Securing bikes to meet home insurance requirements

[Danny]

Or alternatively trying to minimise the risk. I've just added two bikes with a replacement value of £15k.

Must be nice bikes 🙂 What are they?

 

[steverob]

They’re not my current insurer but I did get a quote from a cycle specialist insurer last year where they said if the bikes were in the house (not garage or shed), then assuming I didn’t do something stupid like leave doors unlocked or windows wide open when I left the house, they’d be protected up £2000 without needing to be locked to anything, which I was pleasantly surprised by.

 

[fossyant]

My additional policy was Barclays, but it's now Aviva Select. Any bike upto £5k each. £50 per year (just checked it off this thread).

Stipulation, bike is in a building (doesn't have to be secured inside it), or when outside is secured to something not moveable, so this is where you need to be careful if camping and securing to a car wheel - strictly not moveable, but it's not a fixed feature. Doesn't require certain locks (although you'd be daft not to).

The only bike I leave anywhere, is my commuter, and that's in a swipe card access bike facility and locked with gold secure locks to the bike mount locking hoops.

 

[Pblakeney]

They’re not my current insurer but I did get a quote from a cycle specialist insurer last year where they said if the bikes were in the house (not garage or shed), then assuming I didn’t do something stupid like leave doors unlocked or windows wide open when I left the house, they’d be protected up £2000 without needing to be locked to anything, which I was pleasantly surprised by.

Yeah, but what about when you actually take the bikes outside? You know, to go for a ride?
Mine are covered for theft while I'm in a cafe for example (if locked to a fixed object) and any accidental damage.

 

[steverob]

Yeah, but what about when you actually take the bikes outside? You know, to go for a ride?
Mine are covered for theft while I'm in a cafe for example (if locked to a fixed object) and any accidental damage.

Can’t honestly remember every detail of the policy unfortunately but I’m sure they had certain standards you’d have to meet to be covered in case of theft. It wouldn’t be that important to me anyway as I so rarely make cafe stops and I have British Cycling insurance for most other things.

 

[PaulSB]

I do need to check my policy schedules again ! I sort of have two. Home Contents, then a separate 'home contents' with another supplier, that's just the 'bike extension' to cover more expensive bikes. The main policy lowered the cover after they removed the 'bike extension' so I had to get cover else where.

Does this second policy only cover your bikes? I'm surprised one can buy "home contents" that only covers bikes. Surely that's cycle insurance?

My main thought was more general. If you do have two "home contents" policies I would check your policies very carefully. It's not unusual for a claim form to have a question on the lines of "are these items included on any other policy?" or words to that effect.

Whenever I read this I get a shiver as I imagine two insurers arguing over whose responsibility it is.

 

[PaulSB]

Must be nice bikes 🙂 What are they?

Both are in a sense bespoke in that one couldn't buy the actual build off the shelf. The frames are a Cervelo Caledonia 5 and a Kinesis ATR-V3. From there everything is built to a spec worked out between me and my LBS. For example the Cervelo is nominally GRX.

The real point is the insurance valuation needs to be the replacement cost. My previous Kinesis was written off in an RTC in June '24. The original cost was £3200, it was two years old but the replacement had rocketed to over £5000. My £15k cover is high but is intended to allow me to walk into my LBS and get a new bike.

When I spoke to BC about claiming for the RTC through their cover I was offered "market valuation." What's a secondhand bike worth compared to full replacement cost? Very little.

 

[Drago]

Insurers are so unpopular even Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor wants nothing to dovwith them.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Does this second policy only cover your bikes? I'm surprised one can buy "home contents" that only covers bikes. Surely that's cycle insurance?

My main thought was more general. If you do have two "home contents" policies I would check your policies very carefully. It's not unusual for a claim form to have a question on the lines of "are these items included on any other policy?" or words to that effect.

Whenever I read this I get a shiver as I imagine two insurers arguing over whose responsibility it is.

That was one of my worries when I had both for a while

I could imagine claiming off the House policy because it appeared to be covered
and them saying I had to claim of the bike policy
who would say it was not covered because it was in a wood shed so couldn;t have been secured to anything secure enough (It was actually secured to a metal loop below the floor boards - but that required a cable which would not have been Sold Secure Gold

The House Contents just wants the door to be locked

 

[fossyant]

Does this second policy only cover your bikes? I'm surprised one can buy "home contents" that only covers bikes. Surely that's cycle insurance?

My main thought was more general. If you do have two "home contents" policies I would check your policies very carefully. It's not unusual for a claim form to have a question on the lines of "are these items included on any other policy?" or words to that effect.

Whenever I read this I get a shiver as I imagine two insurers arguing over whose responsibility it is.

Yes its just the bikes option. My other insurer only covers bikes to £1k, which effectively covers the kids bikes and MrsF's hybrid. Doesnt cover my bikes or MrsF's MTB

 

[Happy_Days]

Check whoever you go with has the industry NSI accreditation (Verisure lost theirs a few years ago) as that might give them another excuse to finger you off.

Wow! I had no idea that Verisure alarms lost their NSI and SSAIB accreditation. So, they aren’t insurance approved.

 

[Drago]

Wow! I had no idea that Verisure alarms lost their NSI and SSAIB accreditation. So, they aren’t insurance approved.

And they dont meet BS EN whatevermebob standard either. The plug in nature of the system is considered a bit amateur, and (allegedly) the sensors are relatively easy to RF block with the appropriate kit and knowledge.

Oddly though, their monitoring centre is NSI accredited, albeit its monitoring relatively amateur level equipment installed in peoples houses.

Read the small print - if the installation doesn't have NSI or BS EN approval you may as well not have it at all as far as most insurers are concerned,so the main four DIY or plug-in level kits (Verisure, Sumplisafe, Yale and Ring) aren't a lot of use in that regard.

Thats why I went with a professional level company, NSI Gold accredited. Oddly,the cost for both supply/ installation and the monitoring/maintenance contract is closely comparable to Verisure, which makes me wonder why anyone would bother with big V. Why buy a Yugo if you can get a Golf for sikilar money?

 

[Happy_Days]

if the [alarm] installation doesn't have NSI or BS EN approval you may as well not have it at all as far as most insurers are concerned, so the main four DIY or plug-in level kits (Verisure, Simplisafe, Yale and Ring) aren't a lot of use in that regard.

Woah! A student showed how easily burglars can jam Verisure alarms:

https://en.mobil.se/news/this-is-how-thieves-can-bypass-verisure-home-alarm/1610532

Many will buy one of these alarms (Verisure, Simplisafe, Yale or Ring) without knowing they aren’t insurance-rated.

Thats why I went with a professional level company, NSI Gold accredited. Oddly,the cost for both supply/ installation and the monitoring/maintenance contract is closely comparable to Verisure, which makes me wonder why anyone would bother with big V. Why buy a Yugo if you can get a Golf for similar money

Some will pay VW Golf money for a Yugo if the Yugoslavian car is cleverly advertised. Verisure, Simplisafe, Yale and Ring must invest more in marketing than in their products.

 

[DRM]

Wow! I had no idea that Verisure alarms lost their NSI and SSAIB accreditation. So, they aren’t insurance approved.

They also seem to have stopped advertising on every medium known to man, as they were doing, I guess they'll go belly up & disappear leaving those that bought their product, up the creek

 

[Drago]

Some will pay VW Golf money for a Yugo if the Yugoslavian car is cleverly advertised. Verisure, Simplisafe, Yale and Ring must invest more in marketing than in their products.

I think thou has hittest the nail on the head.