Used Bike - Registration/Insurance Confusion | GTAMotorcycle.com

Used Bike - Registration/Insurance Confusion

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wobbly

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Hello everyone,

I just purchased a used bike and will have to register it and was advised to insure it before the new insurance system at State Farm kicks in. I've been doing a lot of reading around this forum and the MTO website and I am just confused now.

I have:
- UVIP
- Safety certificate
- Vehicle portion half of the ownership with transfer details on the back filled out.

I know I have to get insurance first. Is the vehicle portion half with the transfer details filled out enough for me to claim ownership to this bike? My insurance agent said she needs my license, ownership, and VIN. She also wants me to ride it there once insured/registered so she can take a photo.

Once insured, I can go get it plated correct? I go with UVIP, safety, vehicle portion of ownership, insurance, and license. I know I pay taxes at this point.

Then I go riding for a week before I put it away. Thanks for clarifying for someone who has never bought a used bike before. Hopefully I'm not missing anything!

-wobbly
 
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You have to have proof of insurance before you can plate it. You can change the ownership any time although without insurance they'll only register it as "UNPLATED" so you'd have to go back again afterwards and get a new ownership. If you didn't have the safety, you'd get it registered as "UNFIT". Each step costs you another trip to the licence office, a wait in line, and a fee for the new ownership, so it's in your best interest to only do it once - get the insurance lined up, get a temporary liability slip emailed to you, print it out, and head off to the office and get it all done, including getting your plates at the same time. Head home, put the plates on, put the liability slip in your wallet, and ride.

The insurer will ask for the VIN and details on the bike but I've never had one care about proof of ownership - I don't imagine they deal with people trying to insure other peoples vehicles very often. ;)
 
wobbly said:
...My insurance agent said she needs my license, ownership, and VIN. She also wants me to ride it there once insured/registered so she can take a photo...
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Huh? I've never heard of an insurance company asking anyone to ride it to their office in order to take a photo. Do the registration and insurance, then tell her to visit you at home/work in order to get the photo. Why expend the effort for this unnecessary request? This is highly irregular.

If she wants a date then she has your number and can ask.
 
TorontoBoy said:
Huh? I've never heard of an insurance company asking anyone to ride it to their office in order to take a photo. Do the registration and insurance, then tell her to visit you at home/work in order to get the photo. Why expend the effort for this unnecessary request? This is highly irregular.

If she wants a date then she has your number and can ask.
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I've had to do that with State Farm.
 
Matt Rain said:
I've had to do that with State Farm.
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Yup. Iirc common practice for SF

Sent from a Samsung Galaxy far, far away using Tapatalk
 
Joe Bass said:
Yup. Iirc common practice for SF

Sent from a Samsung Galaxy far, far away using Tapatalk
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When I was with State Farm a while back, the agent had me send him a picture of the vin plate, and a shot of the bike from either side. If you're having a hard time with one agent, just go to another... there's state farm offices everywhere. FWIW, I dealt with Seamus Kelly out of Hamilton, even though I live in Newmarket; he was happy to have my business. The only reason I switched was because I got a much better rate with TD/Meloche when I got a new bike. I think he still advertises on this site.
 
PrivatePilot said:
You have to have proof of insurance before you can plate it. You can change the ownership any time although without insurance they'll only register it as "UNPLATED" so you'd have to go back again afterwards and get a new ownership. If you didn't have the safety, you'd get it registered as "UNFIT". Each step costs you another trip to the licence office, a wait in line, and a fee for the new ownership, so it's in your best interest to only do it once - get the insurance lined up, get a temporary liability slip emailed to you, print it out, and head off to the office and get it all done, including getting your plates at the same time. Head home, put the plates on, put the liability slip in your wallet, and ride.

The insurer will ask for the VIN and details on the bike but I've never had one care about proof of ownership - I don't imagine they deal with people trying to insure other peoples vehicles very often. ;)
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Thanks that cleared it up immensely :).
 
BradW said:
When I was with State Farm a while back, the agent had me send him a picture of the vin plate, and a shot of the bike from either side. If you're having a hard time with one agent, just go to another... there's state farm offices everywhere. FWIW, I dealt with Seamus Kelly out of Hamilton, even though I live in Newmarket; he was happy to have my business. The only reason I switched was because I got a much better rate with TD/Meloche when I got a new bike. I think he still advertises on this site.
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I'm in Newmarket also! I think I'll give him a shout on Monday. My agent was having a particularly difficult time trying to do the math of which year I got my G1 based on my age and that I got my G1 at 16.
 
wobbly said:
LOL. Too bad the other guys with State Farm chipped in and mentioned this was regular practice. She was kinda cute :D
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I was able to send a picture as well. Maybe she does want a date. Or a ride. Or both.

Sent from a Samsung Galaxy far, far away using Tapatalk
 
TorontoBoy said:
Huh? I've never heard of an insurance company asking anyone to ride it to their office in order to take a photo. Do the registration and insurance, then tell her to visit you at home/work in order to get the photo. Why expend the effort for this unnecessary request? This is highly irregular.
Click to expand...

Asking to see the vehicle isn't uncommon especially if you're covering it for collision or comprehensive , although most insurance companies will accept pictures, but in the case of a high value vehicle or if the agent or underwriters smell something fishy they can and sometimes do require you take it to a designated facility for inspection (up to and including a full appraisal sometimes) as part of the policy - most will insure for a restricted time period sight unseen (required to get it plated and such), but may say "you have X number of days to get the inspection done, at which point if we don't have the details we will terminate the policy".

When I reinsured one of our vehicles which had been removed from our policy (the car was parked for about a year) my car insurance company (Belair Direct) wanted photos of the car, however they were satisfied with emailed digital photos.

Basically, they are looking for undeclared physical damage - people have in the past (and this should surprise nobody) bought a vehicles that were already smashed up, insured them and failed to mention the damage, and then 3 or 4 months later file a hit-and-run claim to get their cheap pre-smashed used vehicle fixed up.

I suspect if you ask the agent if digital photos will suffice they may agree, but lets face it...when you get a new bike you're looking for places to go anyways, so humor them and show up perhaps.

wobbly said:
Thanks that cleared it up immensely :).
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You're welcome. :)
 
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Standard procedure with my agent at Co-operators, where I've been for twenty years. My agent said that it was because in the 90's people were insuring phantom vehicles, which they later reported stolen. The agents were ordered to physically see the vehicle, photograph it and verify the VIN.
 
TO Bandit said:
Standard procedure with my agent at Co-operators, where I've been for twenty years. My agent said that it was because in the 90's people were insuring phantom vehicles, which they later reported stolen. The agents were ordered to physically see the vehicle, photograph it and verify the VIN.
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FWIW, my bike is with Riders Plus through Aviva and all they asked for a was a photo/scan of the ownership transferred into my name after I completed the transfer and such, but no photos or inspection...however it's just basic liability on it, nothing more, so that doesn't surprise me - if I chose to add additional coverages next renewal I'd totally expect them to ask for photos.
 
SF asked me to ride it in even though I was just getting liability coverage on a 30yo beater. Prolly just a blanket requirement from head office.

I jumped on it as an excuse to take an extended lunch break. Sorry boss, important bidness to take care of. #brapbrap
 
I bought a brand new bike straight from the dealer and State Farm still required me to ride it over for pics. All they asked was for me to do it within the first week. I have switched to Allstate this year and they never asked for pics.
As said before, there was a huge problem in the 90's with phantom or smashed vehicles. I remember working for a dealership back then and taking pics of customers cars for their insurance companies.
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