Do I HAVE to claim on my insurance? (Bike Stolen)  By  junkman (Read 596 times)

If you live in the US, no, you don't have to tell them if you don't want them to pay, or if you don't think they will for whatever reason. With something as relatively cheap as a scooter, I can understand not wanting to file a claim to avoid increased premiums.

If you no longer need the policy, just call and tell them you no longer have the scooter and that you would like to terminate your policy. You don't have to give them a reason, but if they push, I would just tell them you decided to get rid of it. If you tell them it was stolen, they may take note of that even if you decline to file a claim.

Just as an FYI, if you recieved a citation or filed a police report due to this incident, the insurance company will eventually find out because they check those records periodically, and other companies will have access to that information for 2-7 years (depending on the situation), and may raise your premiums anyway. But, if law enforcement wasn't involved, you needn't worry about this.

Just a disclaimer, I'm not a lawyer, and any advice I give is merely from my own experience. Laws may vary in your location, so research until you're comfortable making a decision.

-Cameron

Report it stolen, cancel the registration and then since there is no registration there is no need for insurance. The police though may ask for your insurance information and report it to them anyways however this is still usually your best bet to prevent any liabilities if the bike is involved in a crime, hit and run, racks up parking tickets, toll violations, etc.

Thanks for your input everyone, I'm in the UK, a quick google seems to suggest cancelling the reg is not a thing here. I went the safe route and called the insurer, they made a 'notification' of the theft, because I didn't want to claim, and also didn't want to cancel the insurance in case the bike turned up (the rest of the year I'd paid was non-refundable). They assured me there would be no issue if the thief decided to ram my bike into some poor third party's car or something similar.

Anyway, this turned out to be a relatively smart move as today the bike turned up. It is not as I remember it (it needs a new front mudguard, new speedo cable, new reg. plate, new ignition barrel, and home-made repairs to the mountings of the front and rear lights - that's just to get it road worthy again, there's cosmetic damage/bits missing too). Paid 150 bones for the privilege of the haulage company giving it back to me so I could push it 2 miles home, when if they'd just called me when it was found I'd have only had to push it half a mile, and not pay them anything. Bunch of savages in this town.

(And I did consider the write-off route, but decided that for all the hassle, this will still come out more economical)

By the time a friend of mine got his back after a theft it had been similarly damaged and the theif had painted it (very poorly) shocking pink. He got a lot of ribbing showing up on base in uniform riding a pink scooter.