Accident query...

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

He lowsided it on purpose. Not an accident any more

Insurance don't need to know.

Then it's criminal damage!

[Juju]

The answer is yes he needs to report it. It's up to the rider if he does or not though.

His premiums are quoted on the basis of the information given at proposal. If he has a habit of losing control of his bike, and throwing it down the road, then just because on this occasion, it didn't hit anything, surely it's relevent to what he should be charged. Poor riders with lots of fault accidents,regardless of payout, should surely pay more than those excellent riders who dont?

So obviously if theres a culture of people not notifying their insurers, then those poor riders will eventually end up having more accidents than the good ones, potentially leading to payouts. Therefore the good riders end up subsidising the poor ones.

The essential element of the insurance contract is "utmost good faith". If you want to mislead or not declare things relevent to your insurance premium, then don't complain if the attitude of the companies is to avoid payment if and when they find out.

For example, if he threw his bike down the road, on his right side, and fails to declare same, (lets presume he's TPF&T), and then say next year, after his renewal say, his bike is stolen, does he expect the full value of the bike from the insurer? I bet he does. Will he say - "no, the bike was worth less, I'd damaged some panels and scratched the exhaust"? I'd wager not, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is insurance fraud, on the most basic level.

Lets also say he has then an accident which damages the left hand side. Insurance assessor comes out, and cannot work out why theres rhs damage. Reports the pre existing damage, to which the insurers immediuately wonder why. Can you look an assessor in the eye and lie? If the assessor asks the garage it was bought from (if he says it was pre existing damage),then theres an immediate material non disclosure of facts, and bingo, policy void, and upset rider.

Of course, sometimes when a bike is damaged, on tpf&t, they also tend to get "stolen", and if it gets recovered, again, this may trigger an investigation, as it's such a common scenario.

Really, there are very few insurance frauds that someone hasn't already thought about.

And to echo a previous poster - a third party can be anyone, including the slightly bruised pillion wife girlfriend who wasn't going to claim, but then you both split up in "difficult" curcumstances and a claim is made to "punish" the rider, or damage to street furniture, or simply the costs of clearing up a glass/oil spill from the local council. Only needs the farmer in the field to have taken the reg, and theres the identification.

All those who advocate not telling, are subsidising the premiums of bad riders. Of course, it's up to the honesty of the rider. Lets say however, that an insurance claims dept has bike riders, and they do a trawl of facebook/forums and find posts relating to the reg or a fb update status about the bump, again, another way to potentially be found out.

But then, I work in the industry, and would say that, wouldn't I!

[yorkie_chris]

Valid points, don't get caught

For me, my bike is insured TPFT, I've given a reasonable value of what the bike is worth to me (including the fact that it's f*cked from multiple crashes, incurred on track days which are no business of the insurer). The value of a bike is the sum of its parts on eBay or what a similar condition replacement would cost.
I will look any assessor, or a judge, in the eye and stick to that.

Imagine if you rang your insurance to report a crash on a trackday but make no claim! They'd have a heart attack in shock!