Bike Insurance claim rejected

disgruntled_claimant

I have a 125cc motorbike user in conjuction with a delivery business and was insured for this purpose. In august 09 it was no longer used for work (although still owned by the company) and the insurance was changed to social, domestic and commuting for the employee who used it to commute to and from work and the address it was kept at was changed with the insurance company. In Febuary this year the bike was stolen from outside the house where it was registered and recovered by police. After 3 weeks of the claim being made the insurance company picked up the bike and took it for asseement. Two weeks after that I recieved a phonecall to inform me that as the rider had the steering lock on but no secondary device fitted the insurance company have refused the claim even though it was explained to them the rider was going to be taking the bike out shortly before it was stolen and therefore didnt have the lock fitted. I have argued that they have refused a ligitimate claim but they are not budging. What has really incensed me is that I am now told the bike has had a Catagory B writeoff and therefore it is only allowed to be sold as parts, therefore rendering it worthless. Furthermore they have taken the bike to a scrapyard 85miles from my place of business which i believe is unacceptable, with the scrapyard wanting £150 to return it to where the picked it up from. I have argued that they cannot writeoff the bike if they are turning down the claim but they have told me they are quite legally allowed to do this. Can anyone tell me if this is correct and whether it is worth fighting this with the ombisman. The bike was 18months old, had 700 miles on the clock and was £2000 new.

Please help!!

huckster

Yes I think it is correct that they can scrap a vehicle if cat b write off, even if they did not accept the claim due.

But I really think you should get some legal advice and take this up with the Insurance company. You could go to the FOS, after going though the Insurers complaints procedure, but this could take 6 months or more. Personally I would have it looked at legally and if there is a case, then follow the legal advice. But be aware that if you go to court, the FOS will then not be able to look at your complaint.

lisyloo

So are you saying that a discount was accepted for having a secondary locking device fitted, but this was not used at the time of the theft?

I'd say they are within their rights to refuse the claim.
I can't comment on the rest. It does sound harsh.

Other readers should take a warning from this.
If you accept a discount for a lock, alarm or putting a vehicle in the garage, then you have to be prepared to do it ALL the time, because if you claim a discount for it and then don't do it, you risk being uninsured.
For this reason I generally don't take these discounts beacuse I consider it not worthwhile.
I might use a lock/alarm 95% of the time, but there are always occassions when it's inconvenient for 5 minute stops, so you need to ask yourself whether it's worth a few quid.

inch_high

lisyloo wrote: »

I might use a lock/alarm 95% of the time, but there are always occassions when it's inconvenient for 5 minute stops, so you need to ask yourself whether it's worth a few quid.

Ditto Lisyloo, I have my CBR600 locked up all the time, but for the tiny saving in premium, its not worth risking it, the time you forget to put a lock on it, will be the day it gets nicked. In saying that, how many bikes get nicked with the chain on? The insurance company wouldnt know whether the lock was on or not... Not that I would advise you to tell porkies!

To the OP, regarding the claim being knocked back, thats tough I'm affraid. I work with bike claims, and recently had one where a guy was riding around, stopped at his house for 5 mins to go toilet and came out to find it nicked. From what I recall, I dont think the steering lock was even on... Claim knocked back.

As for them scrapping it. I think you may have your wires crossed. The insurance company dont own the bike if they are cancelling your claim so its not theirs to scrap. If it is a Cat B then you cant put it back on the road, but its yours to strip and sell for parts if you wish, or sell it as a Cat B Write-Off. The recovery yard are right to be charging £150 and if theyre offering to take it back to where it was found I'd bite their hand iff if that makes it closer to you as they dont have to do that. They are also within their right to charge storage cots, usually £10 per day. If you have had a letter saying the bike is being scrapped, are you sure its from the insurance company? Its probably from the recovery yard.

Who were you insured with?

disgruntled_claimant

Thanks for the responses. I am insured with AVIVA. There was no discount offered for having a secondary fitted device (as i definatly would have had it taken out of the policy if i could have) but it is written in there so that is not really my main issue. The main problem was that they have written off the bike, and even got an engineer to look at it, whilst having no intention of paying out on the claim. Therefore have they not written off a vehicle which in essence is nothing to do with them. Furthermore they gave it a Cat B write off just because the steering lock was broke, apart from that it was in mint condition. Therefore i was a victim of crime, my bike has been taken, written off, and put 85miles away without the company being willing to pay a penny, or explain how and why they wrote off a bike which wasnt going to have a claim processed. Does this sound correct?

huckster

The way Aviva have handled this is pretty poor. They should have informed you of the process and if the bike was to be a write off, you should have been given the opportunity to collect the salvage. You could have then obtained your own inspection of the bike and arranged to make roadworthy if this was possible/economic to do.

I refer to my previous advice which is to get a legal opinion.

raskazz

huckster wrote: »

The way Aviva have handled this is pretty poor. They should have informed you of the process and if the bike was to be a write off, you should have been given the opportunity to collect the salvage. You could have then obtained your own inspection of the bike and arranged to make roadworthy if this was possible/economic to do.

I refer to my previous advice which is to get a legal opinion.

There is no evidence at this stage that they have handled this poorly as we do not know the timing of the receipt of the engineers report or the decision to repudiate the claim. The insurer is not going to leave a category B total loss sitting there accumulating storage charges so it is quite right to move it to the salvage agent - this is mitigating the OP's losses as any storage charges would have had to be recovered from the OP in light of the repudiation of the claim.

An insurer is never ever going to actively give a client opportunity to retain category A or B salvage as these are vehicles which have been so severely damaged that they should never be returned to the road - the insurer has a duty of care to the client and the general public alike. In this respect it doesn't matter whether the insurer pays the claim in full, in part or not at all - this is immaterial to the question of whether the bike should be scrapped or returned.

The OP needs to contact the salvage yard.

oscardog

Aviva suck so this is no great surprise.

They treat customers and victims of customers with no care or consideration whatsoever.

Am very sorry you are being subjected to them.

inch_high

raskazz wrote: »

In this respect it doesn't matter whether the insurer pays the claim in full, in part or not at all - this is immaterial to the question of whether the bike should be scrapped or returned.

Whilst I agree with everything you have said (I'm guessing youre in the trade), I dont agree with your final statement. Its not Aviva's bike to bin. I agree that they may have had it lifted to avoid storage charges following the inspection (although the fact that the recovery yard are asking for £150 suggests that its at the original yard, otherwise it'd be Aviva asking for it), but the bike is not theirs. They will get a fee for the bike from said storage yard who will sell it for bits. If the OP doesnt send them his V5 then its not theirs.

IMO OP, the bike is yours and not Aviva's to sell. However, they are within their rights to repudiate the claim and for the yard to charge you £150 for the pleasure.

huckster

raskazz wrote: »

There is no evidence at this stage that they have handled this poorly as we do not know the timing of the receipt of the engineers report or the decision to repudiate the claim.
The OP needs to contact the salvage yard.

Razkazz

The reason for me saying it was poorly handled, was the comment of the OP in their second post which was. "Furthermore they gave it a Cat B write off just because the steering lock was broke, apart from that it was in mint condition"

Obviously having thought about it, I don't think a bike would be written off just because of a broken steering lock, so there must have been more damage?

As I said earlier, my advice is for the OP is to see a solicitor with all the information, for their opinion on whether it is worth pursuing. While I accept the points made by Razkazz about storage and responsbility regarding dealing with a write-off, I do wonder about the way Aviva have handled this. I am not convinced that legally Aviva have met their obligations to the policyholder. Surely Aviva owed the policyholder a duty of care, by informing them of what was happening with the claim at key points, as soon as they were aware. They were not paying the claim, the salvage was not theirs to decide what they were doing with it. The policyholder should have been given the opportunity to arrange their own inspection to inform them about the condition of the bike. This may have contradicted the Insurers engineers report about the bike being in a write off condition.