Bikes and Contents ... what a farce (1 Viewer)

[meanders]

Just spent the day renewing insurance on the MH.

Needed to add the facility to add spending overnight in the MH when away 'on business'... Sorted that fairly quickly with Comfort.

However, two things to watch out for.....
1. Bikes on your rack are not insured on MH insurance. However they should be covered under home contents except that deep in the small print you'll find they are not insured unless securely fixed to a permanent structure. So, every time you stop, you have to remove them from the rack and secure them to a fence or similar! Our grandson has just been caught, saved and saved for an expensive £800 bike. This was locked onto his car when he stopped at a 'outdoor sports' shop. Some low life happened to pass by in the 20 minutes or so, a set of bolt croppers later and said bike disappeared without trace. Insurance company (AA) refusing to pay out on the grounds that a car is not a permanent structure!
2. When your van is in store, none of the contents are insured. You are supposed to empty it out every time!

Beware!

 

[GJH]

I understand the frustration in the circumstances but this is a general principle of insurance policies isn't it? All policies have exclusions (e.g. maximum value of a single item unless specifically mentioned) and it is the responsibility of the insured to make sure that cover is what they want.

It is normally possible to get cover for anything from some company or other but the premium will be correspondingly steep so it's always a trade off between price and risk.

 

[Teepee]

Permanent structure or not, you won't beat a pair of bolt croppers. So had he taken the bike off the car and locked up against a fence they would cover it. What a cop out. Legal robbery that is. What about trying the insurance ombudsman as I see it it was padlocked to a structure of the car. Got to be worth a fight,

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[GJH]

Permanent structure or not, you won't beat a pair of bolt croppers. So had he taken the bike off the car and locked up against a fence they would cover it. What a cop out. Legal robbery that is. What about trying the insurance ombudsman as I see it it was padlocked to a structure of the car. Got to be worth a fight,

Unlikely to be worth a fight. A couple of years ago after my aunt died we had to renew the contents insurance so that we had cover whilst we cleared her flat - which was a private retirement flat in a secure block. One of the conditions was that the flat wasn't left empty for more than 30 days so my brother or I had to make sure we stayed over every few weeks whether it was convenient or not (flat in Buxton, us in Tees-side, brother in Sussex).

My brother (solicitor specialising in insurance law) spoke to the broker but the upshot was that the insurance company (like all of them these days) only writes standard policies unless you want to pay a heck of lot more as a premium.

 

[Kevinthecat]

A few years ago I had my £800 bike stolen following a break in. The bike had separate insurance but they refused to pay out even though the bike was indoors when it was taken. I did appeal via the ombudsman and they agreed I should get my money. So shortly afterwards a cheque arrived. The bike insurance company refused to insure my new bike so I put it on the house insurance for an extra £10 a year. It's always worth going through the ombudsman , it was a simple process , good luck.

 

[Kevinthecat]

Sorry I should have said the insurance refused to pay out because the bike wasn't locked to a non movable object in the house. Who chains their bike up in their home?

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