Hastings Direct refuse to cover car fire damage

emmmalouise78

Hi everyone, my car set on fire this morning whilst I was driving it, HasHastings said they won't cover it because it's mechanical and because it wasn't malicious or accidental! Has anyone else had this problem?

Sandtree

The norm is that the mechanical/electrical issue that caused the fire isn't covered but the resultant damage is. Clearly in this case the vehicle will be a total loss and so settlement would be reduced by what it would have cost to fix the problem that triggered the fire... which in some cases can be a few pennies for a fuse.

I'd call Hastings again and if they stick to their not covered position register a complaint

emmmalouise78

Thank you for that info. I've since been told I'd have to pay Derbyshire police and the storage company too if they don't pay out. I told them I had full breakdown cover but they weren't expecting my insurance company to not cover this!

TELLIT01

Unless you took out only 3rd party insurance, which seems unlikely, I don't understand how the insurer can say you are not covered for fire.  It makes even less sense if you read HD own description of the cover provided by 3rd party, fire and theft.

https://www.hastingsdirect.com/car-insurance/third-party-car-insurance.shtml

Sandtree

TELLIT01 said:

Unless you took out only 3rd party insurance, which seems unlikely, I don't understand how the insurer can say you are not covered for fire.

Fire is section 2 of the policy (1 is own vehicle damage).

The logic the agent has applied, it seems, is mechanical/electrical failures are excluded, given the car set on fire whilst just driving along it must have been caused by a mechanical or electrical failure and therefore the fire isn't covered.

The motor insurers I worked with had similar terms but interpreted differently, excluding the failure that caused the fire but covering the fire damage.

[Deleted User]

Hastings are really bad for this. Avoid them in future.

TELLIT01

What, apart from an electrical or mechanical failure can cause a car to catch fire?  If only arson or spontaneous combustion is acceptable cause that should be in the policy.  I would have though the Ombudsman would be very likely to rule in the OPs favour.