The plan had been to get the bike set up and then set off around the world next year.
I used a comparison website to get the insurance. However, I had to tick the option of it being stored in a brick garage overnight. This was because the website did not have an option of keeping it in a canvas motorbike tent.
Anyway, long story short is my bike got stolen about a month ago (the thieves cut off two locks and took it straight out of my front gate!) and my insurer is refusing to pay out because it wasn’t in a “garage”. I am fuming as I have effectively been robbed twice. Can I take my insurer to court? Also, my trip may have to be cancelled. Can I also claim for that?
Answer
Firstly, I am genuinely sickened to hear your motorbike got stolen. However, you will lose if you go to court. This is because a judge will find you did not obtain the policy with “clean hands” i.e. you did not declare properly where the bike was being stored.
If you had done I suspect the premium would have been more as the risk of it being stolen from the tent in your front garden would have been greater than if it was in a brick garage.
I wish I could give you different advice but if you are in breach of a specific term of your policy, then your insurers are right in their refusal to pay out under your policy and there is very little that legal proceedings is likely to achieve apart from lighten your pocket of further money.
Andrew ‘Chef’ Prendergast
Motorcycle Monthly November 2018
I have a garage and my motorcycle goes in it every night but I always insure it as parked on my drive. Unbelievably there is often very little difference in premium. I do this because should I have to clean the bike and it is drying on the drive and I go for a cuppa and it is taken I am still covered. When a policy says garaged it often means all the time when at home.