Can this be legal? Stolen car?

[BirthdayCakeforme]

My car was stolen from outside my house a few months ago. Insurance investigated and found it wasn’t my fault, there are theives operating with ‘codes’ for keyless vehicles

I had full comprehensive cover from a reputable insurer. They declared it a ‘write off’ and paid the market value of the car, but I still lost out financially:

• I previously had a spotless record and lost my no claims bonus, so insurance has gone up.
• my insurance policy was terminated but I wasn’t refunded for the months which I had paid for upfront (I pay annually)
• insurance didn’t cover a courtesy car for write off scenarios so I had to hire a car temporarily till I received the payout

All in, it cost me almost £500.

Now, months later, I’ve got a call from the police saying they’ve recovered my car, but it’s been trashed and set alight, so is a write off. They now want to charge me £400 to recover and dispose of the vehicle. Insurer says they won’t cover this cost as the vehicle is no longer insured!

This can’t be right can it? All in, having my car stolen will cost me £900, which is almost the value of the car. Then what’s the point of insurance for theft?

Anyone with any experience of this, I would really appreciate some advice

@winkysteatowel
Thank you! I’ll call them again and update. I didn’t feel in a position to disagree with them before but what you’ve posted makes sense

For those who work in insurance - is it normal for insurance companies to write cars off as soon as they are stolen?

I'm not surprised you've had this experience with admiral. A family member of mine is having an awful time getting a payout for tens of thousands of pounds of damages to their house from a burst pipe while she was on holiday. It's been going on years and they are horrendous bullies.

You need to fill out this form when your car is written off.

www.gov.uk/written-off-vehicle

Sorry this happened op.
It will be a costly mistake not to have protected your no claims bonus, it is normally a nominal sum on the policy.
A lot of people think that as they have an unblemished driving record and are safe drivers that they don’t need to be covered for this. However you can be the safest driver in the world and still have an accident, your car could still be maliciously damaged or stolen.
Most comprehensive insurance policies provide a courtesy car if the vehicle has to go in to a garage after an insurable incident. A courtesy car does not cover if a vehicle is written off or stolen. Most insurers offer car hire or guaranteed replacement car for this, again normally at an additional fee.

If you have motor legal protection on your policy that will help you to recover uninsured losses such as storage of the vehicle and out of pocket expenses. It sounds as you have a basic policy however so you may not have added this, as again it is an additional charge.

However if you have returned the V5 to the insurance company they are now the owners of the vehicle and it is their responsability to pay the cost for scrappage and storage. Phone the claims department back. Stay calm and polite. Explain the police have contacted you but as they are now the legal owners of the vehicle the onus is on them to liaise with the police to arrange to collect and destroy the vehicle. If the agent cannot help you then ask for the case to be escalated to a manager or the official complaints procedure.

If the insurance company won’t take responsibility, it’d be worth posting on your local Facebook page, in my area there are plenty of people who would recover for free (they then receive the scrap value, around £100 on average)

If they're really difficult about not dealing with it point out to them that if it was in perfect condition they wouldn't be allowing you to collect the vehicle on the basis they have paid you market value for it.

Just a quick update to say thank you to everyone who advised me. I wrote to the insurer pointing out the great points made here, and the insurer has written back confirming that they will pay for the costs of recovering and disposing of the car!!

Great news

When the insurance company pay you out for your car it becomes theirs. Send them the bill!

Haha posted before I read your update! Good news x

Great news! Insurers are so cheeky, trying to get away without paying.