Key takeaways

• Your fully comprehensive and partial car insurance pays in the event of car theft. 
• You must inform the police and the car insurance provider immediately once you find out the car is stolen.
• You can go to the insurance ombudsman for support if you have disputes with the insurer.
• You must hire a lawyer to settle the dispute with the car insurer in court.

This is how you do it

• Confirm that the car is stolen.
• Inform the police and get a written police report.
• Inform your car insurance provider.
• Deregister your car.

Table of Contents

Who pays for the car theft in Germany?

Your car insurance pays if your car is stolen. However, you should meet specific prerequisites to claim insurance benefits.

• If the car was not locked when it was stolen, the car insurance company doesn’t cover the damage. 
• You must file a police report. Without a police report, you cannot claim car insurance benefits.
• Car insurance doesn’t cover the costs if one of your family members or a close relative steals it.
• The car insurance pays after 4 weeks from when your car was stolen and not found. 

NOTE: Only partial and fully comprehensive car insurance covers damages in the event of car theft. If you have 3rd party liability car insurance, the car theft is not covered.

What should you do if your car is stolen in Germany?

• Confirm if the car is stolen: First, you must confirm if the car is stolen. If other family members also use the car, check with them where they parked the car. Your car might also be towed away by the authorities for illegal parking. Hence, call the police to check if that’s the case.
• File a police report: If your car is stolen, you must immediately go to the nearest police station and file a report of the stolen car. The same applies if you are abroad. You need a written police report for insurance purposes.
• Inform your car insurance company: You must inform your car insurance company about the theft without delay. If you don’t, the car insurer may argue that you broke the contract terms and refuse to compensate. You can file a report online or by calling your insurer’s hotline.
• Deregister your car: You should deregister your car as soon as possible. To deregister the car, you’ll need
  • vehicle registration certificate part I (if available),
  • vehicle registration certificate part II, and
  • police report

After de-registering the car, you don’t pay car insurance premiums. Moreover, the vehicle insurance provider reimburses the excess contributions you made.

You must also block all your cards immediately if your wallet is in the stolen car. You can do so easily by calling the central card-blocking emergency number “116 116” in Germany.

Information police and car insurers require about car theft

Police will need the following information from you about the stolen car.

• Place and time of the theft
•  Vehicle description

The car insurance company will require the following information.

• Information you provided to the police.
• Accident or car repair history, if any.
• Car mileage.

The car insurer needs this information to determine the stolen car’s value.

NOTE: You must provide all the information to the police and your insurance company completely and truthfully. Firstly, you are contractually obliged to do so. Secondly, you won’t be in trouble if the police find your car.

Documents the car insurance company requires to settle the car theft claim

Your partial or fully comprehensive car insurance requires the following documents to settle the claim.

• Written police report
• Written damage description (form provided by the insurer)
• Deregistration certificate
• Original vehicle documents
• Purchase contract
• Car loan contract, if you financed the car
• Vehicle keys 

You likely won’t have all the required documents immediately, so you should submit the documents you have to the insurance provider.

It enables the car insurance company to start the process. 

What does German car insurance pay in case of car theft?

Vehicle insurance in Germany pays when the car is stolen and doesn’t show up within a month. Here is what good partial car insurance covers in the event of car theft.

• New price compensation: The vehicle insurance company pays the price of a new car in the first 24 to 36 months of your new car.
• Purchase price compensation: In the case of used cars, you get the price you paid when you bought the car. However, only if the car was stolen in the first 24 or 36 months.
• If your car was stolen after 24 or 36 months, you get the replacement value of your stolen car. Replacement value is the price you would pay to buy an equivalent used vehicle in your region.

NOTE: Check your car insurance contract to know the period during which you get the complete car price reimbursed in the event of car theft. The standard period is 24 months. However, premium car insurance tariffs offer 36 months period. 

What does car insurance cover in case of attempted car theft?

Good car insurance covers the following costs if the thieves damaged your vehicle in an attempted theft.

• Vehicle repair costs: Suppose the car window was broken during the theft attempt. The insurance provider will cover the costs of window repair.
• Damage costs of permanently installed parts, such as the navigation system
• Depending on your car insurance policy (partial or fully comprehensive), the cost of the stuff stolen from your car, like a bag, suitcase, etc.
• Vehicle storage costs if the stolen car was found abroad.
• Customs costs if the recovered car has to be cleared for customs abroad.
• EU-wide coverage: Your car insurance also pays if the car was stolen outside Germany but within the EU. 

What happens if your stolen car is found?

The stolen car is found within four weeks

If your vehicle is found within four weeks of the insurer receiving the damage report, you are obliged to take it back.

The car insurance company covers the following in this case

• Car repair costs if the vehicle is damaged
• Costs for collecting the car if the location is more than 50 kilometers from the vehicle’s usual location. The insurance company reimburses the cost equivalent to a train ticket. 

You should inform your car insurance provider as soon as you know your vehicle was found. You must also re-register your car and get a new electronic insurance confirmation.

You’ll start paying the car insurance premiums again after registering the car.

NOTE: You cannot change your car insurance provider in the event of car theft and found.

The stolen car is found after four weeks

In this case, the car becomes the property of the car insurance company. The insurer can do whatever they want with it.

Moreover, the car insurance provider will most likely have paid you the insurance claim by this time.

Suppose you want to get the car back. You must purchase the car from the insurer as you do with any car dealer.

What can you do if the car insurance provider rejects the car theft claim?

The two common disputes between the car insurance company and the customer are

• The policyholder contributed to the car theft. It could be because the car was not locked, not all car keys were found, you were drunk when the car was stolen, etc.
• The car value that the insurer calculated is too low.

If such a dispute arises, you must get a lawyer specializing in car theft cases.

As you know, lawyers are expensive in Germany. So, if you don’t have legal insurance, you must cover the legal costs yourself.

You must know that you won’t get the legal costs back if you lose the case. 

You can also get support from the insurance ombudsman. An insurance ombudsman helps you resolve issues with insurance companies in Germany free of charge.

References

• https://www.finanztip.de/kfz-versicherung/auto-diebstahlschutz/
• https://www.vwfs.de/auto-versichern/kfz-versicherung/autodiebstahl.html
• https://www.allianz.de/auto/kfz-versicherung/autodiebstahl/
• https://www.allianzdirect.de/kfz-versicherung/zahlt-die-versicherung/autodiebstahl/
• https://www.dieversicherer.de/versicherer/auto/news/autodiebstahl-versicherung-142232