Car Stolen - Insurance Company not covering

[Wardy78]

Morning everyone.

Bit of a random post but a friend suggested there was a lot of knowledge and experience on here.
My car got stolen last week, 4 month old BMW 1-series, bought via BMW PCP. Stolen after breaking into the house, took the keys. Very organised, professional gang.
Police were initially great, but then useless unless I want emotional counselling.

Problem arose when I went to make the claim on my insurance company. I took the policy out three days after collecting the car (BMW cover insurance for a week), paid upfront. Fully comp, full no-claims, high coverage etc etc.
They claim the policy was cancelled 3 weeks ago. No email received, claimed that I cancelled it (at a time I was out of the country), but that because it was cancelled using the app (that I've never downloaded) and they claim the correct log in information was used, the car is not insured, and so I've got a £30k loss to cover.
I had not cancelled the policy. No-one else has access to the policy. I would not cancel the policy on an expensive (for me) brand new car. And the insurance was only £600 so not even very expensive. They had refunded the remaining premium, but on a credit card that I'd not had the statement for so hadn't seen.

My options seem to be to go legal or go through the ombudsman. The Ombudsman seems the better option as they look at 'treating customers fairly', 'probability' and 'most likely to happen' rather than just raw facts.
Has anyone had similar, got any experience, any advice.
I'm heartbroken to lose my car, but to not be covered is more than I can take.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Andy

Moderator edit: no naming & shaming

[charltjr]

Go through insurer's complaints procedure, once that has been exhausted then raise with the ombudsman.

If the policy was cancelled, where did the refund go or if paying by DD did they take cancellation fees?

[tomsugden]

My car was stolen in 2017, and I too was insured at the time. The insurer did everything in their power to try and get out of paying, and as such I have not, and will not, ever use them again. I don't care if they offer me free insurance, I'd rather st in my hands and clap than have any dealings with them.

[Jakg]

Wardy78 said:

They claim the policy was cancelled 3 weeks ago. No email received, claimed that I cancelled it (at a time I was out of the country), but that because it was cancelled using the app (that I've never downloaded) and they claim the correct log in information was used, the car is not insured, and so I've got a £30k loss to cover.

Ignoring whether you cancelled it or not - did they not send you any letters, emails or anything?

[Wardy78]

Jakg said:

Wardy78 said:

They claim the policy was cancelled 3 weeks ago. No email received, claimed that I cancelled it (at a time I was out of the country), but that because it was cancelled using the app (that I've never downloaded) and they claim the correct log in information was used, the car is not insured, and so I've got a £30k loss to cover.

Ignoring whether you cancelled it or not - did they not send you any letters, emails or anything?

They claim they sent an email but nothing received. I've checked everywhere, still had plenty of other emails from them.

[vaud]

Seems very odd thing to happen - normally an app would require an email, and any provider is going to send out some form of confirmation.

As a side note have you been hacked? Can you check your email for any odd behavior (check deleted items, etc)

[Wardy78]

charltjr said:

Go through insurer's complaints procedure, once that has been exhausted then raise with the ombudsman.

If the policy was cancelled, where did the refund go or if paying by DD did they take cancellation fees?

Paid upfront, refund went to credit card but hadn't had a statement from then until the theft so hadn't seen.

[evo69]

Have you asked them for the IP address that was used to login into the account at the exact time the policy was cancelled?

You can then do a lookup on the IP and see the geo-location of it.

If you were out of the country and a UK IP address was used at the time, for example, then this would give you some ammo to argue it wasn't you.

Just a thought.

[vaud]

evo69 said:

Have you asked them for the IP address that was used to login into the account at the exact time the policy was cancelled?

Also could a subject access request work here? Force them to share all details used when logging into the app (email, password, etc)? After all it's apparently the OP's details so GDPR shouldn't apply.

[alscar]

Sorry to hear your tale.
When you first took out the policy and used a credit card to pay I’m assuming the refund for the so called cancellation was returned to the same credit card ?
Was the refund pro rata for the balance of the period or in full ?
Given you didn’t use the app did you log on to insurer's portal originally to see proof of cover ?
It would seem odd for a hacker to pose as you and cancel a policy having also secured all your details though.
Happy to advise further when the additional details made known.

[Defcon5]

Could it have automatically cancelled because you didn’t confirm something, or supply proof of NCB or whatever?

[Wardy78]

vaud said:

Seems very odd thing to happen - normally an app would require an email, and any provider is going to send out some form of confirmation.

As a side note have you been hacked? Can you check your email for any odd behavior (check deleted items, etc)

They said the same. Nothing unusual, but also, if I was hacked. Why would the hacker cancel an insurance policy and nothing else?

[Wardy78]

evo69 said:

Have you asked them for the IP address that was used to login into the account at the exact time the policy was cancelled?

You can then do a lookup on the IP and see the geo-location of it.

If you were out of the country and a UK IP address was used at the time, for example, then this would give you some ammo to argue it wasn't you.

Just a thought.

They said it just points to a country. I can prove I was not in that country. But that is not good enough to get them to admit it was not me. Bizarrely.

[Wardy78]

vaud said:

evo69 said:

Have you asked them for the IP address that was used to login into the account at the exact time the policy was cancelled?

Also could a subject access request work here? Force them to share all details used when logging into the app (email, password, etc)? After all it's apparently the OP's details so GDPR shouldn't apply.

Filled that out yesterday. Still waiting.

[Wardy78]

alscar said:

Sorry to hear your tale.
When you first took out the policy and used a credit card to pay I’m assuming the refund for the so called cancellation was returned to the same credit card ?
Was the refund pro rata for the balance of the period or in full ?
Given you didn’t use the app did you log on to insurer's portal originally to see proof of cover ?
It would seem odd for a hacker to pose as you and cancel a policy having also secured all your details though.
Happy to advise further when the additional details made known.

Thank you.

Yes same card. Pro rata refund. Just accessed details on the website.

[TownIdiot]

It's frustrating but the best thing to do is to follow the complaints procedure.

It takes time but they will have to give you a full and complete answer in writing.

If you aren't happy with their answer then you can go to the ombudsman which is a free service for you and they are extremely fair to the customer.

[Wardy78]

Defcon5 said:

Could it have automatically cancelled because you didn’t confirm something, or supply proof of NCB or whatever?

There was nothing outstanding. I assumed they had cancelled. They are adamant that they did not.

[Wardy78]

TownIdiot said:

It's frustrating but the best thing to do is to follow the complaints procedure.

It takes time but they will have to give you a full and complete answer in writing.

If you aren't happy with their answer then you can go to the ombudsman which is a free service for you and they are extremely fair to the customer.

Thank you. I've had their full response (which is pretty minimal, but final). Ombudsman seems the best option now.

[TownIdiot]

Wardy78 said:

Thank you. I've had their full response (which is pretty minimal, but final). Ombudsman seems the best option now.

If your car was only stolen last week you haven't followed the formal complaints procedure.
That is a documented process

If you haven't got their procedure to hand then you need to contact them and tell them you are making a formal complaint. The documented procedure will then kick in.

[ralphrj]

TownIdiot said:

Wardy78 said:

Thank you. I've had their full response (which is pretty minimal, but final). Ombudsman seems the best option now.

If your car was only stolen last week you haven't followed the formal complaints procedure.
That is a documented process

If you haven't got their procedure to hand then you need to contact them and tell them you are making a formal complaint. The documented procedure will then kick in.

^This.

You need to exhaust their complaints process before you can take a case to the ombudsman.