An insured who sought cover for a stolen vehicle has won their claims dispute after a ruling found the insurer’s application of a policy exclusion was not valid. 

The complainant lodged a claim after one of their vehicles, a 2016 Porsche, had been stolen and damaged by thieves. 

SGUAS declined the claim, saying its policy did not cover losses for motor vehicles that were not in accordance with defined “parking arrangements” between 10pm and 5am. It says the claimant’s car had been parked on a driveway at the time of the loss.

But the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) notes policy wording stipulated that the exclusion “applies only if your motor vehicle was parked at a location at or within a 500-metre radius of the address you have declared to us is the address where your motor vehicle is usually kept overnight”. 

AFCA says the vehicle had been parked more than 500 meters from the listed address and did not agree that the exclusion was applicable. 

The ruling acknowledges that SGUAS referred to the complainant’s failure to update their address in its initial communications but says it did not rely on this as part of its claim denial. 

It notes that the insurer agreed that the claim would have been covered at the new location “if [the insured vehicle] had been garaged”.

“I do not accept the complainant’s failure to update the address is being relied upon by the insurer,” AFCA said.

“Instead, it is clear the insurer was relying on the policy provision regarding the requirements to have the vehicle garaged.

“The difficulty is that provision only applies if the vehicle was parked within a 500 metre radius of the address declared.”

The ruling also shot down the insurer’s contention that the insured misrepresented their position about where the vehicle had been regularly stored.

“The insurer referred to the duty to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation regarding the failure to have the vehicle garaged,” AFCA said, “It is not clear how this duty was breached.

“There is nothing to indicate the vehicle was not regularly garaged,” AFCA said.

“The available information indicates it being left in a driveway on the night in question may have been a once-off.”

Click here for the ruling.