Short answer: no, you are not legally required to insure a mobility scooter. Longer answer: almost everyone should, and the reason is probably not the one you are thinking of.
The risk people worry about
Most people assume insurance is about the scooter being stolen or breaking. Those matter — a scooter is a valuable thing that often lives in a shed — but they are not the main event.
The risk that actually matters
Third-party liability. A mobility scooter weighs a great deal and moves under power. If you clip a parked car, catch someone's ankle in a supermarket aisle, or go into a shop display, you can be liable for the damage or the injury.
A scratched car door is a few hundred pounds. A personal injury claim is a different order of magnitude entirely. That is the exposure insurance is really for, and it is why cover typically costs a few pounds a month while covering sums far beyond the value of the scooter.
What cover usually includes
- Third-party liability — damage or injury you cause to others
- Theft — including from a shed or garage, subject to the security conditions in the policy
- Accidental damage to the scooter itself
- Breakdown recovery — getting you and the scooter home if it stops
- Vandalism and fire
Cover varies between policies. Read what you are buying rather than assuming.
Won't my home insurance cover it?
Sometimes, partly, and usually not in the way you need. Home contents policies often cover a scooter in the home or a locked shed but not while you are out on it — which is when the third-party risk exists. Many exclude powered vehicles altogether.
Do not assume. Ring your home insurer and ask two specific questions: is the scooter covered away from the property, and is third-party liability included while I am riding it? Get the answer in writing.
The breakdown cover is worth more than it sounds
A scooter that stops two miles from home is not something you push back. Recovery is often the part of a policy people end up most grateful for, particularly in winter.
Questions worth asking before you buy a policy
- How much third-party liability cover is included?
- Am I covered away from home, and abroad?
- What security does the policy require for theft to be covered?
- Is breakdown recovery included, and how far?
- Is there a new-for-old replacement, or is it depreciated?
- What is the excess?
A month's cover comes free with us
Every scooter and powerchair we sell comes with one month's free insurance supplied by Mark Bates Ltd, added with one tick in your basket. There is nothing to pay and no obligation to continue afterwards — it is there so you are covered from the day it arrives rather than from whenever you get round to it.
Insurance is not warranty
Worth separating the two, because people conflate them. Warranty covers the machine going wrong — a fault, a failure, something that should not have broken. Insurance covers accidents, theft and damage to other people.
You want both, and with us the first year of at-home warranty is included as standard.
Insurance is arranged through Mark Bates Ltd. We are not insurance advisers — read the policy documents and decide what suits you. If you want to talk it through, ring us free on 0800 593 0400.