It is possible to insure a motorcycle or scooter that is registered to someone else, however, the terms in which you can do so will vary between insurers.

Perhaps you’re looking to insure a motorcycle or scooter that you’ve just purchased privately, and you’re not sure if the owner has sent off the new keeper slip and/or gotten around to cancelling their own insurance policy.

Or maybe you’re just borrowing a friend’s bike and want to set up your own insurance policy on it.

The prevailing question here is whether you can insure a bike that’s registered to someone else – so without further ado, let’s get into it...

A crucial first point to note here is that you don’t have to be the legal owner to ride or drive any vehicle. However, if the owner of the bike wishes to ride it themselves, they will need to have a policy that they are at least a named driver on, particularly if your new policy does not name them.

It’s also important to know that setting up a new policy doesn’t null or void any existing policy on that bike. So when you take out a policy for someone else's bike, for example, a friend or previous owner, their policy will still exist as there can be more than one policy on a singular bike at any given time.

It’s not recommended to have multiple insurance policies out on a single bike knowingly, and (unfortunately) doing so doesn’t mean you will earn an extra no-claims discount, but you certainly can ride safely with the knowledge your policy is covering you.

If your insurer does allow you to insure someone else's bike, you need to make sure you know everything about the bike including information such as the registration mark, make, model, value, and current odometer reading.

On the other hand, if you are unable to insure the bike on your own policy and get caught riding a motorcycle or scooter without the correct insurance, then you will find yourself in trouble with the police and can receive either:

• A fine
• Penalty points
• Riding disqualification
• An IN10 enforcement
• The bike seized and destroyed
• All of the above

Lastly, if you are involved in a collision on a motorbike you do not own and are not insured on, any damage to yourself and/or the bike you are on may not be covered and you will be paying out of pocket - you also may have one very seriously unhappy friend!

So there you have it - we hope this has answered your questions regarding insuring someone else's motorcycle!

Last but not least, if you are in need of motorcycle insurance for either your own motorcycle or a friend's, make sure to get a quote direct with Lexham!