I'm away from home at the moment and was hoping some of you lot might be able to help. I've just had my car broken into and lost the following
1 - company laptop
2 - my laptop
3 - I Pod nano
4 - 40gb MP3 player
5 - 1gb USB MP3
6 - 40gb backup device - hadily left in the case
7 - Noise cancelling headphones
8 - a £100 laptop case.
I'm fully comp and covered for light business use. As I have never made a claim before, what are the norms when it comes to things stolen from cars. Everything was locked in the boot.
Oh and they have knackered the lock and door handle so I can't lock it.
Any help would be appreciated. Oh and Sainsbury in Uxbridge do not have cctv on their car park.
|
Don't leave stuff in your car!!!
Check your insurance docs. for what is or is not covered. Because you are covered for "light business use" does not mean that you're necessarily covered for theft of equipment.
I hope stuff on your laptop was encrypted, although I very much doubt it was. Information theft might make the actual theft look like a drop in the ocean, although if you're lucky the stuff will just be stolen for the hardware value.
This sort of thing comes up time and time again. Is your company, its clients or data subjects safe after the theft?
|
Doubt you'll have much cover on your car policy. Company laptop would need to be insured by your company, but (in my experience) that;s almost unheard of. Your house contents policy might give you some level of cover fro your personal stuff.
I can't believe that you had the backup device in the boot too!
I *never* leave my laptop in the car - I stopped at a services today to use the toilet and took it with me. Having said that, I've twice left it in pubs at lunchtime! (But got it back both times).
|
|
|
|
Car cover for personal goods is minimal in most cases - House contenst extended to outwith the home is your only way really.
Co Computer - you may be held liable by your company as your could be / were "negligent" in leaving the laptop in the car.
|
|
|
You are in a pickle.
You'll need to look at your policy but you'll have somewhere between not much cover and none.
Your company is not going to be chuffed either. If there was anything confidential on their (from a company perspective) then you better be telling them straight away. If you use the computers to access bank accounts or similar, then you better start changing passwords. You get the idea.
You're entitled to take reasonable steps to secure the car without advising your insurance company providing you do so as soon as reasonably possible. However, I don't know what your claims record, NCD level, protected/not, excess, damage to the car, levels are, but you may want to be thinking about whether or not you will claim at all. If oyu are likely to claim, then call anyone within reason to fix it. If you're not going to claim, then park it against a brick wall and sort it out tomorrow.
I guess you don't need someone to tell you how daft you were right now, so I'll settle for thinking it loudly.
|
The company might make a fuss but in my last corporate job we lost so many it was reaching epidemic proportions - and a lot of thefts were office based people who took their laptop home then then never bothered to take it out of the car when they got home.
People leaving them on planes was another favourite - very unusual to get one back no matter how quickly the user noticed.
|
|
|
|
Oh and they have knackered the lock and door handle so I can't lock it.
Bad luck. It's a learning processs, but whenever I have learned in the same manner (car broken into, house burgled etc) I've usually got off lightly. You really got hammered. They say you learn from your mistakes, but it's cheaper to learn from other people's.
As for the locks, when I had a similar thing done to my car I just parked it up against a wall and got in and out the passenger side until it was fixed. Naturally all locks and the ignition had to be changed so I didn't have 2 differnet keys for the car. Could mount up. Do some sums... what's the cost of the repair compared to the cost of losing a few years no-claims?
|
|
|
![2016 Kia Sportage 2.0 CRDi GT-Line 5dr Auto [AWD]](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/assets.heycar.co.uk/t_default-export/f_auto/application_assets/vehicles/pictures/ef10c82d25c5faa385bb5c8247b0789a/203e6369a313e2148bc3bfcfb1ecd1a1.jpg)
