Claims would normally be going on CUE - Claims and Underwriting Exchange

Even if they deliberately rolled into the back of you its still an incident that you would need to declare irrespective of if you were thinking about claiming or not. Clearly a lot of people commit insurance fraud by not declaring minor incidents and some get unstuck when they don't declare it but it turns out the other party had a change of heart and did claim in the end and the details went onto CUE.

Jfk1988

It's worth double checking that your insurer is aware you have recovered the vehicle so they put the correct marker on MIAFTR, you don't want it recorded as Theft Unrecovered or you'll end up being stopped by the police.

Mickey666

As soon as the insurer and police is aware it’ll be on the various databases that hold such records, so pretty risky to not declare the incident in future.  No need to make a formal claim though.
If the car had been recovered before the police and insurance co was notified then the OP could have kept quiet about it, although still a risk of the thief being involved in an accident or being caught by a speed camera etc.

The ‘no fault’ system is not really fair in many respects because it can still influence future premiums, but the insurance company will likely say that ANY incident means a higher future risk.  True or not, it’s not really possible to argue against so it’s just a case of ‘suck it up’.  Resorting to dishonesty about such incidents is unlikely to help and more likely to cause even more problems.

Anamox

I personally wouldn't bother claiming if the damage is as little as you say, too much fuss to worry about.

As above though I've also made the mistake of telling my insurance company about an incident where a lorry swiped my car causing cosmetic damage. I got the repair done for free by my bodywork insurance (not related to car insurance so no database of claims and no excess etc) yet found myself unable to take out insurance online when my renewal came. Upon ringing the insurer I wanted to use they said it's because I hadn't declared an accident on the comparison selections which disagreed with the information they have on me, she reprocessed the quote with the extra detail stating a "no claim, no fault incident" and it went from cheap to extortionate. Several years later I'm in the same boat with insurance, spending at least several hundred more because I bothered to tell the insurer.

Moral of the story: the system is rubbish, plead ignorance and never tell insurers about minor incidents if you're confident no claim will arise. I know your situation is different but as we're on the theme...

Murlton

Thanks for all the advice everyone. My insurer already knows about it the theft, so my premiums are more expensive regardless now. My excess is about £250 and I just had a mechanic take a look at the damage. The damage is as follows:- the front passenger tyre needs replacing, that tyre's alloy has a big chunk taken out of it, the exhaust is a little bent, there's a pretty big scratch in the door, and there is a chunk of damage to the door handle/lock. He said the cost to fix the door will be about £350 but it could be done cheaper if we go looking for scrap parts. Seems like I may aswell just go through the insurance at this point then since my premium is going to be the same regardless.

chrisw

Murlton said:

Seems like I may aswell just go through the insurance at this point then since my premium is going to be the same regardless.

But it wont be the same unless you have protected NCD. 

If you don't claim, your premium will rise but your NCD will be unaffected. If you claim, your premium will rise and you will lose 2 years NCD unless you've protected it.