Is a stolen and recovered bike always a stolen and recovered bike..?

If a bike in nicked, then found and the owner does not claim BUT there is a crime reference number as it is recovered by the police, will this officially be "stolen and recovered" when it comes to sale time?

I'm looking at buying a bike and just wondered what the official line is.

[Swin]

My bike was stolen and hasn't been recovered, but once I notified the insurance that it had been nicked they took the keys, logbook, alarm fobs etc.

So if there's a crime reference and the bike has been reported to insurers, then it won't belong to the person who owned it before it was nicked anyway

Originally Posted by etuna

If a bike in nicked, then found and the owner does not claim BUT there is a crime reference number as it is recovered by the police, will this officially be "stolen and recovered" when it comes to sale time?

I'm looking at buying a bike and just wondered what the official line is.

Do you mean will it come up on HPI?

If so, I'd think it would have to be reported to the insurers as stolen, or perhaps you'd even have to claim. Insurers are the ones that slap the write-off categories on vehicles and I think they'd be the ones to slap the stolen/recovered marker on it too.

Could be wrong though, lol

Originally Posted by muffles

Do you mean will it come up on HPI?

thats exactly what I meant - good knowledge

Originally Posted by etuna

thats exactly what I meant - good knowledge

Heheh - well, just to be clear I'm theorising. But it seems to be that insurers are the ones to update the HPI register.

[appollo1]

so what are the different insurance write off categories then and how do they affect the reuse of a bike?

Originally Posted by appollo1

so what are the different insurance write off categories then and how do they affect the reuse of a bike?

I would say a google search for 'insurance write off categories' will give you that info

Originally Posted by appollo1

so what are the different insurance write off categories then and how do they affect the reuse of a bike?

As 'carty' says

But high level, A/B can't go back on the road, C/D/X can, X is a weird one but I forget the definition of it.

[appollo1]

Originally Posted by carty

I would say a google search for 'insurance write off categories' will give you that info

just thought that a google search would come up with a long winded description whereas the .org would be able to put it into simple terms for a simple person like me!!

Originally Posted by appollo1

just thought that a google search would come up with a long winded description whereas the .org would be able to put it into simple terms for a simple person like me!!

Although to go into a little bit more detail:
A: have to crush, can't break for spares (e.g. burnt out)
B: cannot go back on road, can break for spares (e.g. frame broken)
C: costs more to repair than it's worth
D: costs less to repair than it's worth but insurer doesn't want to
X: minimal damage (stolen recovered falls under this apparently)

I know the assignment of C & D is very vague and a lot of times has no sense to it, so don't take the above description as strict. It is the generally given description though. X might also fall under this "let's be vague" approach, but I don't see it used much.