Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance

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Sat 7 Oct 2017 15:20
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - vivaro
Cut a long story short, in the middle of the day, some scro@ts decided to crowbar the k****** window open, steal both keys and do one. Within 20 minutes the car was found by the police locked up with no damage. I've already sorted out a locksmith to cut and code me a key to drive the car home and bought a full lockset so they don't come back for the car, my question is, should I tell the insurance as I won't be making a claim plus it stops them putting some sort of black mark against my reg
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Sat 7 Oct 2017 15:50
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - SLO76
If you're not making a claim and the car wasn't involved in an accident then there's no need to inform the insurance firm. Unless it's a big value claim I would never involve the insurance.
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Sat 7 Oct 2017 16:36
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - Bromptonaut

The car was taken without consent and recovered. Although it appears undamaged you don't know for sure that the scrotes didn't thrash it or bust something. I think insurer would also want to know for risk purposes.

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Sat 7 Oct 2017 16:56
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - nellyjak

Difficult one...I can totally understand anyone's reluctance to get involved with insurance companies unless it's absolutely necessary...BUT...it is usually good practice to tell them about anything that might affect your car and therefore the cover they have provided.

Should you need to make any future claims and they find out about the theft and recovery, then might it influence their handling of any claim.?

I'm not saying it will...merely posing the question as I know they don't need much to think about NOT paying up.

It would be interesting to get the perspective of someone who is in the motor vehicle insurance business.

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Sat 7 Oct 2017 18:37
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - Galaxy

The less you tell insurance companies the better.

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Sat 7 Oct 2017 18:41
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - Manatee

The less you tell insurance companies the better.

For the premium, yes. For actually being insured when you need it, no, unless you can be damned sure they won't find out.

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Sat 7 Oct 2017 18:40
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - Manatee

Difficult one...I can totally understand anyone's reluctance to get involved with insurance companies unless it's absolutely necessary...BUT...it is usually good practice to tell them about anything that might affect your car and therefore the cover they have provided.

Should you need to make any future claims and they find out about the theft and recovery, then might it influence their handling of any claim.?

I'm not saying it will...merely posing the question as I know they don't need much to think about NOT paying up.

It would be interesting to get the perspective of someone who is in the motor vehicle insurance business.

It's more than good practice, the insurance contract almost certainly says that the insured/proposer must disclose all information material to the risk. The arbiter of what is material is the insurer.

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Sat 7 Oct 2017 19:00
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - madf

Options:

Disclose: future premiums may rise.

Don't disclose: have it stolen and claim.. and if insurres find out about non disclosure, they will not only refuse to pay out BUT your insurance record is lablled - lying b#####'' who does not follow rules of policy..And other isnurrers refuse to insure you except at £1000s..

Simpel choice.

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Sat 7 Oct 2017 19:18
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - nellyjak

Catch 22 innit....tell them and suffer a premium increase....or don't and risk problems with any future claim.

Me.?...I'd err on the side of disclosure in this case.

Edited by nellyjak on 07/10/2017 at 19:19

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Sat 7 Oct 2017 22:41
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - argybargy

I'd always err on the side of disclosure, 100 per cent.

Put it this way: disclose and you're fireproof; don't disclose and if the matter comes to light further down the line, they may penalise you for non disclosure of what they might consider to be material facts that affect your level of risk.

In a previous life I had a couple of minor bumps whilst driving fire engines. I told my own insurance company about it, and the consequent loading was minimal. Some of my colleagues took the view that personal and work insurance were entirely unrelated matters, and would not disclose. I thought they were wrong, and heading for a fall.

Edited by argybargy on 07/10/2017 at 22:42

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Sun 8 Oct 2017 10:42
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - Falkirk Bairn

>>I've already sorted out a locksmith to cut and code me a key to drive the car home and >>bought a full lock

You have a new key in a new lock.

What about the remote locking/unlocking - have you had the car re-coded?

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Sun 8 Oct 2017 20:44
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - vivaro
Found our second key so that helps with getting the car back, going to fit the new lock set, tape the old key to the new for the immobiliser, then take it to the locksmith to recode the new keys to the car
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Sun 8 Oct 2017 20:40
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - vivaro
I'm not fussed that the premiums would go up, or if it's down as a stolen recovered if I've made a claim my issue is if I tell them it's been stolen recovered, no claim yet they still put a marker on it which wipes a quarter off its value.
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Mon 9 Oct 2017 11:04
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - argybargy

The crucial issue, IMHO, is what might happen to your ability to get cover in future if you don't disclose something that they consider to be a material fact which influences the level of risk that you pose as THEY see it.

And its the THEY that matters, and not how you see it.

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Mon 9 Oct 2017 11:48
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - 520i

Is there a reasonable likelihood of an insurer being supplied with details of a car theft by somebody other than the insured? Unless the police have an internal database on which they log registration numbers of stolen vehicles and then share it with the insurance industry, it's surely difficult to imagine how the information would surface?

Perhaps the best course of action would be to call the insurer, and prior to supplying your details just ask them?

Edited by 520i on 09/10/2017 at 11:52

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Mon 9 Oct 2017 15:35
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - Manatee

Perhaps the best course of action would be to call the insurer, and prior to supplying your details just ask them?

Using a false name and hiding your phone number!

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Wed 18 Oct 2017 16:44
Audi A4 - Stolen, Recovered, no damage and the insurance - logan5

The car would only be put onto the Vehicle Condition and Alert Register if your insurance company had to pay out on it.

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