Insurance or accept cash to repair it myself?

[YamFazFan]

My monies on it being a 1.4 petrol 

Yes it is a 1.4 petrol. It's the TFSI 150bhp turbo petrol.

[SpokesT]

Assuming it is a straightforward process form now of it being written off with her insurers carrying the cost, what is the process? Do they offer me a fiver and I stroke my beard and say, "make it two grand " and we work towards a figure in a kind of reverse haggle, or do they just state a figure they will not vary and I have to be done with it? How involved do my insurers get in terms of getting me the best deal? I've never had to do any of this in over thirty years of riding or driving, hence picking the brains of the many and varied experts on here. With thanks and appreciation for all the inputs so far.

[BBROWN1664]

Everyone is assuming its her car. Maybe its her mums or even a company car.

Either way, it makes no difference to you Spokes, let the insurance deal with it and be prepared for a low ball offer to start with.
Dig out copies of adverts from Biketrader or similar showing bikes in similar condition and mileage etc to show how much it will cost you to replace with a near identical bike. Thats the figure you aim for.

[dazza]

Just be prepared to get hit with a twat tax 

[agricola]

An assessor should come to look at the bike damage. He'll sent the info with an estimate to the insurers. You will be made an offer. You can refuse the offer and try to get it revised upwards. You should try this as the insurers will try to get away with the least cost to themselves. They are not interested in you. They are just trying to save money.

Good luck with it

[SpokesT]

It is her car. The insurers are representing her, not anyone else with the same surname e.g. Mum or Dad. And it turns out her insurers are MY insurers too! No wonder they called me within minutes of her texting me to tell me she was going down this path. They called me earlier and started talking about settlements, either market value or cash to repair it myself. To that end they are getting a 'motorbike engineer' to call me tomorrow to discuss the itemised damage list I've given them as per the workshop assessment I posted on here, as they 'recognise that older bikes can often be repaired using second hand but still serviceable parts'. Which is all very well, providing such parts exist for sale. They'll also sort me out with a hire bike in the meantime.

Bottom line is my bike will live on, one way or another. Huzzah!

[mtread]

Good news  and make sure you get a nice hire bike (although nothing's better than a ) and enjoy it 

[Slaninar]

It is her car. The insurers are representing her, not anyone else with the same surname e.g. Mum or Dad. And it turns out her insurers are MY insurers too! No wonder they called me within minutes of her texting me to tell me she was going down this path. They called me earlier and started talking about settlements, either market value or cash to repair it myself. To that end they are getting a 'motorbike engineer' to call me tomorrow to discuss the itemised damage list I've given them as per the workshop assessment I posted on here, as they 'recognise that older bikes can often be repaired using second hand but still serviceable parts'. Which is all very well, providing such parts exist for sale. They'll also sort me out with a hire bike in the meantime.

Bottom line is my bike will live on, one way or another. Huzzah!

Just in case this helps you, even a bit:

Local insurance companies in my country hire real experts to assess the damages. The man should know the prices of 2nd hand parts and repairs. Make sure you are well prepared - with quotes from service shops for installing the parts, as well as with quotes for new parts. The policy is to see if prices of new parts + labour match the write off price. If they do, or exceed the write of price - you get the bike written of, and do with the money as you please - repair, or get another bike (the latter is hardly ever possible for the money you get).

Trying to report some previous damage as the damage resulting from the incident (not even implying you were planing on that, but just in case) usually gets you in trouble for a fraud charge.

Best of luck - hope it all goes well.
Hope you don't get a Honda for a hire bike.   

[BBROWN1664]

If they are going to repair it, let them worry about where the parts come from. As long as it is as good a condition when you get it back as it was before the accident then its not a worry. after all, the parts that got damaged were not new were they?

As for write off values, as I have said before, have a look at existing adverts for similar age/condition/milage bikes and that is the price you want regardless of how low they value it.

[SpokesT]

Well this is becoming surreal. Not only am I getting a hire bike, I've just had a call from their tech guy to discuss the estimate for the damage that I presented.

"I've seen your damaged parts list and the quoted cost for effecting the repair and it would put this into the realms of being written off. I understand that you would be willing to accept a cash settlement to keep your bike on the road yourself. Your estimate has the damage at £1487, but we could only offer you...."

>sits back awaiting pi$$taking piddly offer of 50%<

"...£1400 if that's acceptable."

>falls off chair<

It's a good job I'm an atheist or else I'd be wasting the rest of today down at St Ignatius's on my knees 😜

[BBROWN1664]

Unusual for a good offer first time round. Is it inline with teh going rate for a repalcement though based on the adverts on-line?

[Robbie8666]

SpokesT I'd go and buy an euro millions ticket for tonight's £72m draw!!

[darrsi]

You could buy another bike with that money 
Nice result, i wasn't expecting that one. 

[mtread]

Haggle, there's £87 at stake here 

[agricola]

Is that £1,400 write off value, and then you have to buy it back. If it is, you need to find out the buy back cost now

[fazersharp]

Nice try but I have sussed you mate -------- you work for the insurance image department and this has all been a rouse to lead us to a good insurance publicity image stunt.

[SpokesT]

I'm still reeling in shock from this. At the quoted prices, I can buy a new, painted and stickered fairing and tank if need be, and still have around £600 left to buy bars, clutch lever, bar ends etc, all of which I can get as pattern parts or eg Renthal which I hear are better angled than the originals. No impact on my bike's status, or my no claims. Vehicular negativity never works in my favour usually, hence all my previous questions, the answers to which once again I thank you all for.

[Slaninar]

Glad to hear you got a fair compensation. Pics when you finish the repairs!

[steve 10562cc]

Good for you Spokes repair and enjoy. Really nice to hear of a rider coming out on top for once in a no blame on them collision.

[BBROWN1664]

Be careful - make sure they dont record it as a Cat-C. If they do, which they are entitled to, teh value will drop so anythign you spend on the bike gettign it back into shape will be money you lose effectively when you go to resell it.

[SpokesT]

They've told me it won't affect the status of either my bike or my no claims

[Tefer]

So your getting £1400 and its not written off? Well done if that's the case.


My 99 fzs600 was knocked over by a driver while stationary in a car park, she asked about paying the damage. I gave her a list of what was needed, was only about £400, she decided to go via insurance, which i found weird but i was getting bike fixed, so happy. Well the insurance ended up writting the bike off, i was offered £1600 or £1278 and keep the bike, thought i'd won a watch. Went to Europe, repaired the bike and got a shed.... Only now do i realise how its not all a plain as you think. I have to declare the accident, ok as a non fault but it has to be declared and this has affected my insurance for both bike and other policies, this could be bad luck on my part or the true picture. I was added to my Partners brothers van insurance, he asked all my details and i had to supply the claim info, he said with out the claim his policy went up £30 a year... with the claim it was up £80 a year. Just because it all looks well just now, it could change the future.

[NorthWestern]

I had the same as Tefer.  My no claims was unnafected but for 5 years (for me this period ended a couple of years ago) I had an inflated insurance for simply being in an insurance claim (no claim made against myself it was all the other parties fault).  You can actually check this by ticking the box on compare the market - it is something like "been involved in an accident in last 5 years even if not your fault" - and compare with and without to see how much it will affect you.


I found that the insurance companies wouldn't budge each year after calling them directly...

[BBROWN1664]

My Mrs has had no-fault claims and my insurance went up as a result as she is a named driver

[BBROWN1664]

The line the insurance company takes is that as it was not your fault, they wont reduce your discount (no-claims) but as you were aft enough to be in the place you were to get hit by someone else you are obviously a higher risk as you might do it again so load your premium.

Barstewards