Insuring a motorcycle twice.

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Nemo1966 wrote: »

Define on the ball?

In summary, it should happen like Quentin says. However, a case went to court where a car was covered by two policies, both of which contained the standard rateable proportion text that would enable the insurer to only pay part of the claim. The claim itself and quantum was not in dispute.

Insurer A paid the claim in full, then wrote to Insurer B and asked for a cheque for 50%. Insurer B declined.

In court, Insurer B argued that Insurer A knew that it's overall liability for the claim was only 50% of the loss, and in paying 100%, the additional cost was an ex gratia payment (and you cannot recover an ex gratia payment)

The judge agreed with Insurer B. Which is why insurers need to be careful- most now will invariably have been bitten by it at some strage. It leads to them only paying their rateable proportion (as allowed by their policy) and then telling their insured to get the balance from the second insurer.

thenudeone

One thing to be careful of if there are two policies -

The police database can only hold the full details of one policy at a time. It will have a marker to show that another policy exists, but no details, and most Police Officers don't know about it.

If there are two policies, but your OH isn't shown as insured on the policy which shows up on the database if they are stopped by police, your bike could be seized even though your OH is actually insured.

Therefore always take the certificates with you when riding - If a valid certificate is produced at the roadside then the vehicle cannot lawfully be seized by police.

Nemo1966

thenudeone wrote: »

One thing to be careful of if there are two policies -

The police database can only hold the full details of one policy at a time. It will have a marker to show that another policy exists, but no details, and most Police Officers don't know about it.

If there are two policies, but your OH isn't shown as insured on the policy which shows up on the database if they are stopped by police, your bike could be seized even though your OH is actually insured.

Therefore always take the certificates with you when riding - If a valid certificate is produced at the roadside then the vehicle cannot lawfully be seized by police.

Massively helpful information - thank you very much.