For once, this is not a legal Q&A, but rather, a useful guide to help if you’ve suffered property damage (including to your motorcycle) due to the riots we’ve seen in recent times.

There is an Act of Parliament called the Riot compensation Act 2016. This little-known piece of legislation might help you bring a claim against your local policing body (which is the Police and Crime commissioner, hereafter ‘PCC,’ unless you live in London, where it is the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (in the Metropolitan Police district) or the common Council (in the City of London Police area) in which the riot/ damage occurred).

First of all, you need to show that the damage was caused by the riot itself. The actual definition can be found in Section 1(1) of the Public Order Act 1986, which states: “Where 12 or more persons who are present together use or threaten unlawful violence for a common purpose and the conduct of them (taken together) is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to fear for his personal safety, each of the persons using unlawful violence for the common purpose is guilty of riot.”

There is more CCTV and camera footage around now than ever before, so this is likely quite easy to prove.

Suffice to say, the police hate a riot, not only because their rest days will be cancelled and there is widespread carnage, but also because they can become financially liable for the costs incurred, A rare occasion indeed, as the judiciary will generally not find against the police and make them pay compensation under common law rules of tort. In this case, you aren’t using tort; you are using an Act of Parliament to bring your claim.

Insurers do like a riot (I say this tongue-in-cheek). It means they may not be liable to pay. out. If they do pay out, they can also go to the local policing authority and get some money back for themselves!

You need to report the claim to the police (note: this is to log the fact the damage was caused by the riot. You should get a police crime number). Be quick as you then only have 42 days from the date of the end of the riot to bring the claim against the local policing body. If you miss this date, the local policing body won’t deal with your claim.

Secondly, you must claim on your insurance policy first. I used to see exclusion clauses in motor policies which would specifically not pay out for riot damage. I haven’t seen these recently, so it is worth checking your own policy. If you do bring a claim and there is a shortfall after claiming on your policy, or if your insurer rejects your claim, you can go after the local policing body for compensation. If you are only insured on a third-party basis, your insurer won’t pay anything, so go direct to the local policing body. You should still apply to your insurer and have the claim rejected as the local policing body will likely want to see this evidence before paying out.

When it comes to evidence, you have up to 90 days to send this (or an earlier deadline, if the local policing body sets this deadline). Evidence will consist of photographs, receipts, engineers reports and letters from your insurer. Let’s hope this advice isn’t needed.

Gavin Grewal

Fast Bikes Mag – October 2024