[Closed] House insurance with bikes in garage

You could try Home Protect - I haven’t got an individual bike worth £4K but have 3 bikes totalling £6.5k or so

Aviva.
We have house and contents insurance with them and it covers bikes in the garage. You tell them the value of the most expensive bike and then all bikes up to that value are covered.

M&S used to be good. We were with them for years but their premiums rocketed a few years ago. May be better for you though.

Is the garage integral or at least attached to the main house? Most contents cover will cover bikes, or other contents in the garage for that matter, up to the value of your contents cover. Eg I have blanket contents cover of £75000 and under my cover there is no single article limit, I am covered up to the maximum sum insured. Away from the home, that's normally extra level of cover. If you have a detached garage, or one in a 'block' for example contents sum insured value may be lower as it may be classed as an out-building. But it is very much insurer specific. Barclays used to do great bike cover but they are very expensive these days or so I have found.

The garage is separate to the house.

We went with Neos after John Lewis rocketed. Pedalcover wouldn't cover bikes in a timber shed built stronger than most houses.

Neos have a very straight forward quotation system based on some general assumptions and had no issue with high value items or e-bikes. Comes with some smart tech stuff too, how much depends on level of cover.

Home Protect.

We're just about to go Aviva Plus as you no longer have to name individual items, they're all covered under the blanket total coverage, whether in house or garage I believe. Worth giving them a call.

Dogbone - important to check what the limits are then. As an example, in the garage my stuff is covered up to contents sum insured so £75000. In the shed,as defined as an outbuilding, regardless of construction type, contents limit is £5000 max. On my policy a detached garage would be considered an outbuilding.

Whoever it is, as mentioned above, check the small print as your garage is not attached to the house.

AA tried to wriggle out of my claim (well nearly half of it) as my garage wasn’t attached and therefore only £3k maximum cover for non-named items. Challenged them over miss-selling, they insisted that they went back to the call logs. Happy to let them as I knew what I’d asked for...one week later they confirmed that they would pay the full claim, though advised that I should have checked the policy documents and explained that I shouldn’t expect their staff to know the full details of the policies they are selling...

No longer insured through the AA for anything.

only £3k maximum cover for non-named items

But... all the insurance quotes I got, you had to put bikes as specified items.
Anyway, it was bloody simple on Confused.com .. I'm with Admiral.

+aviva been with them the last few years, many policies have a max limit on garage contents , who are you with fazzini?

Aviva will quote up to X then put it through to the specialist team, who are knowledgeable and friendly spoke to one guy and he gave me direct dial for their office as was easier than going through regular call centre

But… all the insurance quotes I got, you had to put bikes as specified items.

In the original conversation, they stated only items over £1k needed to be named, and I questioned this several times, stating that I had multiple bikes each under that limit, but in total were considerably greater than that so would they all be covered. That they also failed to ask about whether the garage was attached to the house. I suspect they paid the full claim as they knew they would lose if I took it to the Insurance Ombudsman.

4 weeks ago I had my garden shed broken into, my Merida HT was stolen along with a couple of other things. My home insurance covered the shed contents up to the value of £3k, BUT they only pay out up to £1.5k per item, so my Merida cost £1500 without my upgrades ( dropper post & 1x11 conversion ), so got reimburse for the bike alone which is fair enough I thought. I know some companies only cover sheds up to £500, think it would be better getting expensive bike’s insured separately .

Timber,

Pedalcover wouldn’t cover bikes in a timber shed

Is that the case now then?

Royal Sun Alloance cover ours. And punish me royally for a large previous claim. Truth be told it is what insurance is for. Our garage has an integral door to the dining room. Theft from such an “integral” room is much more serious than from an outbuilding. We have some requirements for locking the bikes.

We now have another more expensive bike with an engine. It’s basically Fort Knox with extra alarms now.

Yes mine is a timber shed

Local friendly smack heads took 5k of bikes out my garage a few years ago. The replacements are now kept in my spare room.

Less chance of them getting stolen, the thieving scum know that that breaking into a house to steal means a much bigger sentence if caught. Lots of garage/shed theft on my estate, very few ( if any ) houses been roobed in last few years.

@granny_ring it was when I was ringing around 9 months ago. They did double check as it was of rather more substantial construction than your average shed with ground anchor, but still a no. Could be valuation/postcode related, only half an hour from BPW.

I tried to get a quote from Aviva but the on-line tool doesn't ask about bikes. I'll give them a call tomorrow.

Pedalcover give great coverage (bikes insured world-wide not just at home) but was looking for a slightly simpler / cheaper deal.

Pedalcover told me they are fine with secure sheds like asgards so I assume they would be fine with a garage.

@whatyadoinsucka - I have an older style policy with Tesco. It's underwritten by Tesco Underwriting, but it's not available as a new policy unfortunately, hence I haven't recommended it. The newer style policies have limits as suggested above. My mate has his with Halifax and no issues but bikes are itemised and has made claims previously with AXA too, all handled really well.
 

Can anyone share the cost of their policies? We have superlative cover but it's costing us £150/mo for home and contents, with no limits on bikes.

I've just spoke to Aviva. Their Plus plan covers anything (including bikes) in a garage or outbuilding to the full value of the overall coverage (ie £100 000). No minimum security other 'locked'.

3 bed semi Bristol £200 / year.

Aviva gave me 4k bike insurance at no extra cost to my existing policy

Cheers folks, I'll try Aviva+ as well when renewal time comes around.
Do you have to list the bikes with Aviva+, think I used to have to with their standard Policy years ago?

No need to list them.

+1 for Aviva, don't have to declare individual bikes below £2k-ish regardless of quantity. I have 6 covered. Be sure to check the T&Cs regarding locking up/securing to immovable objects though
FWIW I also have a large sum of contents away from home covered. I challenged the standard amount when my renewal came through on account of the value of my now-wife's wedding ring, managed to get it upped by £1k for no increase in premium. So worth talking to them about that for your kit, GPS, tools, etc etc
SD