What You Should Know About Arson And Car Insurance

An increasing number of arson incidents involving cars are deliberate. Recent arrests have unearthed evidence that sometimes when car owners find themselves very heavily burdened with repayments, the may see an easy solution in having their cars torched and then getting the insurance company to complete payments with the financiers.

An interesting legal technicality here is the fact that torching your own car IS NOT illegal. However if you get caught, then it means that you will have to complete payments on your burnt shell that was once a car.

On the other hand, if you report the fire to your insurance company as being accidental, when it was arson, then a crime has been committed. The charge will be insurance fraud, which is a very serious crime.

Interestingly, in recent times, what has pushed some car owners to opt for the criminal arson option is the increase in fuel prices, which has tended to highlight the high car payments many are burdened with. People have suddenly woken up to the realization that they are living way beyond their means. It seems that when most people go out for their dream car, they hardly pay attention to financing costs. How else would you explain the way people get into financing deals where they pay very little down and then end up in a situation where they owe more than the value of the vehicle? Incidentally one of the worst hit models in arson scams of the recent past are SUVs.

However the saddest thing of all is that these arson cases do not just affect the guilty and those involved in these shameless crimes. They in fact affect everybody because the costs are quickly passed on to the insured public in terms of higher premiums and escalating car insurance costs. In other words the actions of the guilty end up affecting the innocent also.

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