Car theft and insurance

[benny_lagger]

Hello everyone. This weekend, when I was at the car wash, my car was stolen. I left the car, when waiting in a queue, to grab a tea at the adjacent gas station, with the keys inside. Thief used that moment and drove away.

Car was recovered and thief was caught. I thought it's a good news but now it looks like it will cost me dearly. Car was delivered to breakdown recovery company's parking, last set of keyes was thrown away by thief and he has also damaged the car (damaged boot lid, rear light, bumper). From my rough calculations it will cost me 1000 GBP to bring it back to the shape it was before this situation.

The thing is car is worth not more than 2500 GBP, so it's absolutely cost-inefficient... Now I wish it was stolen and the thief was not caught and that's because I have only TPFT insurance.

 

- do you think I can still make a claim and try to get insurance company take the car away and pay me it's market value?

- if yes, is that still possible taking under consideration it was stolen with keyes inside?

 

Thanks for help.

[reallymadwoman]

Since you left the keys inside your insurers are almost certainly going to turn the claim down, sorry.

[crem]

Most insurance policies now state that if the vehicle is stolen due to the keys being left in, they will not pay out at all. I doubt you will receive any payout from your insurer.

[Ed Gasket]

As the thief was caught, you could claim the cost off him/her by taking him/her to the small claims court; assuming the police will tell you who it was that is. He may or may not have the means to pay but you can at least try.