Car stolen now recovered - insurance options - am i being fobbed off??

wingnutta

wingnutta

wingnutta

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Spain - Finally....
OK, long story short, car nicked and found 1.5 days later. The police says no damage visible and im going to get the insurance company to take the car and check it over. Keyless entry and start - dont want to say too much for fear of who might read this (silly i know).... i have both keys (Well police do)...Guessing they have cloned my key...

So the options presented by insurance is ;

a) They take the car/check it over/repair damage ( if any) / and sort new keys or reprogramme (can see me having a battle with that!!) - hand car back,
b) We withdraw the claim and just pay for the stuff ourselves (not keen as dont know any damage underneath) - get car back
Thats it!!!

I am really not happy about this situation. A family member who owns a garage says ive probably now lost a third value on a car that was really looked after and low mileage for future sale value. The insurance company are basically saying tough??.. Is that really how it is??? - They admitted if car never found then value payout - but now recovered get on with it...

He asked if we had gap insurance but the car is 6 years old... would that have made a difference??

Also to boot - for the safety side of it - will they try again??, fear of now trying to get in the house for keys next time - my wife and i are in agreement that we dont really want the car back for that reason... we wouldnt sleep at night. Its a horrible feeling and id rather it was just gone and we can move on..

I know the insurance wont offer up the suggestion immediately but can we reject the car??? - is that posssible or are we stuck with taking the financial hit and tough luck kinda thing???

The insurance guy is a nice bloke but i just get the feeling im being fobbed off.

Ive never had a car nicked let alone recovered, so im hoping you OCUK peeps can offer some advice please...

TIA
 
What car is it? If it’s a high demand motor, Audi S/RS, Golf R, BMW M for example I absolutely would not want it back, at the very least without having the car and keyless recoded. As you’ve said there’s a very high chance the keys have been cloned and now they know where the car is your house has a target on the map for all manor of thieves. If you can I’d be rejecting the car back, but I really don’t know if you can, IANAL.

I’d also most certainly be investing in a faraday box you keep the keys in so they can’t be interrogated from outside the house and perhaps additional security with a driveway post and perhaps a new, more secure front door. A camera does little these days.
 
Lets just say its none of those!! - I really am paranoid about who might read this.. sorry... The car carries a bloomin value of £7500 before this... now im looking at 5k if im lucky and none of it is our fault!

Thats what i want to know though - CAN i reject the car?????... Can i push this!!... Horrible situation
 
So there’s a chance the car was an opportunist take unless it’s something rare or unusual when perhaps it was stolen to order, left somewhere quiet for a few days to check there’s no tracker before shipping it abroad or having it cut up for spares by some dodgy backstreet breaker.
 
Ours was stolen recovered. Keys were swapped and we went on with life. Not sure if it was ever recorded as such, it was part ex'ed and because it was a certain age it just went through BSA anyway.

The idea of insurance is you are in a better position than if it was nicked, but not unscathed. 'count your blessings'?

Having it written off would have been another world of problem, just slightly different. Your perfect condition would have never been taken into account etc etc.

Edit: typically the key isn't cloned, they just use a signal booster from the car to where they expect the key to be in your house. Get an RFID jacket for your key and it'll be as difficult to steal as any other.
 
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It’s not going to be recorded anywhere if the Insurance company don’t write it off.

Think you’ve been given some bad advice by that garage.

If it’s undamaged get it back and forget about it or sell it on.
 
dctekb said:
It’s not going to be recorded anywhere if the Insurance company don’t write it off.

Think you’ve been given some bad advice by that garage.

If it’s undamaged get it back and forget about it or sell it on.
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yep, exactly this.

and as I said above, get an RFID wallet for your keys. keyless cars, no matter brand or desirability (ours was a Fiesta 1.0) is so subjective you have no idea if you will be "targetted" or just "clearly another identifiable keyless car [button on door handle I guess]).
 
I'm not sure what you're expecting? The insurance company are there to either pay out if a total loss or fix and give back if not.

They aren't there to fork over money to you because you decide you want to change car.
 
Just take it back and sell it on and get something less desirable?

Stolen and recovered won't show up under any checks.
 
tom_e said:
I'm not sure what you're expecting? The insurance company are there to either pay out if a total loss or fix and give back if not.

They aren't there to fork over money to you because you decide you want to change car.
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It is a pretty stressful time if you haven't been in it/ can't or won't sympathise.

You feel like the car is "tainted". It soon clears though.
 
Such a crappy situation . I am familiar with the horrible feeling of such a violation, but these are the situations that you pay insurance to mitigate against.

Yes the car will feel tainted now, but you are lucky in that it wasn’t used as a ram-raid/getaway car. Often the damage is such that even after being repaired, the car never drives quite the same again.

Time to change the car and move on with your life. I don’t agree with letting such events dictate how live or make choices however, but you will feel pretty raw just now. Don’t make any hasty decisions, things will get better.
 
Why has it lost a third of it's value?

The car won't have a any insurance markers yet as it hasn't been written off.

If they had paid out a total loss to you, and then it was recovered it would have a stolen/recovered marker when they sell it at salvage.

Sell the car if you don't want it and get whatever the current market price for it is.
 
personally think the garage is giving you a load of baloney... if your that worried about it being nicked again then as said either protect the keys from being boosted or get a added alarm fitted.


when the insurance check it over if they find anything is damaged then they assess it, if the value of the repair is above write off value or they feel it will cause major problems they will write it off ie class it stolen recovered , then the value will be affected but at that stage unless you want it back its very unlikely you will see it again.

when i say if they feel it could cause problems . we had when i was in business a garage drop a mercedes off that had rolled into a village pond, insurance assesor assumed it could just be dried out and valeted, 2 weeks after going back to the owner it came back with all sorts of electrical gremlins , after we checked it and told them what needed to replaced, most of the electrical ecus and a good proportion of the wiring looms the cost ment it was written off.
 
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Don’t think you have lost any value. Both options the insurance have given you won’t show when selling the car.

If you don’t want the car anymore then sell it after getting it back from either option
 
Ok, maybe crossed wires here... Its the insurance company that has told me that regardless of the damage caused - the car is returned to me is recorded as stolen /recovered??.. Has he got it wrong????... Its my claim handler that says that??.. So the third loss is the difference between the market value of the car a week ago and the car after any repairs with a stolen/recovered marker on it???

That's what I'm not happy about... If that's not the case and say we trade in and its worth the similar amount as no marker then we are ok with that.

I would like to think the insurance guy knows what he is saying but if they repair it (without looking at the car we think it's just a door lock) - and we can get rid as no marker then no issues...

When they took it though they never came near the house...edit:regarding the signal clone - so they now have a key??

Ill speak to the guy again tomorrow and make sure at what point that marker goes on it

Ill keep you posted
 
There are no markers unless properly 'stolen and recovered' - you used to find loads of Escort Cossies on Q plates because of this.

Let them repair it and as long as it isn't categorised it'll be fine.

They must have got near your house to boost the signal. Watch the videos on YouTube. The idea is they extend the range so the car thinks the key is nearby. They then park them up, wait a few days, then change clocks, ECU/GEM, and keys. Clone plates or ship abroad. Unless they 'broke in' and then had the dealer software to program a new key.
 
As stated, there won't be a marker against the car, the insurance need to return the car to the state it was before it was stolen if there is any damage to it.

The key will not have been cloned, they will have simply used a signal booster from near your front or back door depending on where you keep your key!
 
Peeps - this is valuable info and is making us feel a lot better so straight away thankyou!!

So the theory of little to no damage and withdraw the claim could make sense then??? - Im going to go look at the car tomorrow and asess it visually and get anything that we still want thats left over.

I want the acr to have a thorough looking over in case of any damage that i cannot see - I always had it in my head that once a claim was settled i could at any point payback that claim in full and thus no claim? - Ill ask tomorrow

As for the keys then - i now have a rfid box that works fine with my current car (yes i know barn door/horse and all that - hindsight is wonderful), i would like keys reprogrammed but if ins says no, is it safe enough do you reckon with the box now and that they dont simply have a key that they programmed - he was by the odb port for a good few minutes?

The car is going regardless now - get rid and move on...

Genuinely appreciate the replies here
 
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