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

Supersonos

JordanBos said:

Yes I am an idiot!

Actually I disagree - you're not an idiot.  Yes, so it's your responsibility to check you're insured but I would absolutely have done the same as you.  Seen that subject line about insurance documents, not read the email and got on with my life assuming all is good.

The other day I spent an hour and a quarter (no exaggeration) trying to find out who I was insured with.  No evidence in statements, no emails, letters.  MID said I was insured (but doesn't say who with) but all I could find was a Direct Line policy that I'd cancelled a week later.  I don't remember doing it.

I worked it all out in the end, but emails are easy to ignore and lose/delete.  If ever I get stopped by the police and they ask who I'm insured with, they better be prepared to wait a very long time to get an answer!

Hope you get your Range Rover back...  Someone in our village recently had a high value BMW stolen using the keyless hack, so I now keep my keys in a faraday pouch, although I'm still toying with the idea of disabling keyless entry altogether.

Langtang

Supersonos said:

JordanBos said:

Yes I am an idiot!

Actually I disagree - you're not an idiot.  Yes, so it's your responsibility to check you're insured but I would absolutely have done the same as you.

I have to agree with this statement. I bet if an honesty poll were taken, a lot more people would agree too.

Supersonos said:

JordanBos said:

Yes I am an idiot!

I worked it all out in the end, but emails are easy to ignore and lose/delete.  If ever I get stopped by the police and they ask who I'm insured with, they better be prepared to wait a very long time to get an answer!

Again, I agree. Imagine it. Is it in the insurance mailbox, or the car one or amongst the 3000 emails still in your inbox. Was it to this email account, or my other one. Smartphone screens are so easy to swipe by accident. Swipe, delete and you only find out once its too late. 30 day policy on your deleted items folder......

Supersonos said:

JordanBos said:

Yes I am an idiot!

Hope you get your Range Rover back...  Someone in our village recently had a high value BMW stolen using the keyless hack, so I now keep my keys in a faraday pouch, although I'm still toying with the idea of disabling keyless entry altogether.

Interesting point. My wife's Fiesta is a late 2019 model, and as such has a key that goes to sleep after non-movement for a certain period (minutes) negating the need for a Faraday cage. My Audi has no such thing.

It would be great if all car companies got together and came up with a unified answer to keyless car theft/ key design. Every company seems to have their own idea. 

moneysaver

motorguy said:

O/P - sorry for the loss of your car.

Can you share a screenshot of the email heading / wording for us?  It might help to give an indication of any other routes that could be open to you.

Now we are getting somewhere with this post to possibly help the OP rather than criticize him. £65k is a big hit to take. There may be a legal route here.

Moneysaver

Langtang

moneysaver said:

motorguy said:

O/P - sorry for the loss of your car.

Can you share a screenshot of the email heading / wording for us?  It might help to give an indication of any other routes that could be open to you.

Now we are getting somewhere with this post to possibly help the OP rather than criticize him.

Or as someone on a well known TV show would say, now we're sucking diesel.....

NBLondon

I think you've been really unlucky here Jordan...  If the email subject header just said "Your Insurance Documents Attached" and you were expecting an auto-renewal package I can understand just filing it and not double-checking.  Not well thought out by the insurance co there.

moneysaver

NBLondon said:

I think you've been really unlucky here Jordan...  If the email subject header just said "Your Insurance Documents Attached" and you were expecting an auto-renewal package I can understand just filing it and not double-checking.  Not well thought out by the insurance co there.

Negligence by insurance company?

motorguy

moneysaver said:

motorguy said:

O/P - sorry for the loss of your car.

Can you share a screenshot of the email heading / wording for us?  It might help to give an indication of any other routes that could be open to you.

Now we are getting somewhere with this post to possibly help the OP rather than criticize him. £65k is a big hit to take. There may be a legal route here.

Moneysaver

Yes.

Theres the insurance ombudsman for example.  I would have thought a complaint to them might be in order.

I'd really like to see a screenshot of the email heading, first couple of paragraphs though.  If that glaringly obviously to everyone on here says "YOUR INSURANCE HAS BEEN CANCELLED" then fine - there is no criticism on the O/P, we're all capable of missing an email - but conversely it might open up SOMETHING for the O/P to progress.

I'd also be putting up STOLEN info on facebook, ask all friends to share it, the reg and the details.

I'd also be on top of the police to make sure its registered correctly as stolen.

Not sure if O/P has had the conversation with the finance company - if there is finance on it - but they will need to know, and painfully that will trigger an invoice for the settlement figure from them.  BUT its not just a matter of continuing to make payments.

AdrianC

Langtang said:

It would be great if all car companies got together and came up with a unified answer to keyless car theft/ key design. Every company seems to have their own idea. 

They used to have. It was a key that you had to press a button to unlock, then put in a lock and turn to start (or put in the door and turn).

People are too lazy and entitled to do that any more, it seems. They just want to have the key in the vague vicinity of the car then press a button to start it. Then they look surprised when other people can do the same.

fred246

I would never drive without a certificate of insurance. I always print them out as well as keeping an electronic copy. I will not rely on documents in a "secure area" that you have to login to. I also make sure that payment is taken. They can't take your money and not insure you. The other check is the askmid database. I changed to Admiral this year and found out I was showing as not covered. They got a very irrate Fred on the phone with all sorts of threats. They sorted it while I was on the phone. Didn't know they could do that.

TooManyPoints

Negligence by insurance company?

Good luck with that. 

Keeping and driving a car are big responsibilities. If there has been any negligence it is on the part of the OP (something he seems to readily accept). Consider this scenario: forget that the car was stolen, but instead Jordanbos was stopped by the police as his car came up as uninsured on their ANPR equipment. Instead of paying a fixed penalty he takes the matter to the Magistrates' Court and asks the Bench to consider that there are "Special Reasons" not to endorse his licence and impose points on the basis (he says) that the insurer was negligent. How do you think he will get on?

He might have a case for that (assuming he encounters a particularly sympathetic Bench) if the policy had failed to renew just a few days or perhaps a week earlier. But three months? Not a chance. I cannot see the insurance ombudsman ruling in his favour. Many policies are now administered entirely online and ignoring an e-mail is no different to ignoring a letter in the post. If you have taken out a policy online you must be prepared to deal with the correspondence that goes with. Nothing has failed here. The insurers contacted him (presumably in good time) to say the policy would not be renewed. That contact was received but was not acted upon. This has only come to light because the vehicle has been stolen. It's a bit rich to expect the insurers to pay out on a policy that ended three months ago, especially when they had no intention of extending cover beyond its expiry anyway.