Advice please: Insurance co lost Yamaha Dragstar motorbike - Female rider!!!

Profoundlogic

I am writing to the forum because I have become completely frustrated with a very unusual situation which has arisen. I would appreciate your advice.


I recently had a bike accident and the insurers (AXA) asked me to send the bike to their garage which I did.

They then sent my bike to be scapped without my consent. An accident which they have admitted.

They refuse to pay me for the loss of the bike (except for its market value) but this does not take into consideration all the inconvenience and 'real loss' that I have incurred.

I still am the legal owner, I still have the log book and I still have it insured. My email to them is below. They refuse to do anything.

Help, what can I do!!?
___________





Dear Gordon,

I have just spoken to Richard Bowers who has said that I am to be given only an extra £400 for the loss of my bike which was in for repair with yourselves.


As you know, I did not release the bike for salvage and still have the log book and legal ownership of the bike.

I am not happy with the offer that was made because this does not cover my expenses and the inconvenience I have gone through with this claim.

Firstly, I have not had my bike since end of July.
I have not had very good communications from yourselves over what is happening with the bike. And it took me to call last week (after over a month) to find out that the bike had not been traced and there was nothing you could do to find it.


I have had to continue to pay for insurance for the bike while this is sorted out.

I have had to cease my lessons and hence progress towards getting my full licence. And now it is winter.


I face the inconvenience of replacing my bike with another Yamaha 125 or similar bike (which MAY cost more) so I can pass my test.

I don’t think the above is really covered with a £400 increase of my settlement.

The bike as you know was my pride and joy. I even said this to your engineer (which he has said was recorded when we spoke) and I told him I wanted it back.

Firstly, I would like to know who is responsible for sending it to salvage. Richard said it was AXA’s fault but then said I needed to deal with the claim with yourselves. Well, if it is AXA’s fault that the bike was released, surely I need to take this up with them.

I will tell you what I am looking for which is what I believe is fair:

Payment for the bike minus the excess = £1600
If I had the bike back, I would have had it on the road for £800 or less and been able to sell it for (I estimate 1600) so I am out of pocket £800 just there.
I have had to pay for insurance, loss of momentum on my lessons which means I will have to take more of these, and the fact that I now have to spend time (which I value at £300 per day which is what I charge as a freelancer) to find a new bike. All this inconvenience I estimate at :
Insurance £100
Lessons £300
Time to buy new bike (2 days minimum) £600

Therefore I am seeking £3400 which is much less than the £2200 which you have currently offered.

Can I please also make it clear that this figure can also go up if this matter is not swiftly resolved and I am sent from pillar to post in order to draw a satisfactory conclusion to this matter. I will have no choice but to charge you for the time I have lost trying to resolve this (it has taken me 30 minutes to write this email alone along with a phone call of 10 minutes with Richard just prior). I will be keeping copious notes on this matter in case it leads to litigation from a small claims court appeal.


As far as I can see, the only person who hasn’t done anything wrong and who should not be inconvenienced or out of pocket is … me. I have no messed up here (except for the accident in the first place) so I don’t propose to be out of pocket or unfairly inconvenienced. I am a very busy filmmaker and lecturer and I do not have extra time to spend either on trying to find a new bike or wrangling to get this set right and I am finding dealing with this matter very stressful.


If you would like to see it from my side- losing the bike and having to go through all this is just about worth £3400 to me. I think that is a fair settlement and I do not propose haggling over this so please do not send me any other offers. I believe I have been fair about this and am now looking for conclusion to this unfortunate episode.

dacouch

See section 16 of these notes from the Ombudsman http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html#13

Badger_Lady

Looks good

16. salvage of the "written-off" vehicle and contents

Once the policyholder accepts payment of the full market value, the insurer becomes the owner of the salvage. If the policyholder asks to keep the salvage, the insurer is entitled to deduct what it would have been able to sell the salvage for. This is usually not very much.
But what if the policyholder complains that the insurer (or its agent) disposed of the salvage before paying the full market-value? At this stage, the vehicle still belongs to the policyholder, and we take the view that the insurer should not have disposed of it without first obtaining the policyholder’s consent to the settlement of the claim – even if the insurer said it was only acting in the public interest by keeping a badly-damaged vehicle off the roads. In such circumstances, and unless the insurer returns the salvage, we usually award the policyholder compensation for inconvenience.
If the policyholder had personal belongings in the vehicle when the insurer disposed of it without consent, we are likely to award the cost of replacing these – usually on a like-for-like (rather than a new-for-old) basis.
"Written-off" vehicles are categorised – according to the severity of the damage – under a voluntary code agreed between the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and salvage dealers (ABI Code of Practice for the Disposal of Motor Vehicle Salvage):

• Category A vehicles are to be kept off the road and crushed.
• Category B vehicles are also to be kept off the road, but could be broken up for spare parts.
• Category C vehicles are repairable, but uneconomical to repair.
• Category D vehicles are repairable economically, but written-off for some other reason.

Since 7 April 2003 all category A, B and C vehicles notified to DVLA must pass a Vehicle Identity Check before they can be returned to the road. This is an identity check, to confirm that the vehicle is the original one and not stolen, and does not check roadworthiness or repairs. (The Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) (Amendment) Regulations 2002)

Profoundlogic

Wow, you are amazing Badger Lady. Where did you find this information. You are a super-star and if I had a biker gang, I would make you an honorary member!

mikey72

If you were accepting the value for the bike as a write off, for £1600, if you want to buy the bike back, to repair and re-sell, you need to take that amount off the the settlement figure.
From your figures, anything up to £800 in that case. Did they suggest a figure you could buy it back for?

Profoundlogic

Yes, I was buying the bike back for £500 and then they realised someone had made a !!!!-up and the bike had been sent to salvage or so they say (everyone was being so vague about everything) and this has taken AGES to sort and so many phone calls, letters, etc.... the time alone is what I am after getting compensated for. Plus as I said to them on the phone at least twice: that bike was my pride and joy!!!

mikey72

If you had agreed the bike was a write off, and agreed a scrap value, you have to knock the £500 off your claim then.
Even then, you had agreed to write it off, the only bit that went wrong was they then sold it to someone else, not to you, but hopefully the above clause will still stand.

mikey72

I'm not understanding your figures thinking about it.
If you agreed the bike was a write off, why are you claiming two days to find another just because you haven't got the salvage?
You'd need to find another in any case, so I can't see why you can claim this.
The same with the insurance, if you ageed it was a write off, and you were replacing it, either your insurance automatically expires anyway (check your t&c's) or you could have cancelled it.
Either way the loss of the salvage has no bearing on the write off.
Same with the riding lessons, either you had a replacement bike, or you elected to wait until you could buy the salvage, and then have it repaired, vic checked etc, and so you would still have to wait a substantial time.
I think the £400 is looking a fair offer tbh.
Not that I ever side with insurance companies, as many people will know, but realistically it could to hard to win on this one, without dragging the claim on forever.

raskazz

As others have pointed out, your sums don't add up. The amount that you are chasing is, quite frankly, ridiculous, even taking account of the insurer's balls-up.

mikey72

Noooooooooooooo!!!


Raskazz and I agree.

Profoundlogic

I should have mentioned that the bike had minimal damage- broken brake handle and a scratched exhaust. I was also not told about the bike being "lost" till I called many weeks later. The bike would have been roadworthy with a day in the mechanics.

I am shocked you have such sympathy with the insurance company. If they lost your bike, didnt get back to you for weeks, sent you from pillar to post, and then you had to BUY a whole new bike months later, you'd be happy to accept £100 which is what they have offered as compensation?

Are you for real? Or do you just work in insurance???