I wanted to highlight a case of two separate cycle insurance products that have refused to pay out on the same technicality. One is by Evans Cycles and the other by Cycleguard, though both are provided by Thistle Insurance Services.
Thieves recently broke into a “secure” cycle store in an underground car park at my block of flats.
They used power tools to cut through the hinges of the security gates and removed them before cutting the locks of around a dozen bikes and driving away with them.
I lost two bikes in this burglary. Both were secured – using Sold Secure locks – to a cycle rack through the back wheel (the only way they could be fastened to a rack of this design), with additional cable locks securing the frame to the wheel and the rack.
Because they were locked through the wheel first, rather than the frame, both insurance policies have refused to pay out. I feel this is a minor technicality, and that I had taken every reasonable precaution – and also that, given that the locks were cut (and steel gates cut from their hinges), this made little difference in the theft anyway.
A quick search of cycling forums has shown many other people have been treated in the same way by Thistle.
I have complained and will pursue my claim to the ombudsman if necessary.- Do you have a view on this? SC, east London
Specialist insurance products are -usually considerably more expensive than an extension to your existing home contents cover, and are supposed to offer better cover, but in this case they turned out to be worthless.
We could understand the insurer’s stance if you had left your bikes -outside a pub all night with a cheap lock, but given the above circumstances you appear to have been badly treated – not least because you were paying significant- premiums.
We took a look at the Cycleguard policy wording, and for what should be a fairly basic insurance it has a huge number of get-outs. There are 19 pages mostly filled with exemptions – and it is little wonder the company has found a way to get out of paying your claims. We asked Thistle for an explanation/rethink, and it initially declined to explain why it refused your claim.
To add further intrigue, it mistakenly sent us all its internal correspondence about your case, which is very revealing.
One Thistle employee wrote: “Obviously need to be careful that we don’t open the floodgates on a lot of claims coming back in because of a decision publicised on this one, I guess.”
Another says: “Claim 1 cannot be covered under the wording. It is possible, due to the additional security in place, that UK General [UKG, the underwriter] may agree to cover the claim (I know they have done this previously where security is greater than the policy requires, and then cancelled the remaining policy where the customer cannot abide by the security requirements).
Claim 2 could be considered further but given the claim is now with UKG for a formal complaint response, we would need to run by them in the first instance before making a decision.”
Eventually, after a great deal of -pressing from us, Thistle persuaded UKG to undertake a speedier review, and it has now conceded that your claim would probably have been paid on the basis that the “policy, as it is currently written, is unclear on the exact security requirements”.
Karen Beales, technical director at UKG, says: “In light of the fact that he has separately claimed on his household insurance policy, we have decided to refund SC’s premium [£136] for both his policies with us, and offer a further £100 compensation- to reflect the distress this has caused. We will also review our policy documents to clarify the -security requirements, to ensure there is no -confusion in future.”
We don’t really consider this enough compensation, but there it is. In the meantime, if anyone else has a Cycleguard or Evans policy provided by Thistle, we would strongly urge you to dig out the terms and conditions and go through them with a fine-tooth comb and make sure you know what you are up against – because that is exactly what this firm appears to do if you try to claim.
Meanwhile, anyone wanting specialist bike insurance should check out the cycling charity CTC, which offers good-value policies to non-members and members alike. They are underwritten by Hiscox, which generally has a good record of paying out reasonable claims. Also, 10% of the premium goes to CTC funds to help pay for its campaigning.
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