It gets worse - my bike wasn't insured!

[Norm]

Cranky's right. I've seen a few on here claim that their bike is insured under their home contents. It is, but only when it's nicely locked up in the garage. Home insurance isn't a sneaky on-the-cheap form of full cycle insurance.

Somewhat misleading. Depends entirely on the policy. I'm with AXA and my bike is insured on home contents - but also insured when out and about, being ridden or locked up, along with all my other possessions. Yes, I have that in writing.

You may say "somewhat misleading", I'd say "wrong".

As posted on MrP's thread a few days ago, I got a payout when I had a bike stolen, even though it wasn't meant to be covered.

I reckon you want to spend at least 10% of the value of your bike on lock(s). £1000 bike, you probably want two good D-locks. I think I'd get a NY Kryptonite 3000 and an Abus Granit xtreme.

+1

 

[Howard]

You may say "somewhat misleading", I'd say "wrong".

As posted on MrP's thread a few days ago, I got a payout when I had a bike stolen, even though it wasn't meant to be covered.

Well, yes it is plain wrong but I could kind of see where they were coming from. It might be easy to make assumptions about cover as the OP did. Trick is to read your policy schedule then phone the provider if anything is vague.

Reminds me - I was lucky in this respect seven years ago when some thieving scum stole my Cannondale F600 from the "secure" car park beneath my flat. Because we had a good relationship with the broker things were smoothed out.

 

[shippers]

Just a thought- I'm sure you're not allowed to insure something you don't own. It would give you a reason to "lose" the item. It came up for me a while ago with houses. Long story- you can't get buildings insurance on a house you rent.

Legally you lease the bike. If you pay the insurance policy should it pay out to you or to the owner?

 

[Norm]

Just a thought- I'm sure you're not allowed to insure something you don't own.

Not strictly true. I believe it's called something like an "insurable interest", so you can insure for any event from which you could potentially suffer a loss.

 

[dondare]

Just a thought- I'm sure you're not allowed to insure something you don't own. It would give you a reason to "lose" the item. It came up for me a while ago with houses. Long story- you can't get buildings insurance on a house you rent.

Legally you lease the bike. If you pay the insurance policy should it pay out to you or to the owner?

A car bought on a finance plan is insured by the person buying it. A house being bought on a mortgage is insured by the buyer.

 

[shippers]

A car bought on a finance plan is insured by the person buying it. A house being bought on a mortgage is insured by the buyer.

You BUY the house and car.
If you leased a car do you insure it or is it covered by the lease company?

 

[brokenbetty]

You BUY the house and car.
If you leased a car do you insure it or is it covered by the lease company?

You are right about the house, but for car finance the finance company owns the car and leases it to you until all (or maybe just a certain proportion?) of the payments have been paid. Hence Hire Purchase.

 

[Crankarm]

And if you rent a property why would you be concerned with buildings insurance? Contents yes but buildings insurance? The structure of the property is the responsibility of the freeholder or the person holding the head lease but determined in the lease. A tenant would generally not be required to take out buildings insurance unless it was a term of the tenancy or if a long lease a term of the lease. But if as a tenant you were required in the tenancy agreement to take buildings insurance you would query it and if it was apparent the freeholder didn't have cover walk away and find some where else.

 

[Crankarm]

Just a thought- I'm sure you're not allowed to insure something you don't own. It would give you a reason to "lose" the item. It came up for me a while ago with houses. Long story- you can't get buildings insurance on a house you rent.

Legally you lease the bike. If you pay the insurance policy should it pay out to you or to the owner?

You are insuring against possible pecuniary loss. So if the item is nicked or damaged you suffer a loss, so you claim on the policy. As the policy holder, if your insurer accepts your claim and losses, they will re-imburse you less any excess for your loss. Whether you decide to settle the financial agreement you took out to purchase the item which is now nicked or damaged is up to you. If you don't, you will still be liable under the contract for the financial agreement until it is complete whether you have the bike, car, etc or not.

 

[Norm]

If you leased a car do you insure it or is it covered by the lease company?

Depends on the lease contract. Most will require the lessee to insure the vehicles.

Much the same as most car rental contracts.

 

[Bollo]

Time to 'fess up. I probably was misleading when I said that home insurance didn't cover bikes out and about. I have seen options for cycle coveron home insurance in the past, but these have been very limited and no better value than the dedicated cover.

I had a look at Howard's AXA insurance this morning and it genuinely seems a bargain compared with the overpriced specialist cover. I've spent years trying to find something like this and not succeeded. For my area, the cycle cover added about £30 a year on the premium, although like I said, I'm in a very low crime 'hood.

A couple of caveats to my humble pie - the first is that this still appears optional - unless you specifically tick a box, its unlikely you'll be covered for theft away from the home on your bog-standard policy. The second is that, if you ride bling, then the cover won't reach all the way (£1,000 limit on any one bike, £2,5000 total for AXA). The final one is probably most contentious. The AXA cover booklet uses some vague term about "adequate locking device" or somesuch. They don't go into any further details. Knowing insurance companies, they might want to quibble about what 'adequate' is - a £5.99 special from Argos might give them enough wriggle room to at least reduce a payout.

Shaun or Mods, how about a sticky that lists good insurance deals?

 

[Howard]

I had a look at Howard's AXA insurance this morning and it genuinely seems a bargain compared with the overpriced specialist cover.

Shaun or Mods, how about a sticky that lists good insurance deals?

Cool - glad you found that useful. I did have specialist cover at one point and as discussed it did feature benefits beyond theft; indemnity, lost earnings due to accident etc, so if you need those, specialist is probably the way to go.