The good old Ford Transit is once again the most stolen vehicle in the UK. Although this year it is not alone, as the Mercedes Sprinter has joined it in the top ten as well. It seems that vans are worth stealing.

Nowadays the security and paperwork involved with owning a vehicle is so comprehensive that it’s far easier to break a vehicle for parts instead of selling it on. Most of the time, a vehicle is actually worth more in bits than whole, plus parts are a whole lot easier to shift than a dodgy vehicle, especially without any legal paperwork. Plus many parts are not numbered in a way that corresponds to the vehicle.

There are parts that can be linked to a specific vehicle, usually large items like the transmission and power plant. These will often be numbered by the manufacturer, but once in another vehicle, it’s doubtful anyone would be able to tell the engine’s origin, without being able to see the numbers, which of course, aren’t visible externally.

This increasing trend is also having an effect on insurance policies. As mentioned earlier, it is very difficult to steal a car or van without the keys. In fact, most car thieves now do precisely that. They steal your keys, and then they steal your vehicle, using a technique commonly known as “fishing”. Why? Because they use a fishing rod… – Most people keep their car keys close to the front door, which is perfectly logical for picking them up when you leave the house. Often they are kept on a hook or in a bowl, and this is where the fishing rod comes in. Thieves poke it through an open window or even your letter box and hook your keys with it, retrieving them without much noise, or having to break in, so they can even do this when you are in the house. Unfortunately, as well as losing your car, this will also present a problem when it comes to making a claim from your insurance company.

The vast majority of car and van insurance policies will have a clause in them denying any cover if a vehicle is stolen with the use of the keys. This is basically because every winter, there’s always a few people who start their cars and leave them running outside with the keys in before leaving for work in the morning, and opportunistic thieves take them. In cases such as this, you can’t really blame an insurer for not wanting to pay out for someone’s blatant stupidity, where the claim was entirely foreseeable and could have been very easily prevented in the first place.

This isn’t the only issue that can prevent a payout after a total loss. Van insurance policies often have a clause insisting the vehicle is unloaded and left empty when parked up at night. Again, this is due to experience with previous payouts. Insurance companies have noted that vans with the contents still inside, are more attractive to thieves and so more likely to be stolen. Again, the vehicle is taken, but primarily because it’s far less risky for the thief to unload at a place of their choosing, rather than outside the keeper’s house or premises. Thus, to combat this, insurers look to owners to reduce the risk of loss by unloading.

Clauses such as this are increasingly common so being aware of them and acting upon them is now becoming a necessity. Nobody wants to lose their car, but even worse, nobody wants to be left without any compensation paid out either.

I am the marketing manager for Coversure, an insurance intermediary who specialise in Van Insurance. Visit our website for a van insurance quote, or read our FAQs if you have any van insurance related questions.