Car broken into insurance claim

Far1974

Hi all

went on a fabulous trip with hubby and daughter to London for the weekend and brought the car. Packed up bags on Sunday, put them in the car and went off shopping.

Came back and the car had been broken into 😢

Three overnight cases, laptop and handbag stolen.

Insurance company have asked for receipts for everything. We’ve got the laptop and handbag receipts but not for clothes, shoes, toiletries etc

stating they won’t pay out without receipts.

Any advice please? 

tasticz

How much are your clothes, shoes and toiletries valued at? 

If they’re expensive them you can understand why they want proof. If they are low amount total then raise a complaint and escalate to FOS which will cost them £645 regardless of the outcome. They may be inclined to settle without receipt if it’s low amount.

MalMonroe

So sorry to hear this, what an awful thing to happen after a lovely weekend. 

Which insurance are you claiming on? Could your home contents insurance cover the loss of the clothing, etc? What does the small print on your policy say?

According to Citizens Advice you can't claim on both insurances but your home insurance might cover you, even if you're away from home. Mine does and it's a very cheap policy indeed. Here is the CA link -

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/insurance/insurance/types-of-insurance/vehicle-insurance/vehicle-insurance-making-a-claim-if-your-car-or-its-contents-are-stolen/

Usually an insurance company will ask you how much it would cost to replace clothing, I don't understand why yours is prepared to only pay for the items with receipts. Not many people keep receipts for all their clothing and shoes.

Aretnap

MalMonroe said:

Which insurance are you claiming on?

Presumably home insurance. Car insurance doesn't usually cover the car's contents, and when it does there is usually a very low limit to what you can claim, designed to cover a few tools and possibly a satnav which might be left in the car more or less permanently.

Note that clothes are often excluded from the new for old cover offered by home insurance, which would mean that the insurer would only pay the second-hand value of the clothes anyway. Which would likely be minimal unless the clothes were quite swanky. 

Sandtree

The level of proof that you need will vary depending on how much you are claiming for. Insurers typically start at the top of the proof tree and ask for receipts but are realistic that everyone doesn't keep receipts for everything. Where it will go from there all depends... if you claim your clothes are all from Primark, you had 2 changes of clothes for the other two days etc then proof you were due to be in London for the 3 days may well be enough... if you had 12 changes of clothes, all from Chanel and Dior and shoes from Crockett & Jones or Louboutin then they may want photos of you in the clothes, bank/card statements showing this kind of spending, send a loss adjustor to see your other clothing to ensure its in line with your wardrobe etc.

Far1974

Thanks everyone for great advice. We each had 3 days worth of clothes shoes etc totaled about £400 with toiletries and everything so not a huge amount. The other £200 was for the 3 overnight cases which I don’t have receipts tor: 

we can provide photos of everything we were wearing as we took photos so hope that will help.

so frustrating.