Stolen bike - help with insurance please

mattmaximus

Not feeling very christmassy as have found out my bike has been stolen, as per thread:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40027&t=12896009

To make it many times worse, the bike was stolen from a locked outbuilding at my parents' house. My insurers (AA) are refusing to pay because the bike was not covered away from home and their insurers are also refusing to pay because only their property or things for which they are legally responsible are covered.

Anyone been in a similar position? Do I have any room for manoeuvre here?

Any advice or sympathy would be most welcome.

zx6man

Tell them its your mums....

PHILATHAM

re tell them its your mums, its too late the cats out of the bag on that one.

turnerjohn

bike theaves should by hung up....pure scum :evil:

My housemates insurance didn't cover his items if they weren't inside the house; aka if his bike was nicked from the garage it wasn't covered ! bl**dy stupid but then thats insurance companies for you....almost as bad as the scum who nicked your bike !

Lets hope santa runs a bike returns service and it turns up

Briggo

You're sh*t out of luck, this be a lesson check what you're covered for.

Insuring a bike away from the home is the most logical thing to do considering a large proportion of its life is away from the 'home'.

bernithebiker

Quite an unusual bike, so keep checking Ebay and Gumtree every day.

sungod

bummer

surely if you left it in parents care they are "legally responsible" for it, seems worth having a read of their policy and seeing what it actually says

check http://bikeshd.co.uk/ it scrapes ebay and thieftree for bike ads, it can help find things (found mine there, but the scum already fenced it)

also set up an ebay search to email you on matching items

sad thing is that if they realise it's unusual it could get stripped for parts, so keep an eye out for this too

Pickled Pig

mattmaximus wrote:

...because only their property or things for which they are legally responsible are covered.

One slim possibility is to contest that your parents were legally responsible for the bike and that you have grounds to sue them for negligence. Insurers rely heavily on people's reluctance to threaten friends and relatives with legal action, even though any claim would be settled by insurance. A common example is a spouse not claiming for injuries sustained in a traffic accident whilst their partner was driving the vehicle, because it doesn't feel right.
If you can put such concerns aside then you could argue that your parents owed you a duty of care to protect your bike ( the easy bit ) but then breached this duty by not taking reasonable precautions to secure the bike - more difficult to prove unless the security was lax. This argument might persuade the insurers into agreeing some sort of settlement even without going to court.

Mikey23

Mine is done through direct line as a personal possession which insures anywhere including abroad for up to 60 days. For only a few pounds extra as I recall and only up to £1000. My home contents includes the garage. A tough and painful lesson but I doubt if there is much you can do. You can only pin down the theft to sometime in the last few weeks?

Mikey23

My goodness, a pretty expensive bike ....

tiredofwhiners

Yup, get your parents to attest that it was left in their care while you were away travelling or something like that. Not sure what it may do to their premiums though !

Bwgan

May be too late, be on our insurance we are covered up to £2k on items taken out of the house. Not sure if you have to specify a bike though

diy

Sadly, based on the wording of some policies that would be classed as abandoned.