What effect does theft (and recovery) of car have on insurance premium if I pay for repairs myself?

SilverZippo

I hope this is not too open ended a question ....

My car was stolen from an airport meet and greet company but was recovered a few days later. The theft (and recovery) has been reported to my insurers.  The car sustained some damage to a couple of doors and a couple of things were stolen from inside.

I can easily see the cost of repairs coming to £1000-2000 and the total value of a claim coming to something like £4000-5000 if include missing items, taxi fares, recovery fees, replacement key etc. 

My current premium is over £700 as I had an at fault accident claim a few years ago, and my wife (who is a named driver) had a total loss of her own car from driving through a flood. Between us we have 4 policies as we each have a car and a motorcycle and we are named drivers on each others vehicles. My wife's car policy is around £400, and the bike policies are around £200 each at the moment. 

My question is: Should I claim for all of this on the insurance, or should get it repaired at my own expense - or to put it another way how much effect on premiums does a theft have, if the value of the claim was 0 ?

Keep_pedalling

As you have already informed the insurance company of the theft I would think any increase in premium is already baked in so you may as well get them to fork out for the damage. 

born_again

Any reason why you are not claiming on the Meet & Greet co's insurance for the damage?

SilverZippo

born_again said:

Any reason why you are not claiming on the Meet & Greet co's insurance for the damage?

Because it turns out that the business model of these Meet & Greet firms is to rely on the owner's insurance policy.  

cw8825

SilverZippo said:

born_again said:

Any reason why you are not claiming on the Meet & Greet co's insurance for the damage?

Because it turns out that the business model of these Meet & Greet firms is to rely on the owner's insurance policy.  

ill hazard a guess, their policy only covers them for the driving portion not the time its sat waiting for you to come back

SilverZippo

cw8825 said:

SilverZippo said:

born_again said:

Any reason why you are not claiming on the Meet & Greet co's insurance for the damage?

Because it turns out that the business model of these Meet & Greet firms is to rely on the owner's insurance policy.  

ill hazard a guess, their policy only covers them for the driving portion not the time its sat waiting for you to come back

Precisely. I have not ruled out suing them.

cw8825

I would let the insurance desk and see if they can make a recovery. 

It is also worth checking how much of those losses your policy will actually cover 

DullGreyGuy

SilverZippo said:

cw8825 said:

SilverZippo said:

born_again said:

Any reason why you are not claiming on the Meet & Greet co's insurance for the damage?

Because it turns out that the business model of these Meet & Greet firms is to rely on the owner's insurance policy.  

ill hazard a guess, their policy only covers them for the driving portion not the time its sat waiting for you to come back

Precisely. I have not ruled out suing them.

What do the terms you agreed to say about liability? 

Were you to claim off your insurance then they would consider if they have a right of recovery from the firm. If they do and it was successful it would change it from a fault to non-fault claim. These firms always seemed ropy as hell so have never used one and so haven't read their terms.

Frozen_up_north

SilverZippo said:

My car was stolen from an airport meet and greet company but was recovered a few days later.

I use the official meet and greet at Leeds Bradford Airport, it is run by the airport people themselves. Out of curiosity, was your meet and greet an official airport run service, or a 3rd party off the airport site?

SilverZippo

Frozen_up_north said:

SilverZippo said:

My car was stolen from an airport meet and greet company but was recovered a few days later.

I use the official meet and greet at Leeds Bradford Airport, it is run by the airport people themselves. Out of curiosity, was your meet and greet an official airport run service, or a 3rd party off the airport site?

It was a third party site who I have used a couple of times before. I have to admit I did not read the small print and assumed they would be liable in the event of theft. The small print says they are not (in common with most operators it appears), however, if they were negligent, and in this case I think they were, they cannot rely on the small print. 

SilverZippo

DullGreyGuy said:

SilverZippo said:

cw8825 said:

SilverZippo said:

born_again said:

Any reason why you are not claiming on the Meet & Greet co's insurance for the damage?

Because it turns out that the business model of these Meet & Greet firms is to rely on the owner's insurance policy.  

ill hazard a guess, their policy only covers them for the driving portion not the time its sat waiting for you to come back

Precisely. I have not ruled out suing them.

What do the terms you agreed to say about liability? 

Were you to claim off your insurance then they would consider if they have a right of recovery from the firm. If they do and it was successful it would change it from a fault to non-fault claim. These firms always seemed ropy as hell so have never used one and so haven't read their terms.

"Loss or damage to be covered by your own insurance. No vehicles will be covered for fire/theft/flood/mechanical, structural or other intervening acts of nature whilst in our custody or during transit."  But of course they csn only rely on that if they were not negligent, and they have as good as admitted to me (on the phone) that they were.