Insurance due to no fault.

[redbikejohn]

While I'm still waiting to hear from the 3rd party insurance ref the payout for my written off xt660z I'd just like to have a moan about vehicle values. Had a chat to my insurance and it would seem I'll only get the perceived value of the bike, not its replacement value. I have new for old for my house contents which works great. Am I alone in thinking the party at fault should pay to replace my vehicle. OK there are zero bikes with that milage about so if I was to replace it tomorrow the lowest price I can see on ebay is £3700. I don't see why I should take money out my own pocket to replace like for like. Seems vehicle insurance just doesn't work that way.

[Snaf MKII]

That's advertised not sold price, looking at the sold bikes on ebay and it's more like £2-3k. You are right though, insurance should put you back in the position you were pre accident. If you can find a few sold examples to show your insurance company that are comparable to your bike they should aim to be claiming that much for you from the third party.
What would you have realistically valued your bike at pre accident, I know it wasn't for sale and it's a bit subjective.

[lmg]

I was in the unfortunate position of being seriously knocked off of my bike back in April resulting in some quite severe issues with myself, and my bike (a GSA1200) being written off as a CAT B. It was all the 3rd parties fault as confirmed by X numbers of witnesses and via the Police investigation of the scene (she ended up getting a "driving awareness course" whilst I get a lifelong substantial reduction of the use of my right hand).

This was my first encounter with insurance companies from the side of the claimant and I was staggered to find myself having to haggle with my own insurance company around the value of my bike. They initially came back to me with an offer of £6K (which they would not increase even with Autotrader listings of other similar bikes showing £7.5-8k), and due to the bike being written off as CAT B, would *not* allow me to recover my accessories off of the bike (satnav, spot tracker, etc.) due to the excuse of "CAT B = contaminated waste" and would not pay me out on those.

It was staggering as I thought that MY insurance company ought to be on my side, but this is not the case. Insurance companies operate as a cartel by any reasonable view of the situation. MY insurance wants to pay out as least as possible and thus claim 100% of what they agree from the 3rd parties insurance company, and in return when that other insurance company has grounds to claim off of them, they will do the same.

In my case and my being in the handy position of the cost of a bike not impacting my finances at all, I decided to take MY insurance company to the Financial Ombudsman via their complaint procedure. My insurance company opted to settle early and increased their offer on my "6K" bike to £9K, also paying me £4K for my accessories and a £6K payout for poor professional conduct.

I truly despise insurance companies - I begrudge paying them for anything and am truly only nervous when I have to claim from a policy. They will always fight to lowball you and as much as I begrudge paying them, they begrudge paying anything out.

Following the settlement of my bike claim its interesting to note a few other points:

1. MY insurance companies renewal price to me and my 2 bikes came in at £997/per annum - however going to another insurance company with the incident declared got me a policy at £167/per annum.

2. The written off CAT B was described as frame damage. When inspecting the engineers' report where this was written, the "frame" damage they identified and photographed was the engine crash bar and not the main frame itself.

Utter twats. I have been told that due to the bike being a 2010 model, they instinctively aim to write the vehicle off - not sure if its true or not, but the evidence of a damaged engine crash bar is laughable.

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

Values are difficult...the insurance co will argue that the high miles on your bike mean it was only worth very little.

You can argue that you don't want a cash settlement, but do want 'like-for-like' reinstatement, particularly as the 3rd party is at fault.

In other words, they would have to find you a comparable bike as a replacement for your own. If they can't do this, then make them repair the bike...but beware, if a claims management company gets involved they may try to repair the bike at their own 'approved' repairer...who may well use second-hand parts from a scrapper...insist it's repaired by a franchised Yamaha dealer, using new Yamaha parts only.

What they will try to do is bugger you about, knowing you 'need' transport and wear you down with silly offers.

[Scott_rider]

When my Audi A4 cabriolet was written off after a driver on the wrong side of the road drove straight into it, I couldn't replace it with what the insurance company offered me . It was 12 years old and fully-loaded with super low mileage of 30k but the loss assessor couldn't find another one of the same spec/mileage to compare it with, so in the end I ended up accepting the book price for a 100k example of the same age plus a token £500 uplift . That was my own insurance company, who in fairness were very good to deal with, but it was still a bummer.

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

A woman reversed her van into my wife's parked car. and creased two doors.

We arranged for a local bodyshop to repair it...said it would take a couple or three days and be less than a grand. We could manage without her car, she could use mine.

Then the insurance company stepped in. No, it had to be done at a multi-depot 'approved repairer' 20 miles away. They would arrange a loan car.

My wife asked for an economical car as a loaner...but they tried to fob her off with a bloody great lump of a 4x4, and seemed very hurt when she didn't want it. Eventually they found a little hatchback she could use.

They took weeks to do the repair...when we chased they said the car was at 'another depot'...and at one time they admitted it was 'lost'.

Eventually, it was returned. To be fair, the repair was good.

But god knows what the bill was...and someone made money out of it.

The weird thing is, the woman who drove into the car was insured by the same company.... work that one out.

[catcitrus]

My 2007 Triumph Tiger 1050 got written off by somebody doing a U turn without looking. I nearly missed him, and would have done if he had so much as glanced and stopped. I ended up in the gutter with just a few bruises but the bike had the whole of one side demolished along with a holed crankcase. The third party's insurance offered me half the value of the bike plus the carnage. I saw it dragged on to the back of a low loader with a chain around my shiny front wheel--I wanted nothing more to do with it. I told them where to go-and contacted my own company. They were great--said don't worry, asked me about extras , and I ended up with what I paid for it 2 years previously--less 500 quid excess. They paid me directly and I presume claimed off the 3rd party's insurance. However, I had protected no claims, uninsured loss etc and put in a claim for the excess --which I got back. I renewed with the same company(via CN)--and with a no fault, no claim outcome the premium was as expected--I have all 3 bikes and a van on a 6 wheel policy. I guess the message is --do your research and don't roll over at the first obstacle.

[byewayrider]

Seriously any high mileage motorbike that's covered 100,000 miles and over 10 years old is really worthless maybe £500...yes it's your pride and joy and works just fine but it's has very little value.. The term "run it into the ground" comes to mind... You've had your moneys worth from it... If its so special buy it back and fix it... But as we all know that's not really sensible or economical..

All insurance does in my view is protect you from counter sue for negligence... One reason all the bling is worthless... If its for a reason fine the rest is just vanity.