Insurance on a Bike You Don't Own

[Keep it stiff]

A friend has just gone abroad for a few months, he has left me his Triumph Scrambler to look after and is quite happy for me to use it. His insurance has lapsed, I looked for quotes today and several attempts came up "sorry unable to quote". In the section on ownership I declared myself as not the owner, I subsequently selected myself as owner and up popped the quotes, around £100 fully comp for a year, which is fine.

Why is it that the insurers are blocking me when I declare myself as not the owner? In DVLA terms I am the "Keeper" not the "Owner", this distinction seems to be lost on insurers. Anyone else come up against this and found a way around it? (Ignoring the obvious of course!)

[LoonR1]

You can't say you're the owner when you're not the owner, otherwise it's fraud.

Insurers aren't keen on people insuring stuff that they don't own, it goes way back to the principle of Insurable Interest. This is a bit old hat though, as they're OK in the main with lease cars and HP and such like.

The issue here is that the bike isn't leased, it's your mates amd that's what may be causing a few issues. Having said that, you'd be better off speaking to a person and explaining this, rather than relying on price comparison websites, that are designed for the norm, not something out of the ordinary.

[whollie]

Having this exact problem today. Bike (125) belongs to partner. He now has a full bike licence and bike to match, happy for me to use his 125 to 'learn' on. No-one will insure me without being owner and keeper. Can't be named driver on his policy as he doesn't use the bike, so that would be fronting. He only kept the damn thing for me to use, otherwise he would have sold it months ago. Very frustrating.

[LoonR1]

whollie said:

Having this exact problem today. Bike (125) belongs to partner. He now has a full bike licence and bike to match, happy for me to use his 125 to 'learn' on. No-one will insure me without being owner and keeper. Can't be named driver on his policy as he doesn't use the bike, so that would be fronting. He only kept the damn thing for me to use, otherwise he would have sold it months ago. Very frustrating.

Do you live together? If so, then there's no problem if you're partners

Or just transfer the bike to you on the V5. If it's an older bike it won't affect the value at all.

[whollie]

We don't live together, no.

He may be willing to transfer V5 to me but I've not been able to find anyone who will cover me without also being the owner.

[LoonR1]

whollie said:

We don't live together, no.

He may be willing to transfer V5 to me but I've not been able to find anyone who will cover me without also being the owner.

Then maybe just tell them you're partners and he owns it. You'll be fine, but stop using websites to get quotes as speaking to them will get you plenty of quotes.

[whollie]

Hah, thanks for the tip, but that was speaking to brokers. Comparison websites make too many assumptions to be any use in this sort of case.

[LoonR1]

Still not sure you've had the greatest advice, although living apart may be part of the issue. Are you quite young? And no, that's not my way of asking for naked photos

[whollie]

Not young, no. Not living together is the issue, if we were co-habit img there would be no problem according to brokers. Just new to bikes and didn't want to buy one in case I hated it after a few weeks of London commuting. Using his seemed the ideal solution. Perhaps he'll "sell" it to me, but that will take some serious sweet talking.

[Reardy Mister]

You cant do it. You used to be able to. Then you couldn't. Then Dayinsure.com came along and you could again. Then they disappeared. And now its just too fking hard.

[LoonR1]

Reardy Mister said:

You cant do it. You used to be able to. Then you couldn't. Then Dayinsure.com came along and you could again. Then they disappeared. And now its just too fking hard.

If you understood the technicalities of the RTA amd short term insuramce then you'd understand why they're long gone amd why nobody goes anywhere near that type of insurance now.

[crofty1984]

Am I wrong in thinking that it's OK for him to insure it in his name, with you as a named driver and declared as the MAIN driver?

Of course, if you put him as the main driver then that's fronting and very much not on.

I'm about to have similar with my Mrs, but at least we live together.

[LoonR1]

Yes. He can't use his NCD again though as its used on his other bike. If she crashes and he claims then he will need to declare the claim on all his policies, as will she. It won't affect the NCD on any other policies.