Sat Nav stolen from car on driveway. Not insured!

raskazz

stevenagesaint wrote: »

When i querried that with Axa they said if you leave it in your car it would not be covered on there car insurance as they advise you to take items like Sat Navs, MP3 ect with and not leave them in the car. if you were in the car and you were involved in a car jack or snatched whilst you are there then yes they would cover it, but leaving it unattended even locked out of site you are not.

OK, so by the sounds of it Axa simply exclude things like sat navs and MP3 players from the 'Personal Belongings' section of cover. Many (if not most) policies would cover these as long as they were out of view/locked in the glovebox or boot - for example, a quick check of online policy wordings reveals that it would be covered by Direct Line, Churchill, Norwich Union, Equity etc. So, as ever, people should check that they are buying cover that suits their requirements.

lisyloo

So to extend the earlier analogy, if a burglar stole your Christmas presents because they'd seen you unload them from your car to your house, that would be negligent?

Hi Stugib,

No I don't agree with that.

Leaving stuff in your house is quite different to leaving stuff in your car.
You are expected to take extra precautions when leaving things in your car e.g. out of sight or take them with you (if portable).

However personally I would still minimise "advertising".
If I had a really nice expensive motorbike then I wouldn't advertise that it was in my garage and by that I mean that I would store it inside when possible and not leave it out on the driveway advertising "REALLY NICE MOTORBIKE AT THIS ADDRESS".

That doesn't necessarily mean I be negligent if I left it on the driveway, but I happen to want to reduce my risk of getting burgled not take the attitude of "oh well it's insured".
Similarly with Xmas presents. I wouldn't leave a big pile of my doorstep.

I'm not being smug but I do believe that the precautions I take and the lack of any claims and large no claims bonus happen to coincide.

Let me tell you a story................
We were at Naples airport when we were collected by hire car agent.
My husband insisted on loading his luaggge personally (mostly because of his expensive cameras). I watched our other bags whilst he loaded so that nothing was nicked whilst his back was turned.
Other clients were gassing away and had their bags nicked with passports and everything whislt we were paying close attention to ours.
They might not have been classed as negligent but they were certainly inconvenienced and stresssed whilst on their holiday.

I chose precaution and a lot less hassle and stress and would advise others accordingly.
It's up to you how you want to live your live, but I will still advise as I think best, its up to others if they want to disregard my opinions, that's what discussion boards are for.

FlameCloud

lisyloo wrote: »

Other examples of negligence would be leaving doors unlocked, not switching the alarm on when it's declared on your policy, leaving curtains open to display hundreds of Xmas presents in full view, leaving items unattended on the beach etc.

As much as I would love that to be true, an insurer wont get away with doing that with a determined policy holder. The only one possible would be the items on the beach, but the others are very easily defended.

olly300

FlameCloud wrote: »

As much as I would love that to be true, an insurer wont get away with doing that with a determined policy holder. The only one possible would be the items on the beach, but the others are very easily defended.

It would depend on the individual circumstances not just the determination of the policy holder. For example if you leave something in your car, it's unattended and it's not in your constant view and/or it's not an emergency situation you will have a hard time defending your actions.

FlameCloud

Not really. There are several areas of case law dealing with theft of items from a car (one involving a load of jewellery worth over £50,000) and very rarely has the insurer won.

The problem is that the insurer needs to prove that the policy holder was reckless, which as I said, is very easy to defend against if you know what you are doing.

lisyloo

if you know what you are doing

I think these are the operative words.
Many people don't.

FlameCloud

Indeed. For smaller claims, it tends to be alot easier. That said, the law is very vague on the subject.