Reply With QuoteI’ve had AA last few years Joe.
Good value but then never had to claim!!
Good luck.
Jim
Apologies if this is covered elsewhere, I did search and can’t find anything.
Does anyone have any recent experience of obtaining a fair price for motorbike insurance renewal ? Any recommended companies?
I’m about to waste several precious hours over weekend jumping through hoops so that a contact centre can decline to quote or playfully mug me.
Thanks in advance.
I’ve had AA last few years Joe.
Good value but then never had to claim!!
Good luck.
Jim
Thank you.Originally Posted by Jimmcb
Bikesure were best for me
Ditto, but worth checking a few
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
Agree with the last two posts, as you are on UKGSER you will know Wapping a member on there is in the insurance business. Every time anyone enquires over issues/ prices/ cover etc he always says “ shop around”.
There is no value in staying with a provider unless you have a unique or complex multi bike policy like I did. Just be aware if you state it’s garaged , don't be surprised if they ask for a photograph of your garage. This seems to be a recent requirement that folks have flagged up.
Found Bemoto to be good but - including adding a new bike at the end of the summer for a very small fee.
That said your last quote doesn't seem to mean a great deal at the moment.
That’s interesting, Steve. I’m using my forthcoming annual bonus to build some bike storage in the garden, and I’m currently mulling over when a shed becomes heavy duty enough to be considered a garage. I wonder if there’s a definition of garage for insurance purposes?
Can’t comment on shed / Asgard steel buildings etc. However just today I was making changes to my bike policy and the garage specific questions from Devitt were, phone call to UK office
Q….What are the materials of construction A brick
Q …Does it have a solid concrete floor. A …Yes
Q….Is it a shared space eg as in a flat A no
Q ….Who else has access to the garage A. Myself and missus
Other than the brick question all three others were new to me Tony.
As an insurer I’d likely charge more to have a bike “garaged” in a wooden shed structure - only because a huge number of sheds were either completely destroyed or damaged in our recent high winds. who knows what damage a bike would have sustained if it was inside? That said area dependent out of sight, out of “thieves” minds.
I use a small local insurer for my bikes, as it works out considerably cheaper for a multi-bike policy. I pay a premium based on the most expensive bike, and then I pay an extra £25 for any additional bikes I add during the insured period.
Im sure it’s due for renewal in the next 2-3 months, but I think I pay circa £200 for 6 bikes. I wish my car insurance worked the same way.
It's just a matter of time...
Second that. Bemoto seem to have a best-in-class reputation on the bike forums at the minute.
I was with them until they started with the silly price increases.
BeMoto have been okay but my renewal is from £730 to £1350. No idea what they think will happen to me or the bikes.
I’m using Lexham - I don’t know if it’s my age, location or the bike, but it’s unbelievably cheap to cover my KTM enduro - just over £200 fully comp
bemoto and buresure are the 2 best from my experience (im with bemoto this yr)
theres no customer loyalty anymore , you usually have to shop around each year.
* all insurance companys ive been with over the years count a shed in your garden the same as being kept outside your house (i keep mine in a shed in the back garden that only has one access point (front)
Last edited by pugster; 24th February 2024 at 07:09.
A ground anchor point set into a concrete floor will be worthwhile.
pretty much every insurance company has there own definition of what is considered a 'garage' for insurance purposes , its best to fire some emails off beforehand to ask them for what they consider to be a garage - while you do that also ask them what chains etc they approve of for security (anything thats not approved by them is worthless as far as they are concerned)
Hi T just seen this as I had an early night. I never progressed beyond what I have eg separate garage on brick base. As others have said I think its worth a call to find out the Insurance industry’s understanding of what is a garage.
For example Asgard claim on their website they are approved by
The Police ! Bit vague this as which Police force, Met, Durham etc
Bennetts bike ins
Loss prevention certification board
UK Locksmiths association
Some or all of these may go towards ticking the important box that brokers / insurers are seeking clarification on.
My suggestion would be calls to
Bikesure
Carole Nash
RH Insurance
Devitt
Plus your current.
Those five responses should help in triangulating the thinking and logic behind their view of “secure overnight storage”
Good luck with the quest.
Steve
Ps just found Devitts take
The most common types that are acceptable must be brick built, with a concrete base, four walls, a roof and lockable point of entry. Now some insurers will accept a wooden shed or a metal bike shed, providing that they are securely locked and permanently fixed to the ground.
What counts as a garage in Motorcycle Insurance? | Devitt
Last edited by higham5; 24th February 2024 at 09:30.
Another view from Bike Social
What do insurers class as ‘garaged’?
When you take out bike insurance, you’re typically dealing with a broker – like Bennetts – which will work with a panel of underwriters (the insurers), to find the one that offers the best cover for your needs.
To the customer, that’s usually a fairly transparent process, but it’s why policy prices can change – each underwriter is constantly assessing what it considers to be a ‘risk’ based on its latest data; while one underwriter might come to love covering riders with a custom motorcycle as part of a multibike policy, another might suddenly decide it’s too risky for them.
Quick tip: If your renewal price is higher than expected, it can be due to an underwriter’s changes, so it’s worth checking all of your details to make sure they are fully up to date and if they aren’t, get in touch with your broker to update them and allow them to check against the entire panel for the best price.
As for garaging, most underwriters have traditionally considered this term – which can sometimes attract a discount, or for some underwriters covering some parts of the country, mean the difference between offering cover and not – as being of brick construction with a roof, locked door and concrete base.
But that leaves out shipping containers, which are arguably the most secure way to store a bike (if the least attractive), wooden sheds, and even – in some cases – metal sheds like the Asgard.
However, Bennetts understands that if its customers are willing to secure their bikes as best as possible, a brick-built garage isn’t the only way to store it. For that reason, Bennetts has made changes so that the following can be classed as ‘garaged’, as long as they’re locked:
Shipping containers
Metal sheds
Wooden sheds on a concrete base
This makes sense, as a basic garage door can be very easy to break into if no extra security is used, so a reasonable quality wooden shed can offer equivalent (or greater) protection. There are a few things you need to know though:
Any garage, shed or container must be kept locked
It must be on your property
If it’s a wooden shed, it must be on a concrete base – that might be concrete paving slabs or a single large concrete slab, but the shed must either have its own wooden floor securely attached to the walls, or if there’s no floor, the walls must be secured to the base; the point is, a thief mustn’t be able to lift the shed or in any way get under it easily.
Steve, thank you so much for that – I do appreciate it and it really is very helpful.
I think the long short of it is I will ask a builder to give me a brick-built garage, concrete base, locking double or up and over door, et cetera. That way I can’t go wrong and, in any event, I’ll know it will be as secure as it needs to be to protect the bike and anything else in there.
As a belt n braces Tony.
You could send the proposed plans to the council planning department to confirm that your motorcycle "garage" does not need planning permission.
I did something similar when working from home self employed.
The confirmation letter was a legal authorisation from the council to operate.
Your letter will be a legal classification that the building is a fully approved motorcycle garage (in the eyes of the planning department at least).
The underwriters will have their own idea as to what constitutes a 'secure garage', and won't be influenced by a council 'classification' - I'm quite sure.
My bikes have trackers, alarms, immobilisers, tagging and are chained at two points via the huge ABUS chains which are around a concrete pillar holding the building up. The chains are off the ground to prevent angle grinders. I have HD cameras pointing at them, the monitors are manned 24hrs a by SIA trained security, bikes are out of sight and covered ( covers chained in place) access is behind a roller shutter, and a barrier with key fob access to residents only.
This is classed as parking on the road.
I have two of my bikes (BMW R1200RLC and Vincent Comet) with Devitt who until this year haven't been too bad. However I also had my Vincent Rapide with them and this year the price hiked by £50 which I wasn't too happy about, and according to the policy I should have been accruing no claims bonus which they flatly refused to honour even though it was in black and white on the renewal document that I'd accrued 1 year (I had to start from 0 with this bike). They also started whinging on about the agreed value (which wasn't an issue last year) and asked for photographs all around, a detailed history, photocopies of receipts etc, which I provided. After sending it all in they then said I had to collate them all onto a .pdf document for them which was the final straw! I started to look around for a better provider and found RH Specialist Insurance, their policy is magnitudes better than the previous Devitt one and it saved me over £100 on the fee with no collating documents into .pdf format, in fact no extra documentation needed at all. If your insurance needs are any way out of the ordinary then without a shadow of doubt RH is the company for you.
3 bikes.
Insured with Carole Nash for well over 10 years, premiums were always ballpark ok, so never any need to swap.
Last month my renewal came through, increased to £487 from £255 last year.
Re-did everything with BikeSure on a like for like basis for £222.
As an aside, would not touch Carole Nash legal services with a barge pole, truly shocking.
I’ve been with CN for the last 20 years, this year it was a crazy price, but cheaper than going direct to the underwriter Ageas. So this year I went with Motorcycle Direct which ironically was the company that I was using before CN.
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
We have high end cctv with face scanning and voice warning and rising post on the only entrance yet the insurance companies completely ignore it all, garage or no garage
Last edited by adrianw; 24th February 2024 at 11:46.
I should add I’m down to three bikes, each has more than 9years no claims and i have advanced rider qualifications with RoSPA and IAM.
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