Bike stolen and torched

biscuit1_2

Hi all my son had his yamaha xvs 125 dragstar stolen and torched yesterday, now i havent had to ever claim on anything so not sure what happens. Now the bike is quite old but holds value really well and its only done 8,000 mile's. They are for sale on Ebay for £1200-£1400. Now there is a £400 excess does this have to be paid in advance of the payout or is it taken out of the payout. He had a call from them this morning and he felt they were trying to tell him its not worth claiming as he would only get £600 and with the excess and the extra insurance costs HE would incure wouldnt be worth while, needless to say he never commited to anything. Does anyone know on what basis the insurance companies base there valuations on, and is there any course i can take if i feel they are deliberatley under-valueing, it is possible he miss-understood what they were telling him, but i doubt it

Quentin

Excess gets deducted from the payout


Value should be the current market value.


By claiming apart from his excess he will lose 2 years NCD at renewal (and none awarded for the current year)


He can do dummy quotes now online with either a fault claim in his history or just a stolen bike, no claim made in the history. (As he reported this, then he will need to disclose it as an incident even if he doesn't claim). Then he can see what difference actually making the claim makes to the premium.

OnanTheBarbarian

Market value can be calculated by looking at what identical machines are selling for, i.e. age, mileage, condition etc (but remember the for sale price does not directly mean the market value as the insurers will argue nobody ever pays the screen price for a vehicle and usually haggles a discount)

They will deduct the excess before making the payment

if he is paying monthly instalments they will also deduct whatever premium he still owes from the settlement.

Aretnap

See here for the Financial Ombudsman's view on how vehicles should be valued

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

Advertised prices aren't necessarily the best guide to valuing a car or a motorbike - the fact that someone advertises a bike for £1400 doesn't mean that they'll actually sell it for £1400 (or even that they'll sell it at all). They may well end up negotiating over the price, or readvertising it at a lower price when it doesn't sell. As far as possible valuations are based on actual selling prices, which is where trade guides like Parker's come in.

The excess will be deducted from the valuation, so if they value it at £1000, he'll get £600.

nobbysn*ts

Sounds like they are trying to scam you, with a very low offer. Do your homework, and if they won't pay the market price, to replace it like for like from a dealer, not a private sale, complain, then complain to the FOS.

biscuit1_2

As far as value goes they are sought after and sell easily for £1200 thats not me being cocky in fact they have gone on ebay for £1700 with higher mileage. The insurance company were indicating to him the excess is paid in advance. As far as loseing his no claims he doesnt have any yet, and it's a shame that because someone decided to pinch his bike that he is then deemed to be high risk in the same way as a young boy racer who has crashed.

nobbysn*ts

Sounds like they're trying it on heavily. They will pay the value (hopefully) less the excess. So it you agree on say £1600, they will send you a cheque for £1200. They should also be open to transferring the remainder of your insurance onto a new bike, but can charge a reasonable amendment fee. They may tell you the policy is simply finished, ok if you've had it 11 months, not good if you've had it 2 weeks. FOS again if they try this. If you pay monthly, they can transfer and continue to pay monthly, they may take the full year out of the settlement though, if you haven't paid all up front.

biscuit1_2

Cheers all, we do pay monthly and only had it 3 months but he intends to replace the bike in fact thats what he wants more than anything as he is bitterly dissapointed its gone, i'm really glad i came here

OnanTheBarbarian

What they were talking about with only £600 may well be the likely figure he could end up with after the excess is deducted and the remaining premium for the rest of the year is also offset.

forgotmyname

Some policies end when they make a total loss payout. Is that the case with your policy?

Excess and unpaid premium maybe taken out of the payout. So a fair chunk less than the bikes value.

nobbysn*ts

forgotmyname wrote: »

Some policies end when they make a total loss payout. Is that the case with your policy?

Excess and unpaid premium maybe taken out of the payout. So a fair chunk less than the bikes value.

No. See post #7. If this happened to you, you were stung.