House insurance and ebikes

[Michael Price]

Hi all
Last year I changed houyse insurance when I discovered that the current Tesco house insurance specifically excluded all ebikes - of any value
so they would happily cover your £3000 road bike - but not a £700 ebike - madness
maybe this has changed by now but anyway I changed

So - this year my Direct Line policy is up for renewal - price is still good but I wanted to confirm the ebikes are covered
Rang up and - Yup - no problem - when I checked the cover level it is about £100 below the combined value of the bikes - but the person I was talking to offered to increase to increase the cover to £5000 at no extra cost

So - worth knowing - ring them up and get a free cover on all shed contents - including ebikes

WHile I was at it I checked the rules regarding locking, securtity etc.
I described the shed - 2 bolts with padlocks - hidden himges so you can;t just unscrew the hinges (worth checking this - a lot can be) and bike locked together inside. - This is apparently fine.
No restrictions regarding the type of locks etc etc
Whereas my Yellow Jersey insurance that I have for outside the house etc - insists on having Sold Secure Gold rated locks - plus other stuff

so if it gets knicked - I would claim on the house - not the bike insurance

Just thought I would share this in case it is useful to someone!

 

[Hovlev2]

Did the same with mine, through Saga, cost was about £13/ year for all risks cover, for an Oxygen S Cross MTB MKIII, valued at about £1600. Bargain

 

[RossG]

Bike insurance often gets mentioned here on the forum and usually it relates to theft of your machine, public liability & personal injury rarely seems to figure in the equation. The way I see it I can replace my bike albeit at cost, but if I hit someone as we've seen in the recent past it could cost you your home.
Stand alone bike insurance will usually cover you for that and any legal fees too, also some insurance companies allow for depreciation of your bike's value so if you're unfortunate enough to get it swiped you can claim back whatever it cost you to buy. Worth a thought...

 

[RonnieX]

If you have a home, surely you have home insurance which include public liability!

unless of course you sell bike insurance. ;-)

 

[sjpt]

If you have a home, surely you have home insurance which include public liability!

unless of course you sell bike insurance. ;-)

I think most home insurance covers public liability related to the home; but not other public liability such as bicycle accidents (or car accidents).

 

[RossG]

If you have a home, surely you have home insurance which include public liability!

unless of course you sell bike insurance. ;-)

Unless you happen to knock over a stranger whilst riding your bike around indoors as sjpt rightly says, no you wont be covered.
There's other things to consider though, these days you only have to tap someone on the knee and they'll drag you to court after their pound of flesh ... or more likely several thousand pounds. Then there's accidental damage, vandalism & any damage to your accessories headgear or clothes that could occur.
I'm not selling insurance but the company I'm with covers me for everything, like for like on the bike regardless of how long I've had it, £2m public liability and any legal fees. I've even got counselling thrown in should the whole experience send me over the edge peace of mind for less than £2 a week.
It's still worth inc. a bike on your home insurance though as I have, oddly enough sometimes stand alone insurance for bikes doesn't include those stored indoors because they're unlikely to be locked inside.

 

[RonnieX]

I’m sure that anyone that considers insuring an ebike is primarily concerned with it being stolen. Other cover is merely arbitary!

 

[TedG]

RossG # 3 - "it could cost your home" - merely arbitrary????
No thanks.

 

[RonnieX]

Reads like an easy touch for a scaremonger!

 

[RossG]

Didn't some cyclist who knocked a pedestrian over a while back have to sell their house to cover the award pay out ? That's what insurance is for, let them have the pleasure of paying it and I'll keep my home.
It's true though most people are only concerned with having their bike nicked so are not too worried about the consequences of flattening someone .... unless of course they are the ones on the receiving end.

 

[Michael Price]

Most home insurance cover the bike being stolen - but only from the home

so if you take it shopping and it gets stolen from outside Tesco (or whatever)
then that is your problem
mine would cover me for £500 max
not really much for an ebike plus Kryptonite lock plus $stuff

In the shed - £5000 - even without the Sold Secure Gold lock

 

[TedG]

Bit the bullet yesterday after much deliberation. Took out full cover for both bikes with Velosure at £300ish which covers theft home or away, accessories, breakdown assistance and public and personal liability.
Those on here who "know" me will remember the Northern Ireland fiasco recently and it must be said that the public liability section was strongly recommended by the chief of roads policing who helped us through so much during that time.
She said at the time that she would have liked cycle insurance, primarily public liability, to be made compulsory and I can't argue so for peace of mind we went ahead.
Our home contents insurance confirmed that the bikes were already covered (for theft from the home!) but not much else.

 

[Nealh]

Didn't some cyclist who knocked a pedestrian over a while back have to sell their house to cover the award pay out ? That's what insurance is for, let them have the pleasure of paying it and I'll keep my home.

No not in the end.
The cyclist with advice counter sued the women, the court findings was that both were 50% liable but he still had a hefty bill to find. A fund raising page was set up by other concerned individuals I believe and it covered all his costs barring about 3k - 4k.
I think he left the country to live in Europe somewhere.

The women who sued him for damages in the end had little to be smug about for being a phone zombie without a care in the world, the bill for her litigation team asked was over 100k in fees originally. All we know from the records is she received a little over 4k in compo from the case.

 

[Michael Price]

There does seem to be little consistency between insurance companies about what is covered and when

They seem to cover 'shed contents' - including bikes - but maybe not ebikes (Tesco a couple of years ago did this - may have changed now)
Values of 'shed contents' varies a lot
Value outside seems to vary - and requirements for locking them is often unclear

And if you try to compare policies using comparison website then this sort of thing is not included - so you end up having to ring up several to get the details
and even if you get the policy booklet - it often still seems unclear what is counted - e.g. my new policy seems to only cover ebikes up to £500 - but when I spoke to them it turns out they are covered up to a much higher amount if locked in a shed

 

[RossG]

That's a good point about ebike coverage as against normal bike. You have to be sure you tell the insurance company it's an ebike you want to cover or they may withhold any pay outs if that's not made clear from the get go.
I think the best approach when deciding who to insure with is to work out what you really want to be covered for, theft obviously and for peace of mind public liability. How about accessories, hat - panniers - LCD display & lights, what are they worth to replace. Remember you can decided what the value starts from, it can start from just a few pounds so if someone swipes your cheap Halfords front light you will be compensated.
Some insurance firms go the whole hog with a loan bike and all legal fees paid should you be challenged in court, some even offer physio and counselling should it be required !
End of the day I found there was only around half a dozen insurance firms that were rated any good so it's really just a matter of seeing who gives best bang for buck.

 

[TedG]

That's a good point about ebike coverage as against normal bike. You have to be sure you tell the insurance company it's an ebike you want to cover or they may withhold any pay outs if that's not made clear from the get go.
I think the best approach when deciding who to insure with is to work out what you really want to be covered for, theft obviously and for peace of mind public liability. How about accessories, hat - panniers - LCD display & lights, what are they worth to replace. Remember you can decided what the value starts from, it can start from just a few pounds so if someone swipes your cheap Halfords front light you will be compensated.
Some insurance firms go the whole hog with a loan bike and all legal fees paid should you be challenged in court, some even offer physio and counselling should it be required !
End of the day I found there was only around half a dozen insurance firms that were rated any good so it's really just a matter of seeing who gives best bang for buck.

Post #12.
I can't see anything that I didn't get so for this year anyhow I will stay with them.

 

[Muddyfox]

Added "bicycle insured away from home" to my recent house insurance for £17 extra per year. Had to specifically state make, model, motor rating and replacement value. My house insurance already covers me for public liability. Currently insured with Halifax.
Cheapest stand alone eBike insurance was £63 per year. Admittedly this included 90 day European travel ( something I don't need ) and all accessories ( only accessory I have is a £15 rack bag) so another aspect of stand alone insurance I do not require.

 

[Michael Price]

Thanks - I will look at the 'away from home' next time

My main worry is what conditions they would put on it
but as I now have a 'Sold Secure Gold' lock if I am going anywhere where I will out of sight it SHOULD be OK

probably

but I would advise people to specifically check with the insurer exactly how you are expected to lock it up

 

[lemian]

I mean that sounds extremely awkward to not be covered for an E bike but for a regular one lol! The whole frenzy with insurances and what they cover has been going over my mind for a long time.

 

[TedG]

I mean that sounds extremely awkward to not be covered for an E bike but for a regular one lol! The whole frenzy with insurances and what they cover has been going over my mind for a long time.

Joining Cycling UK for 2021 gave us the best coverage suitable to our needs and took the nightmare away.
By nightmare I mean a minefield.