Hi all, My vehicle was stolen a month ago and has not been recovered. RSA Motability have therefore put the claim down as an ‘at fault’ claim on my part even though I did nothing wrong. They informed me that as there is no third party to claim against I would be held liable and so they would need to put me down as being at fault. Motability Operations have sent me a pro-rata refund and stated that as I have used the car for several months prior to the theft I will only receive a pro-rata refund. I was unaware that this was the policy and called MO to ask where this was stated in their contract. I was told it is not stated anywhere in the contract or their policy and that someone from customer relations would call me to discuss this further. I received a call back and was told that the refund of the advance payment was a goodwill gesture on their part and that they are not legally obliged to make that refund. They then proceeded to tell me that unless RSA were to change the status from ‘at fault’ to ‘not at fault’ I would not receive the full advance payment. Furthermore, I had paid for a panoramic roof as an extra and have lost out on that too. I also paid the £100 excess required to start a claim with RSA. Can they do this to me, do I have any grounds to appeal this? I can’t even afford to get the same car again now because the price has changed. Any advice is appreciated.
Sadly, that is the position not only Motability customers, but other lease and often PCP customers find themselves in (often they don’t get anything back or could still owe money to the finance company).
Although it is a personal decision, one could take out and pay privately for ‘uninsured loss’ insurance or ‘GAP insurance’ privately which generally covers such as this.
It is rather like the fact RSA do not cover personal possessions in the vehicle, but one can often tack this onto one’s household insurance or take out sperate possessions cover or ‘all risks’ possessions cover.
The good part of the scheme though, is that if you do get another vehicle on the scheme, RSA do not (in fact, cannot) increase the cost of the insurance to offset a previously classed ‘at fault’ claim (unless too many separate claims are made then they can increase the excess or decline the scheme to you).
So, it is a bit ‘swings and roundabouts’.