A policyholder whose car was stolen from a family gathering will not be covered after he was found to have left the vehicle unattended, unlocked and with the keys inside.

Auto & General Services declined the claim on the basis the owner did not take steps to prevent the theft, which happened while the man was visiting his parents’ home one morning.  

The insured did not deny leaving the keys in the unlocked car but disagreed that it had been left unattended.  

He said he, his friend and several family members had a view of the car while inside watching basketball, and his sister-in-law had been in the front garden near the driveway where the vehicle was parked.

The insurer said no one noticed for more than 45 minutes that the car was stolen, and the sister-in-law was not in the garden at the time of the theft. 

In a dispute ruling, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority says the complainant and those in the lounge “were not looking at, or paying attention to, what was happening outside, but rather were watching basketball and chatting”, and the sister-in-law had been inside the home.  

It says no one took “reasonable steps to keep the car under observation or had any real prospect of preventing unauthorised interference with the car”.  

The authority notes the policy stated the vehicle was not to be left unsecured and unattended “for any time period”, and the complainant failed to meet this requirement.  

AFCA considered the complainant’s argument that the car would have been stolen even without the keys, because the thieves had the technology to take it without them. But it says the man made the vehicle an “easier target for theft than one which is secured”.  

“I am satisfied that leaving the key in the car while unattended can reasonably be regarded as being capable of causing or contributing to the theft,” an AFCA ombudsman said.  

See the ruling here.

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