Help! Car stolen, Insurance hadn't auto renewed!

JordanBos

Yes I am an idiot!

I always have my insurance on auto-renew, as admin/organisation has never been a strong point.
Two years ago I managed to purchase my dream car, a Range Rover and obviously got it fully insured, when I got the policy I selected for it to auto renew.
On Saturday morning I woke up and my car was gone. I went to my Land Rover app and selected car lost. It gave me a number to call which I did, they said that the tracker had been turned off (what is the point of a tracker if it can just be switched off, I always assumed they would be like black boxes on planes!). I then contacted the police who were not interested in the slightest.
I then went to my emails to find my insurance details and an email I hadn't read with the subject heading, Your Insurance Auto-Renew (or something similar) from this February. When I opened it, it said that the auto renew had been declined!
I'm absolutely devastated as there is still about £65,000 outstanding on the vehicle.

I know I'm clutching at straws, but I genuinely believed I was still insured. No way would I be driving around knowingly uninsured.

And yes, I am an idiot and yes I was obviously driving uninsured. But I had no idea an insurers would decline me when there had been no change in my circumstances.
Any thoughts would be greatly recieved!

[Deleted User]

I hate to say it, but I think you're out of luck for not ensuring you were insured, especially as your previous insurers told you that you weren't.

Keep your fingers crossed that the car turns up, unlikely though that is.

AdrianC

You need to figure out why the auto-renew had been declined. Their problem, or yours.

But it's still your responsibility to make sure you are insured... Three months? And you never once noticed that you hadn't paid for the premium...?

I find it very hard to believe the police would not be interested in a stolen vehicle.
As far as the theft goes, did LR give any indication of how the tracker was disabled? Was it done via the app or website? How secure is your access to those?
Did the vehicle have keyless entry? Do you still have both keys in your possession, and if keyless, were they in a security pouch?

Grumpy_chap

When you set up your insurance, did you decline the auto renew at that time?  Even if you thought you would do, you may be able to check the settings in the account for the old policy.
Or decline when the renewal came through and you thought the renewal premium was too much?
Or, declined because your credit card, or whatever payment on the auto-renew, had expired?

I find it hard to see how someone with a £65k car could not have it insured and not know it was not insured.  This is a very hard position to be in, but I suppose the best solace you can take from this is that there is only a financial loss suffered and you did not drive uninsured and cause injury and / or incur the wrath of the police in a driving uninsured offence with whatever penalties that would have been.

You may be able to locate the car using online car sites and auctions...

Rosco62

Think the OP needs to give some more info

JordanBos

Deleted_User said:

I hate to say it, but I think you're out of luck for not ensuring you were insured, especially as your previous insurers told you that you weren't.

Keep your fingers crossed that the car turns up, unlikely though that is.

Thank you. Yes lets hope, was racking my brain if I had an old phone or something in the car that I could track...needless to say I don't!

AdrianC

JordanBos said:
was racking my brain if I had an old phone or something in the car that I could track...

If you did, would it be charged and switched on, with a valid SIM with data credit?

JordanBos

AdrianC said:

You need to figure out why the auto-renew had been declined. Their problem, or yours.

But it's still your responsibility to make sure you are insured... Three months? And you never once noticed that you hadn't paid for the premium...?

I find it very hard to believe the police would not be interested in a stolen vehicle.
As far as the theft goes, did LR give any indication of how the tracker was disabled? Was it done via the app or website? How secure is your access to those?
Did the vehicle have keyless entry? Do you still have both keys in your possession, and if keyless, were they in a security pouch?

Thank you for your reply, I am truly grateful that you have taken the time to ask so many questions!
The reason for the declined auto-renew was due to the vehicle being high risk and they just didn't want it on their portfolio.
Yes it was three months, the policy usually comes out annually but I genuinely don't really keep on top of going through my statements (I know a lot of people do).
When I say the police were not interested, they were pro-active and contacted the tracker company immediately and called me back as they said speed was of the essence, but the tracker company hadn't had a signal since I parked it on the Friday night. They have no indication as to how the tracker was disabled.
I still have both keys in my possession. I am assuming they used the keyless entry, I don't normally park on my drive but my wife was out so I did. They keys were not in any special pouch or anything.

I know I am most likely going to have to wipe my mouth and hopefully I will get over it but I am gutted (and stupid!)

jimjames

You definitely need to report to police. Without being logged there will be nothing to trigger if it goes past an ANPR camera which would help identify location and might even be past a police car. Although if you've been driving uninsured for 3 months without triggering one that might not do much.

JordanBos

Grumpy_chap said:

When you set up your insurance, did you decline the auto renew at that time?  Even if you thought you would do, you may be able to check the settings in the account for the old policy.
Or decline when the renewal came through and you thought the renewal premium was too much?
Or, declined because your credit card, or whatever payment on the auto-renew, had expired?

I find it hard to see how someone with a £65k car could not have it insured and not know it was not insured.  This is a very hard position to be in, but I suppose the best solace you can take from this is that there is only a financial loss suffered and you did not drive uninsured and cause injury and / or incur the wrath of the police in a driving uninsured offence with whatever penalties that would have been.

You may be able to locate the car using online car sites and auctions...

Thank you for the reply!
I set up auto-renew when I took the policy out. So I thought I could set it and forget it. I got an email from the insurer in February and the subject line led me to think, oh great my insurance has been renewed (I should have read it). They didn't renew it due to them not wanting to insure Range Rovers anymore.

And I fully accept it is difficult to see how I could not know it wasn't insured, but having set the auto-renew and historically never having had an issue with that process I just assumed it would renew.

And whilst absolutely gutted at the financial loss, I count my blessings as you say that I didn't harm anything or anyone, whilst for me it is a horrible outcome. It could have been a lot, lot worse and I am grateful for that.

JordanBos

AdrianC said:

JordanBos said:
was racking my brain if I had an old phone or something in the car that I could track...

If you did, would it be charged and switched on, with a valid SIM with data credit?

If I had my work bag in there my Ipad, Airpod's etc. and things like that may have been.