Insurance claim query
Discussion
Not 100% sure this is an SP&L topic but there doesn’t seem to be anywhere else obvious to post it. It’s insurance-related.
3 or 4 weeks back, I was knocked off my bike by a car pulling out of a side turning. All very low speed, both the bike and I bounced back, no serious trauma.
The bike was taken away for assessment and I was given a hire bike (not a courtesy bike). Without boring you with all the detail, they have deemed my bike a write-off, which I don’t agree with but apparently have no option of appealing.
I paid £9000 for the bike 6 months ago. They have offered £7500 plus the option to buy the salvage back out of that £7500. I believe that bike to be worth at least £8500, supported by several adverts for similar bikes ranging from £8300 with more miles, to over £10k, so I rejected that offer. Now they say that the settlement figure needs to be referred higher up because the assessor “can only authorise a payment of up to £7500”, ie he offered £7500 regardless of the actual value because that’s all he’s allowed to.
They tell me that the cheque for £7500 will be raised and sent to me whether or not I agree, and the hire bike will be collected 7 days later. If they pay me a minimum of 50%^ of the final valuation, they can remove the hire vehicle - which they say is an ABI regulation. Seems destined purely to put the injured party in an unsatisfactory place. At that point I also have to decide whether I want the bike back (I do) and they will deduct the salvage from the £7500. They say that they will then continue to discuss the settlement figure, but the 3rd party’s insurers are some mickey mouse outfit who won’t take phone calls, not even from the other side’s insurers, and will only communicate via email, hence, there are significant delays to everything.
My concern is that by “accepting” the £7500 cheque, I significantly weaken my negotiating position. But it seems they have me over a barrel, they will issue the cheque regardless of whether I cash it or not, and I have to make a decision on taking the salvage back at that point. (They are in fact erring the other way, ie, they will give me the bike and the reduced payment unless I state otherwise.)
My only alternative is to claim for the accident under my own fully-comp policy then wait for the insurance companies to fight it out; again, surely this weakens my position?
Is there anything which I can do other than accept the current offer and let them wrangle for as long as they take to get the remaining money? I need specific, relevant, accurate advice here, not “my mate says no” stuff.
NB: in case anyone is wondering, there is no issue with me being landed with hire bike charges, I confirmed this in writing before accepting it, so we can ignore that
3 or 4 weeks back, I was knocked off my bike by a car pulling out of a side turning. All very low speed, both the bike and I bounced back, no serious trauma.
The bike was taken away for assessment and I was given a hire bike (not a courtesy bike). Without boring you with all the detail, they have deemed my bike a write-off, which I don’t agree with but apparently have no option of appealing.
I paid £9000 for the bike 6 months ago. They have offered £7500 plus the option to buy the salvage back out of that £7500. I believe that bike to be worth at least £8500, supported by several adverts for similar bikes ranging from £8300 with more miles, to over £10k, so I rejected that offer. Now they say that the settlement figure needs to be referred higher up because the assessor “can only authorise a payment of up to £7500”, ie he offered £7500 regardless of the actual value because that’s all he’s allowed to.
They tell me that the cheque for £7500 will be raised and sent to me whether or not I agree, and the hire bike will be collected 7 days later. If they pay me a minimum of 50%^ of the final valuation, they can remove the hire vehicle - which they say is an ABI regulation. Seems destined purely to put the injured party in an unsatisfactory place. At that point I also have to decide whether I want the bike back (I do) and they will deduct the salvage from the £7500. They say that they will then continue to discuss the settlement figure, but the 3rd party’s insurers are some mickey mouse outfit who won’t take phone calls, not even from the other side’s insurers, and will only communicate via email, hence, there are significant delays to everything.
My concern is that by “accepting” the £7500 cheque, I significantly weaken my negotiating position. But it seems they have me over a barrel, they will issue the cheque regardless of whether I cash it or not, and I have to make a decision on taking the salvage back at that point. (They are in fact erring the other way, ie, they will give me the bike and the reduced payment unless I state otherwise.)
My only alternative is to claim for the accident under my own fully-comp policy then wait for the insurance companies to fight it out; again, surely this weakens my position?
Is there anything which I can do other than accept the current offer and let them wrangle for as long as they take to get the remaining money? I need specific, relevant, accurate advice here, not “my mate says no” stuff.
NB: in case anyone is wondering, there is no issue with me being landed with hire bike charges, I confirmed this in writing before accepting it, so we can ignore that
I would accept the £7500 if that includes return of the motorcycle that was "written off".
I believe negotiations are to be had with yourself and the insurers.
If you are unsatisfied with that then I suggest going to the Insurance Ombudsman.
I'm not sure on the legalities but surely they cannot FORCE you to accept an offer of write-off value.
I would fight it out till you get something you are satisfied with.
I believe negotiations are to be had with yourself and the insurers.
If you are unsatisfied with that then I suggest going to the Insurance Ombudsman.
I'm not sure on the legalities but surely they cannot FORCE you to accept an offer of write-off value.
I would fight it out till you get something you are satisfied with.
The £7500 would be paid minus the salvage value (they're saying £2250 so I would receive the bike and £5250). The principle of that is OK but I need the additional £1000 which I am clear represents the actual value of the bike pre-accident. I just think I could end up waiting months and months for the additional money. It's not going to bankrupt me but it's all aggro I could do without. I'd just like a final settlement really.
You obviously want more money, right?
They want to pay out less.
So I would say you would accept £7500 including the bike with no further deductions, then they can also have the hire bike back as soon as you get yours back (presuming it's road worthy, was this the BMW that got knocked over a while ago?).
Probably would save them a few hundred in fees and storage costs as well.
If they don't agree to that then I would go to the Ombudsman and see what they think about it. I wouldn't stand for it , if it were me.
They want to pay out less.
So I would say you would accept £7500 including the bike with no further deductions, then they can also have the hire bike back as soon as you get yours back (presuming it's road worthy, was this the BMW that got knocked over a while ago?).
Probably would save them a few hundred in fees and storage costs as well.
If they don't agree to that then I would go to the Ombudsman and see what they think about it. I wouldn't stand for it , if it were me.
Magic919 said:
I'd suggest claiming under your own policy. I don't understand why you think it weakens your position. You'll then just have the excess and any other uninsured losses to recover, which you may have legal expenses cover for.
Well I guess that's the question I'm asking. If I claim under my own policy, and given that insurers are generally a lazy bunch, how likely are they to say words to the effect of "ah well, he's claimed on his own policy, it's paid out, we can't really be bothered to chase the 3rd party for liability now"..?CAPP0 said:
they have deemed my bike a write-off, which I don’t agree with but apparently have no option of appealing.
I paid £9000 for the bike 6 months ago. They have offered £7500 plus the option to buy the salvage back out of that £7500. I believe that bike to be worth at least £8500, supported by several adverts for similar bikes ranging from £8300 with more miles, to over £10k, so I rejected that offer. Now they say that the settlement figure needs to be referred higher up because the assessor “can only authorise a payment of up to £7500”, ie he offered £7500 regardless of the actual value because that’s all he’s allowed to.
They tell me that the cheque for £7500 will be raised and sent to me whether or not I agree, and the hire bike will be collected 7 days later. If they pay me a minimum of 50%^ of the final valuation, they can remove the hire vehicle - which they say is an ABI regulation.
Who's "they"? I assume the credit hire company? Possibly Plantec Assist? I paid £9000 for the bike 6 months ago. They have offered £7500 plus the option to buy the salvage back out of that £7500. I believe that bike to be worth at least £8500, supported by several adverts for similar bikes ranging from £8300 with more miles, to over £10k, so I rejected that offer. Now they say that the settlement figure needs to be referred higher up because the assessor “can only authorise a payment of up to £7500”, ie he offered £7500 regardless of the actual value because that’s all he’s allowed to.
They tell me that the cheque for £7500 will be raised and sent to me whether or not I agree, and the hire bike will be collected 7 days later. If they pay me a minimum of 50%^ of the final valuation, they can remove the hire vehicle - which they say is an ABI regulation.
Who assessed the bike's damage and it's value? I assume an independent engineer instructed by the credit hire organisation. Frankly the bit about the assessor having an upper limit is laughable! If it were funny...
anniesdad said:
Who's "they"? I assume the credit hire company? Possibly Plantec Assist?
Now what could possibly make you think that? 
anniesdad said:
Who assessed the bike's damage and it's value? I assume an independent engineer instructed by the credit hire organisation. Frankly the bit about the assessor having an upper limit is laughable! If it were funny...
Seems that the bike was assessed by the claims mgmt company and the details then passed to the 3rd party insurer for comment.Things have moved on a little today.
I spoke to my insurers direct (not the broker, not the claims mgmt co) and they were very helpful. They are happy to take the claim on themselves and deal with it, and they will progress and pay me, minus my excess until liability is agreed (when they would refund the excess if it goes in my favour). They have looked at the claim and the witness statement, and even looked on Streetview whilst I was on the phone, and they said that not only is the 3rd party liability crystal clear, to the point where they would take it to court if necessary, but in fact if roles were reversed they would not even allow the driver to dispute liability as it is so obviously cut & dried.
Then they went on to say that on the balance of the figures I provided, they wouldn't write the bike off but would repair it, even at the lower valuation. If I pass the case to them then the hire bike would go back so I'll have to live with that, but it seems like they will take a more direct approach and get things sorted.
They also commented that the 3rd party insurer, who I had never heard of before this, do not perhaps operate the finest insurance business in the world...
CAPP0 said:
Seems that the bike was assessed by the claims mgmt company and the details then passed to the 3rd party insurer for comment.
Hmm. What they should be doing is instructing an independent assessor to assess the value. This independent assessor will not have an upper value limit, that's just laughable. If he can't accurately assess the value of a bike worth more than £7.5k I would argue he shouldn't be doing the job. CAPP0 said:
Then they went on to say that on the balance of the figures I provided, they wouldn't write the bike off but would repair it, even at the lower valuation. If I pass the case to them then the hire bike would go back so I'll have to live with that, but it seems like they will take a more direct approach and get things sorted.
If the bike is economically repairable then it should be repaired, simple as that or cash paid in lieu. Not the first time that I've read about a car/bike being unnecessarily assessed as a write off that shouldn't be...Have you actually had an estimate carried out by a bike repairer for the repair costs?
Interesting updates.
Text from Ageas (my insurers) to say the 3rd party have accepted full liability. Which is nice.
And I spoke to them (my insurers) direct this week, rather than to the Accident Mgmt company, and they said that at the figures currently being stated, they will repair the bike, not write it off. Which, overall, makes life easier for me.
So the repairs should be started shortly and I just need to wait to get it back now.
Text from Ageas (my insurers) to say the 3rd party have accepted full liability. Which is nice.
And I spoke to them (my insurers) direct this week, rather than to the Accident Mgmt company, and they said that at the figures currently being stated, they will repair the bike, not write it off. Which, overall, makes life easier for me.
So the repairs should be started shortly and I just need to wait to get it back now.
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff