How hard does making an insurance claim hammer you?
Discussion
Luckily, in my 27 years of driving and riding bikes I have never had to make an insurance claim before.
However ...
I hit the mother of all potholes on my 2017 S1000R and it's fair wrecked the front wheel. It also toppled over and the top and lower fairing is scuffed, clutch and alternator cover scratched and slightly gouged, but not cracked, the lever end has snapped off where it bent over and I straightened it back out again. And a couple of other minor cosmetic bits of damage.
Knowing the cost of BMW parts I'm guestimating the repair costs to be somewhere around the £1500 to £2000 or so mark. Bike value is somewhere around the £8500 region.
Unfortunately buying a house and a few other recent bits of expenditure has eroded my spare funds pot and I am probably going to have to claim on my insurance to get the damage repaired.
I could do all the work myself (other than mounting a new tyre to the new wheel) so I wont have labour charges to add on to that.
Having never had to do this before, how much pain is it likely to cause me come renewal time?
However ...
I hit the mother of all potholes on my 2017 S1000R and it's fair wrecked the front wheel. It also toppled over and the top and lower fairing is scuffed, clutch and alternator cover scratched and slightly gouged, but not cracked, the lever end has snapped off where it bent over and I straightened it back out again. And a couple of other minor cosmetic bits of damage.
Knowing the cost of BMW parts I'm guestimating the repair costs to be somewhere around the £1500 to £2000 or so mark. Bike value is somewhere around the £8500 region.
Unfortunately buying a house and a few other recent bits of expenditure has eroded my spare funds pot and I am probably going to have to claim on my insurance to get the damage repaired.
I could do all the work myself (other than mounting a new tyre to the new wheel) so I wont have labour charges to add on to that.
Having never had to do this before, how much pain is it likely to cause me come renewal time?
Have you checked sites like fixmystreet (and others). If the defect has been reported and they haven't fixed it in due time the council may be liable and you should be able to claim against them fully.
A good gauge of success is the road defect being marked for repair - ergo, they knew about it and cant deny it....
I drove into a pothole in my exige (not a bike granted) which was deep enough for my clam to ground out on the surrounding road surface. Surrey CC paid out £2k...without too much of an argument either
A good gauge of success is the road defect being marked for repair - ergo, they knew about it and cant deny it....
I drove into a pothole in my exige (not a bike granted) which was deep enough for my clam to ground out on the surrounding road surface. Surrey CC paid out £2k...without too much of an argument either
kiethton said:
Have you checked sites like fixmystreet (and others). If the defect has been reported and they haven't fixed it in due time the council may be liable and you should be able to claim against them fully.
A good gauge of success is the road defect being marked for repair - ergo, they knew about it and cant deny it....
I drove into a pothole in my exige (not a bike granted) which was deep enough for my clam to ground out on the surrounding road surface. Surrey CC paid out £2k...without too much of an argument either
Cheers for the reply. I never realised that, thank you.A good gauge of success is the road defect being marked for repair - ergo, they knew about it and cant deny it....
I drove into a pothole in my exige (not a bike granted) which was deep enough for my clam to ground out on the surrounding road surface. Surrey CC paid out £2k...without too much of an argument either
The only issue I may have with that though is that the tyre stayed inflated and I rode home so I dont have any record of being recovered from the roadside etc ... Does that have any bearing on things or not?
airsafari87 said:
kiethton said:
Have you checked sites like fixmystreet (and others). If the defect has been reported and they haven't fixed it in due time the council may be liable and you should be able to claim against them fully.
A good gauge of success is the road defect being marked for repair - ergo, they knew about it and cant deny it....
I drove into a pothole in my exige (not a bike granted) which was deep enough for my clam to ground out on the surrounding road surface. Surrey CC paid out £2k...without too much of an argument either
Cheers for the reply. I never realised that, thank you.A good gauge of success is the road defect being marked for repair - ergo, they knew about it and cant deny it....
I drove into a pothole in my exige (not a bike granted) which was deep enough for my clam to ground out on the surrounding road surface. Surrey CC paid out £2k...without too much of an argument either
The only issue I may have with that though is that the tyre stayed inflated and I rode home so I dont have any record of being recovered from the roadside etc ... Does that have any bearing on things or not?
Go back and take lots of photos, put a ruler into the hole and ensure you can see the depth on the pic, do the same for the length and width.
Do the same of the damage done to your bike. Then get an estimate from BMW to repair the damage. Then contact the Highways department and start your claim.
Luckily I haven't had to do this with my S1KR but had to with my old car. Took a few months but I got my claim settled.
Do the same of the damage done to your bike. Then get an estimate from BMW to repair the damage. Then contact the Highways department and start your claim.
Luckily I haven't had to do this with my S1KR but had to with my old car. Took a few months but I got my claim settled.
With regards to the original question; I made a claim for my K1300S Motorsport which was written off courtesy of Bambi! (so an event that was not a "fault" type claim) The pay-out was £8250
Prior to that I had 30+ years claim free, both on bikes and in cars. My K1300S insurance had cost me around £270 and the price had been reasonably consistent over the last few years. That was for 18,000 miles per year with class 1 business use and pillion.
While not the same bike, so not directly comparable, the replacement Kawasaki H2 SX SE now costs around £900. You can decide yourself if you think that's a huge hike. Of course, I also need to declare the claim on my other (vintage) bike policy, my car insurance and as a named driver on Mrs K1s car insurance. There's an impact there too.
Prior to that I had 30+ years claim free, both on bikes and in cars. My K1300S insurance had cost me around £270 and the price had been reasonably consistent over the last few years. That was for 18,000 miles per year with class 1 business use and pillion.
While not the same bike, so not directly comparable, the replacement Kawasaki H2 SX SE now costs around £900. You can decide yourself if you think that's a huge hike. Of course, I also need to declare the claim on my other (vintage) bike policy, my car insurance and as a named driver on Mrs K1s car insurance. There's an impact there too.
I had a non-fault 5 or 6 years ago... guy went into the back of my mx5 as I was turning onto my driveway (how he managed this is still a mystery to me). He admitted liability and somehow a £2k repair bill got authorised, was fairly amazed they didn't write it off, given it couldn't have been worth more than £3k at the time.
Didn't affect my subsequent premiums at all, or if it did, it was barely noticeable.
Didn't affect my subsequent premiums at all, or if it did, it was barely noticeable.
black-k1 said:
, I also need to declare the claim on my other (vintage) bike policy, my car insurance and as a named driver on Mrs K1s car insurance. There's an impact there too.
This was my biggest bug bear when i was youngerI did my bike test before my car. I had 2 years ncb on the bike.
When I passed my driving test could I use those 2years ncb on a car? Or even get a discount?
No
But when I had an accident on the bike and had to claim did I have to declare that?
You can tell the answer!!!
xjay1337 said:
This was my biggest bug bear when i was younger
I did my bike test before my car. I had 2 years ncb on the bike.
When I passed my driving test could I use those 2years ncb on a car? Or even get a discount?
No
But when I had an accident on the bike and had to claim did I have to declare that?
You can tell the answer!!!
No claims bonus and accident history are 2 separate things. When you have an accident on your bike, it would not affect any car ncb you may have had. I did my bike test before my car. I had 2 years ncb on the bike.
When I passed my driving test could I use those 2years ncb on a car? Or even get a discount?
No
But when I had an accident on the bike and had to claim did I have to declare that?
You can tell the answer!!!
Had My R1200GS triple black nicked in London in 2017.
Insurance went from 300£ to 1100£, protected NCB over 6 years.
Insurance is legalised theft. exactly why i pay to have a protected NCB, only to realise that all it buys is some lube from the buggering to come (pardon the pun).
upside is its down to 700£ this year, so its going the right way. I struggle to understand how the police failing to do their job (london has more CCTV than most cities in the world), is my fault.
Insurance went from 300£ to 1100£, protected NCB over 6 years.
Insurance is legalised theft. exactly why i pay to have a protected NCB, only to realise that all it buys is some lube from the buggering to come (pardon the pun).
upside is its down to 700£ this year, so its going the right way. I struggle to understand how the police failing to do their job (london has more CCTV than most cities in the world), is my fault.
I paid £350 for my car insurance a few years ago. My car got stolen and never seen again, my insurance company paid me £87,000 for a new one.
The following year my insurance went up on the car to £500, whilst the bikes were much more expensive at nearly £1000 to cover the pair of them.
Depending on your prejudices you could argue I’ve been ripped off, or that I’ve done well.
The following year my insurance went up on the car to £500, whilst the bikes were much more expensive at nearly £1000 to cover the pair of them.
Depending on your prejudices you could argue I’ve been ripped off, or that I’ve done well.
black-k1 said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
No claims bonus and accident history are 2 separate things. When you have an accident on your bike, it would not affect any car ncb you may have had.
No, but it does result in more expensive policies. Maxheadroom said:
I struggle to understand how the police failing to do their job (london has more CCTV than most cities in the world), is my fault.
I struggle to see how a non smoker who gets cancer at 25 is at fault. Do you think they should be able to buy life insurance at no extra cost? And if they could, are you happy to subsidise them with higher premiums yourself, despite being in good health? Gassing Station | Biker Banter | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff