Car stolen insurance pay off and PCP

neuty

Hi,

I wonder if anyone is able to give some advice? Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

So my daughter bought a lovely 67 plate Fiat 595 Abarth auto for £14000 from Available Car. It was bought on PCP which she was happy with. All that side of things are fine.
She has it fully comprehensive insured through Sheila’s Wheels. The car was purchased Feb this year.

Monday last week while at work in centre of Birmingham the car was stolen and has still not been recovered. My daughter contacted Police and insurance and gave true honest details.
She has today had the quote back from the insurance and have quoted her £10600 and have said that she will see nothing as they will only deal with the company who the PCP is with. The company is Santander.

She has told them that the price they have given her does does not accept and wants another valuation, and she has been told no as she does not own the car and that it’s tough and she will have to start a fresh.

My question is that does this sound right the way the insurance have dealt with my daughter and the poor quote given irrespective of if she owns the car or not.

We have contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service and have put a claim in through them to look into the compliant against Sheila’s Wheels.

Many Thanks for reading.

Carl

noiseboy72

Seems strange.
Did she have any form of gap insurance to cover the difference between what the car was worth and what she owed on it? I don't know if this is common / required with used cars, but we've always had it with new ones.

What deposit did she put down? Is she not entitled for this to be part of the settlement? What does the policy schedule and booklet say about PCP?

I do think you might have jumped the gun in going to the FOS, as you have not been through the insurance company complaints process fully yet.

neuty

She had no GAP insurance. The FOS are assisting in the compliant with the insurance on her behalf.
She put down £5000.
We are still to look into the Policy but she was told by the customer service dealing with her that that is the only offer and they will deal with Santander to settle. When she said about her deposit she paid towards the car he just said it’s the way it is and she would need to start afresh.

It’s very strange that’s for sure.

Carl

un1eash

Saying no to Gap insurance is now mandatory when taking out PCP. They don't want another PPI.
Best case she can hope for really is that she isn't in negative equity after the insurance has paid out. You never come out on top when doing a full loss claim on insurance unless she had return to invoice gap insurance.

Edit: if she put £5k down then she should be getting some cash back once the finance is settled. No way has the car lost that much in a few months.

neuty

Thanks
What is strange is the Santander final payment is only £9800 and the insurance offered £10600 and she would not see the difference as that would be Sheila’s Wheels dealing with Santander directly.

rousetafarian

@un1eash what do you mean it’s mandatory? I took a 3rd party gap insurance policy out through choice on a lease deal.

un1eash

You have to sign to say Gap was offered and the finance was explained.

rousetafarian

Agree and that’s what happened in my case.

Bl4ckGryph0n

I hate to break the news, but they would payout a market value, not an invoice value. So unless you took out a gap insurance to bridge the gap between market and invoice value I think you are out of luck.

£14K for a 67 plate seems rather high looking at auto trader briefly. I am surprised to read that she paid that much as I've had quotes for a brand new 595 for just £14,500 when I was looking for my daughter.

Only other thing I can think off is that they haven't got the correct model. But otherwise the price they've quoted seems to cover the cost of buying another 67 plate Fiat Abarth 595.

jjgreenwood

If you give me the number plate and mileage of the car I can determine if their offer is fair