Recreational Vehicles - Scooters, Quads, Snowmobiles and Boats

There are many different recreational vehicles and all need insurance of one type or another. There may not be a legal requirement for insurance but there may be an economic or moral responsibility to have coverage.

These items are normally an extension of either your home or automobile insurance so your first stop is to contact your existing adviser for information. Small boats are usually just added to your home policy, motorized vehicles to your auto policy. Larger boats often times are insured on their own policy.

Pricing of a recreational vehicle is based upon the use of the vehicle, the value and performance (speed) in combination with the experience and training of the operators.

“I only drive it in the summer winter why do I have to buy a years insurance?”

Insurance companies actually calculate the rate knowing that you won’t be operating your snowmobile in August or your Boat in January (normally) but it is more cost effective for them to simply sell you a yearly policy and have their systems renew it every year rather than having to cancel and re-write the policy every year. An example of the calculation for a snowmobile is January 25% + February 25% + March 15% + November 10% + December 25%, all the rest of the months are “Free” even though coverage continues.

Caution!!

Some recreational vehicles are NOT insurable so check with your insurance advisor before buying that toy! Some examples are pocket bikes, mini or off-road bikes, three wheelers, high performance snowmobiles, boats or jet-ski/seadoos.

Some of the most common misconceptions about recreational vehicle insurance

“I don’t need insurance it’s in the garage”

WRONG – all homeowners policies only cover the home and a very limited group of vehicles and boats, usually limited to a riding lawn mower, a motorized wheelchair and small non-motorized boats. So If the vehicle is stolen there will quite probably be no-coverage.

“it doesn’t leave the property”

WRONG – What if the vehicle were to hit a visitor to your property? What if a visitor took the vehicle for a ride and was injured? You could be faced with a lawsuit for injury or property damage.

“it’s not worth anything”

WRONG – the vehicle may not be worth anything but the person who gets injured or the property that gets damaged may be worth a LOT of money.