trike insurance, proving value.

chuggernought

in september i was involved in an accident when a car pulled across my path i hit the side of his car with my trike and was thrown over the handlebars and onto the road beyond. since then i have had a courtesy car and my insurance have been working on my behalf. the car drivers insurance company recently admitted 100% liability and sent their engineer out to asses, basically he was a car engineer/valuer and didn't really know what he was looking at valueing it at only £300!! anyone who knows trikes will know that you cant replace a trike in any condition for that. i realise my trike was a working used motor and not a pristine concourse example and therefore valued it at £800. my problem is they want examples of similar vehicles to argue a value, but trikes are all individual one offs, i have got some similar adverts of reliant based trikes but they are all a bit newer so they wont exept them their simply isn't another trike like mine to compare to. my insurance company have said there is nothing more they can do and advised me to cash the cheque(not likely till its resolved!!!), they are now taking the courtesy car back and informed me to contact the other drivers company direct.
my problem is how can i convince them of the replacement value on such an unusual vehicle for which there are so few examples for sale, particulily in winter. i know i can get an independent assesor but i will then have to foot the extra cost.
it seems that because they dont know what it is they assume its worthless.
i have also found out that my "trike specialist" insurance company actually farms out claims to other claim management companies who dont even know what trikes are!!
sorry for the long post!

mattymoo

Have you looked at Ebay?

A quick search shows 56 currently for sale in their motors section. If you then log in (you need to register but it is free) you can see the completed listings.

Look down the list for those shown in Green - they are the ones that sold. Red ones did not sell 'cos of lack of interest or an unreasonably high reserve set by the seller.

You can sort the list by price. One reliant trike reached £1,006. It did not sell because the reserve was not met, suggesting the owner wanted more. The item number is 320465995756 so you can go straight to it using the search function.

chuggernought

yep looked at ebay and there are always loads on there but the insurance company wont exept anything off ebay because its an auction site! they really have their bases covered! thanks for looking!
i've also looked in trike magazine,auto trader e.t.c.

dacouch

The following is an excerpt from the Ombudsman's Guidance / Rulings on valuing a car. Clearly your vehicle would come under the unusual headline so advertisements and completed ebay auctions would be sensible for the Insurer to take into account. Especially as the ebay prices are for what trikes have actually sold for rather than adverts which the ombudsman regards as the price to start haggling from.


Please take the time to read the whole link from thge Ombudsman, so you read the guidance in context, in addition you will find other useful information.

(Bear in mind you cannot threaten the third party Insurer with going to the Ombudsman as they will not normally take on complaints that are not about your own Insurer. However it would be best practice for them to follow the Ombudsmans guidance and a call to the Ombudsman might result in an informal word in the ear of the Insurer from the Ombudsman)

8. advertisements

We do not usually find advertisements for similar vehicles very persuasive. A vehicle may often be sold for less than the advertised price. And small differences in mileage, year of registration, model type etc can significantly affect the value. But they may provide some assistance, if they are treated with caution.
In a few cases, where the vehicle does not feature in the readily-available guides, advertisements may be the only evidence available. Examples include vehicles with foreign specifications which have been personally imported into the UK. And where a vehicle has been heavily modified, there may be a specialist market for it – which may affect its value (upwards or downwards).



http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

chuggernought

well the accident happened in september and its now may, i have got another independent assesor to value the trike and he's put it at £1000
the third party's engineer has dismissed this and flatly refused to increase his £300 value.
my insurance have now said nothing they can do.
looks like i will have to take them to court, dont know where to start never done that before.
apparently they wont exept any evidence from ebay, or a specialist trike engineer/garage(he's an expert NOT an assesor, my insurance companies words!) and a magazine add would have to be exactly the same as mine(year,model,type colour,milage e.t.c) impossible as trikes are all one offs.
dont know where i'm going to go with this now in terms of evidence.:(

foggytown

chuggernought wrote: »

well the accident happened in september and its now may, i have got another independent assesor to value the trike and he's put it at £1000
the third party's engineer has dismissed this and flatly refused to increase his £300 value.
my insurance have now said nothing they can do.
looks like i will have to take them to court, dont know where to start never done that before.
apparently they wont exept any evidence from ebay, or a specialist trike engineer/garage(he's an expert NOT an assesor, my insurance companies words!) and a magazine add would have to be exactly the same as mine(year,model,type colour,milage e.t.c) impossible as trikes are all one offs.
dont know where i'm going to go with this now in terms of evidence.:(

Here's a good place to start if you are considering taking them to small claims court. I think the fee for a claim of £1000 is only around £45. www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

Since your damaged property was so unusual, the court should be inclined to at least consider non-traditional evidence. Is there someone independent who knew your trike well? Get a value statement from him. Got photos of it? Those are good. And other trikes don't have to be EXACTLY the same as yours - they can be a little better or a little worse and then adjustments can be made accordingly.