Someone Tried To Steal My 205 :-(

[daveyboyblack 1]

Found out on Friday that someone had broken into my 205 whilst it was waiting for some parts at the local garage. Well.... actually they had broken in on Tuesday night, pull all the steering lock apart, ign barrel and immobiliser out, cut a few random wires etc etc, hammered a few things... and then pushed it 100 yrds around the corner.... and gave up!

 

Police apparently towed it early on Wed morning as they'd noticed it had been attacked, yet for some reason decided that telling me wasn't really on their priority list!

 

My friend went to pick the car up last Friday to find it wasn't there, phoned the police and got a lovely woman saying "Oh, yes, we towed it on Tuesday night... it's in the pound.. here's the phone number".

 

So now my beloved 205 is in the hand of the insurers, so i'm not sure what's going to happen. I have an agreed value of 4k, but had a call from the underwriters this afternoon asking me to talk them through all of the modifications etc. I told them to contact the broker as all of these details were taken by them, and documented along with photos.

 

It sounded as if the underwriters weren't even aware of the agreed value policy, i'm guessing that's not normal??

 

Anyone had to make a claim recently? The car is in such good nick that I would only really want new parts fitted.... Are there any door panels available through Peugeot? My local dealer is investigating but didn't sound too optimistic!

 

Any advice on dealing with the underwriters? Should it all be in writing, as i've had nothing at all through so far.

 

Cheers

Dave

[welshpug 1,657]

did the garage not notice it missing?!

[harryskid 193]

If the garage had it in their care, should they not be liable ?

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

Ah your joking, might be the little sh!t who nicked my dads motorbike. Any finger prints, his will be on the police database.

Have a look at some face book profiles, Sean randall his picture was of his mini he's 18-19 years old. Just see if the silly tw@t has bragged about it or any of his mates wouldn't surprise me

Edited April 6, 2011 by Paul_13

[daveyboyblack 1]

Sorry, I should have been clearer. It was dropped off with them earlier the previous week, and then at some point it was parked on the road outside as they were waiting for me to get some parts sent to them. They kept the keys so I presume they would only be liable if their premises had been broken into and the keys used?

 

The garage said they noticed it had gone but presumed we'd picked it up with the spare key.... not the brightest spark of common sense I guess, but that what happened!

 

It's a bit of a grey area really! I've asked my insurers to look into it, but not really sure I would want to really persue the garage as they've been good to us in the past.

Edited April 6, 2011 by daveyboyblack

[large 33]

If I was you I would get the car returned to you immediately, given there sounds like some confusion on the value of the car.

[lukesaddy 0]

Can you not get the car back as it is, and shouldnt the garage be taking responsibility if you had left it in their care, surely they will have a 3rd party insurance policy to cover customers cars and tools etc

[kyepan 291]

yes, second that, get your hands back on it fast, if you have a spare set of keys all the better, you can go get it.

[daveyboyblack 1]

Spoke to the underwriters again today to try to get a definite timescale of the next steps as they've been too vague. I didn't really manage to get anywhere, except that they won't release the car until they have inspected it, which I guess i'll have to go along with.

 

Maybe i'm being too soft/understanding and I should be persuing the claim through the garage. After all, as many have pointed out, they'll have their own insurance and the car was technically under their charge.

 

Now that my insurers are aware of the issue though, I guess I would have to effectively go through them. and not accept it as a "fault" claim, and ensure that they effectively claim off the garage?

 

I'll be ringing the broker tomorrow (well known on here) to see what they can do to help too.

 

Oh, and a friend has gone to see the car, and couldn't get it started (even with the key), that said, both he and I share a passion for hating all things electrical so it may well be a relatively easy job to get it going. However for the moment it looks likely I would need to get it towed.

Edited April 7, 2011 by daveyboyblack

[GLPoomobile 958]

I guess I'm asking a question to the wider community here, but shouldn't your broker be more involved if you aren't getting satisfactory service from the underwriter? The way I see it, surely we don't pay our premiums to brokers just to "broker" the deal, but also to provide some level of service when needed? I mention this because when I had my claim last year I had to constantly chase up my underwriter, who were quite difficult to get hold of, and had little involvement with my broker (Flux). Although at one stage I did get Flux to chase up the broker for me as I couldn't get in touch with them.

 

As for your garage, I wonder if their insurance can be liable (or effective for want of another word) if the car was on the public road rather than their premises. They had the keys, but effectively they could argue that the car was not in their care as you'd agreed that any work was on hold whilst you sourced parts, and they can't really be expected to hold the car on their premises, taking up valuable space, whilst they wait for a customer to sort out their affairs. That's one side of a possible argument, and you'd have to decide if you want to burn your bridges with them as good garages are hard to find. The other reason why I'd be loathe to involve their insurers is it takes you another step out of the whole process. You've already seen how difficult it is dealing directly with your own underwriter, so do you really want to have someone elses insurers deal with this and have little control over what is happening?

 

Just some food for thought

[feb 47]

Sorry to hear this and I hope you get it sorted soon and painlessly.

 

Where abouts in Reading did this happen? I used to live in the area.

 

I don't think it would be a good idea to try and claim from the garage's insurance, after all the car was on a public road.

Edited April 8, 2011 by feb

[daveyboyblack 1]

Just a quick update on this..... The car will finally be returning back to me next week!! I didn't involve the garage in the end, as effectively they were doing me a favour in holding onto the car whilst I sorted out some parts for them.

 

Although I won't be 100% sure of the exact damage until it turns up, i'm hoping that the door is repairable, and it'll just be the ignition barrel, and loom to sort out. May well give me a chance to sort out a few of the other niggles at the same time, including the driveshaft for which it was in the garage in the first place!

 

The only downside is that I was about to put it up for sale!! I don't really want to put it up as a non-runner as I won't have the time to break it so it looks like there's a bit of a slog to get it roadworthy again before the track season is winding down!

 

Will put some pics up next week when she's back!!

 

[Gman 29]

The legal stance on this is that under the law of "bailment" the garage owes you a duty of care whilst it has been entrusted to them. However, I wouldn't go down that route and would just get your broker or insurer to handle the matter. Once they find out it was in the care of the garage at the time of the loss, they will indemnify you and then make a subrogated claim against the garage owner and their insurer.

[jeremy 70]

How long had the garage been waiting for you to source parts? Did they ask your permision to store the vehicle on the road?

[Alan_M 66 1 Cars]

Whereabouts in Reading?

 

Some wanker or wankers tried to knick mine last year from outside my house. I'm guessing they gave up with that idea after trying to pull up the aerocatch lock bonnet and bending it, moved onto trying to steal the 1.9 alloys. The wankers dented my footwells levering the car off the kerb. Irony of it is I live right next to the Lower Earley cop shop!

 

It goes in the garage now!

[daveyboyblack 1]

Although i'm in Reading, it was actually outside a garage in Bristol as we'd taken it there after having a few issues at Castle Combe with the driveshaft. The underwriter has put it as a claim on my policy as I guess it's such a grey area they also can't be fussed about chasing the garage. They had had the car for a few days, and were about 3 days into waiting for me to source some parts. No discussions really took place as to where they would keep it, but i'm sure the owner could have insisted I come and pick it up so they were doing me a favour. I definitely agree (now that it's sorted... 2 months later!) that getting another party involved in the claim would have just made the whole process longer.

 

At the end of the day... i'm getting my car back so i'm happy.

 

Alan.. sorry to hear about the twats trying to get yours? I'm only round the corner in Shinfield... although mine stays in the garage anyway i'm always nervous if I leave it on the driveway during the day!

Edited May 27, 2011 by daveyboyblack

[GLPoomobile 958]

Happened in Bristol - says it all really