Out car was parked on the road on Tuesday night and was hit a glancing blow by a stolen car (police told us this 100% positive)
It’s not badly damaged, cracked and scuffed bumper, bent mounts etc

So 2 questions
1) The car was not on the drive where we tell our insurers it is kept for one VERY good reason – We currently have no drive! Block paving being laid. If we have to claim on our insurance where do we stand on that? “Fat chance” is my opinion. Your thoughts?

2) The cop we spoke to mentioned we might be in line for compensation from “criminal damage” fund/insurance. When I was hit by a nicked car about 13 years ago, my car was written off and I got nowt for it. Anybody know how we go about this?

Thanks in advance 🙂

1) My quote/policy was costed on the basis of “where is the car normally kept overnight”, I reckon you have a decent excuse for an exception to “normally”.

2) Ask your insurers.

1) ‘Usually stored’ does not mean ‘always stored’ on drive.

Two good points there chaps, thanks

If the stolen car was insured (& you have the reg number) you can claim of that policy & don’t even have to involve your insurer.

Ahh. Nice one!

The driver of the stolen car is unlikely to have insurance. Contact your insurer, initially for ‘advice’ – make it clear you are not making a claim at this point – and see how you’re covered. It may be cheaper to sort it out yourself if you risk losing NCB etc.

I don’t think you need to worry about being parked in the street whilst your drive is being relaid.

Not the driver’s policy but the owners

I have a protected no claims bonus. No worries there.

I have a protected no claims bonus. No worries there.

NCB is protected, but don’t assume that they won’t load your renewal premium due to the claim. They will then apply your NCB discount to the loaded renewal cost… Sounds bizarre, but sadly that’s often the way it works.

Was the stolen car an Impreza driven by an angry looking London bloke who was texting at the same time?

Hahaa! No. A Toyota*. 🙂 we know that because it left headlight plastic on the floor labelled Toyota. Then a cop drove past so I flagged him down and asked him to keep an eye out for a Toyota with a broken headlight. His reply was ‘We already have one, and have one in custody’ . Then soon after I saw the other one running off. As he was avoiding the cops.

*as it happens Mrs PP had just bought me a 2litre Omega CDX with all the toys for £400. 🙂

NCB is protected, but don’t assume that they won’t load your renewal premium due to the claim. They will then apply your NCB discount to the loaded renewal cost… Sounds bizarre, but sadly that’s often the way it works.

Yeah. I know that. To be fair I can see us just stumping up for it 🙁

in line for compensation from “criminal damage” fund/insurance.

I assume he means the MIB fund? Which if so can be lengthy but does eventually pay out. Find a decent solicitor if you go this route as it’ll be worth it. (speaking from being knocked off bike and left unconscious by hit & run driver; MIB paid for my medical expenses)

Bit of an update for those that are interested.

Firstly, the police were great. We got letters telling us when the car thieves were in court, and again when they were sentenced. We know everything but their names as they were underage. Cant fault the police in this, to be fair.

So we tried to claim on our insurance but they said they couldn’t claim of the insurers of the stolen car, as I expected.

So we decided just to stump up the excess and get it done on our own as we have protected no claims.

Then I took a load of motorcycle mags out of my bag and left them at home for Mrs PP to tea whilst I was away. Now, she’s not one to miss a trick and saw a small legal article in one of them that says something ong the lines that theres a European directive that says if someone suffers a loss and the crims are caught, that we have a right for the insurance to stump up. I’m not sure if this is a general thing or if it’s just for motoring though. (I can check if anyone is interested)

So she rings the insurance out and points them in the direction of said directive
They agree, but ask if the thieves have been caught
“Yes”
But can you provide a police report to prove it?
“Yes!”
OK. Fair enough. You’ll get your excess back then

Result!
So we dropped the car off and got a courtesy car at the weekend

Thanks for the advice given here, but also I needed a quick witted wife (tick!) who hates to be out of pocket (tick!)

😀

You CAN claim from the insurers of the stolen car – but ONLY if the thief was later identified.

If the thief is identified, then the insurer is not contractual insurer, but is in the position of RTA insurer.

The thief doesn’t need to be successfully prosecuted – they might get a warning/caution, but as long as you can say “it was them” and make allegations of poor driving and a breech of duty of care to you, then it matters not if it was stolen.

You CAN claim from the insurers of the stolen car – but ONLY if the thief was later identified.

Is there an echo in here? 😉

Like I said, can’t remember how it works exactly, but that’s the essence of it, yes. 🙂

Excellent result there Mr Poddy. 🙂 Well done Mrs P!

How’s your ankle?

Final Update!
It’s taken until today (Because they HATE being proved wrong I think!) but we’ve screwed our £310 excess back out of the insurance company, based on that Euro directive I mentioned above. You just have to keep hammering away at it. So we got the car repaired for free.

🙂

Just a question which occured to me, if the person casuing the damage has been positively identified, has anyone tried sueing them directly for the damage ratehr than claiming off the insurance?
Not sure how you would get on with underage scumbags in this case, but in general?

Not sure how you would get on with underage scumbags in this case, but in general?

It would cost you way more than you’d ever get back as underage scumbags aren’t exactly loaded….

PeterPoddy – Member
Bit of an update for those that are interested.

Firstly, the police were great. We got letters telling us when the car thieves were in court, and again when they were sentenced. We know everything but their names as they were underage. Cant fault the police in this, to be fair.

So we tried to claim on our insurance but they said they couldn’t claim of the insurers of the stolen car, as I expected.

So we decided just to stump up the excess and get it done on our own as we have protected no claims.

Then I took a load of motorcycle mags out of my bag and left them at home for Mrs PP to tea whilst I was away. Now, she’s not one to miss a trick and saw a small legal article in one of them that says something ong the lines that theres a European directive that says if someone suffers a loss and the crims are caught, that we have a right for the insurance to stump up. I’m not sure if this is a general thing or if it’s just for motoring though. (I can check if anyone is interested)

So she rings the insurance out and points them in the direction of said directive
They agree, but ask if the thieves have been caught
“Yes”
But can you provide a police report to prove it?
“Yes!”
OK. Fair enough. You’ll get your excess back then

Result!
So we dropped the car off and got a courtesy car at the weekend

Thanks for the advice given here, but also I needed a quick witted wife (tick!) who hates to be out of pocket (tick!)

BOOM! Love shit like this… 🙂

Can you find out if the keys were present in the stolen car? I imagine they were/are. If so the insured driver of that car might not be covered due to negligence. However due to this you may be able to claim either from the owner via small claims? OR it may be covered anyway if the keys were taken due to burgularly.

Can you find out if the keys were present in the stolen car?

Keys were stolen from the house. We know EVERYTHING about the case, the actual names, ages and previous offences of the people involved, where they went to court, the sentences they got etc.

Not sure how you would get on with underage scumbags in this case, but in general?

They were underage scumbags. That doesn’t matter, as long as they are correctly identified.

If so the insured driver of that car might not be covered due to negligence.

Irrelevant. It’s all paid out now. We have every penny back and a fully repaired car.

Pp, that’s a brilliant result, and big ups to your good lady for spotting it. Very useful knowledge to have, insurance companies being the devious buggers they are, n’all.

Very useful knowledge to have,

Well, to be fair, that’s why I put it up on here. The more people that know this the better, Mrs PP only found it by a stroke of luck, and even the insurance companies didn’t believe us. We had to give them a right old nagging to get our £310 back!

Gotta say the money is useful as I’m now unemployed as well!

So you’ve plenty of time to plan a romantic dinner for Mrs PP, eh?

Dinner? We’re out of baked beans and I’m not going to Tesco in this snow…!
We have beer though, so it’s not all bad, and I did clean the bathroom this morning. I need to find a job, it’s hard work being at home! 🙂

Persistence pays off, good to get a positive result

Tesco in this snow

.
Mmmm. Reindeer burgers.