Motorcycle Written off

MoistGoat

So I had finance on a motorcycle which I bought to use over 3 years. The value of said motorcycle at time of purchase was £2,800 and almost 4 weeks old on the road. It had 135 miles after the accident.

A car pulled out in front of me while I was in the right lane (one way with two lanes) and she pulled out and straight into the left lane. She was at fault being that I had right of way, and she also claimed liability for her actions at the scene.

Now I had GAP, which was a good idea (I believe) as my insurance didn't cover what GAP does. I know GAP is pointless if you haven't got a year old vehicle, though. GAP are trying to get the driver's insurance that pulled out in front of me to confirm the pre-accident valuation placed on the motorcycle. They sent a cheque which was £1,800 as they claimed it was uneconomical to repair and we didn't cash it of course, and instead started a claim.

There also was no inspection from her insurance company, they just went straight to offering a payout. Currently her insurance company is yet to reply to the emails sent by GAP for the pre-accident value.

I'm curious if anyone knows what I should do at this point, because it's taken over a month now to get to this stage. Should I be expecting them to cover the costs I'm losing? Because in my eyes I shouldn't have any losses for something that wasn't my fault.

Does anyone know the reputation of Royal Sun Alliance? Oh I also forwarded the GAP's emails to the same email they were sending to, explicitly mentioning the financial ombudsman service - hopefully that makes a difference.

Pretty annoyed about the whole thing really, and sort of wish I accepted the cheque even though I'd lose out on £1,000.

Edit: Sorry for the long post.

MrsTinks

chase your Gap insurer and primary insurance company. If you have it in writing she accepted liability then absolutely claim for any costs incurred due to her actions.

So... here's the thing about insurance. If they can keep you out of a hire vehicle etc they save a lot of money. So remind them that you're out of pocket and speak to your insurer too - if they have been involved they will know if the claim is disputed fault, accepted fault or if they've decided on a split. If it's down as their clients fault that should answer any questions. It does sound like the gap insurance are also not exactly burning rubber so chase them.

Your claim will have a claim handler or sit with a specific team - often a bike vs car will sit with a specialist team due to increased PI claim risk. If you suffered ANY injury please make sure you claim for it - you have 3 years from the accident generally to claim (a few exceptions but doubt they apply here...) - in short pester the crap out of whoever is handling your claim... escalate to their supervisor. Sadly it can be months for payouts, but if you get grumpy with them they may give you an interim pay out to make sure you're less likely to make a PI claim. It's all about paying the least possible for them... so you may need to fight a little

MoistGoat

Thing is the injuries I had gotten at the time were a bit of road rash despite the kevlar jeans not tearing and a bruise on my thigh. It was only a 20MPH crash if that, so I can't really imagine any sort of compensation for such injuries. I don't really care for any personal injury claim so long as I don't become worse off after the incident. What really annoys me is the lengthy process and jumping through hoops just to get 1 step further when it could have been all sorted out if GAP was willing to pay the £1,000 difference.

I'll keep fighting, because I refuse to be put into the position of owing money that I shouldn't. It'd be nice if I got compensation for the hassle for something that should be straight forward.

eset12345

MoistGoat wrote: »

Thing is the injuries I had gotten at the time were a bit of road rash despite the kevlar jeans not tearing and a bruise on my thigh. It was only a 20MPH crash if that, so I can't really imagine any sort of compensation for such injuries. I don't really care for any personal injury claim so long as I don't become worse off after the incident. What really annoys me is the lengthy process and jumping through hoops just to get 1 step further when it could have been all sorted out if GAP was willing to pay the £1,000 difference.

I'll keep fighting, because I refuse to be put into the position of owing money that I shouldn't. It'd be nice if I got compensation for the hassle for something that should be straight forward.

a couple of grand in personal injury there.... should make up for any low ball and out of pocket expenses you cant recover.

There's a reason people put in PI claims after bumps and scrapes, because the insurers never paid out fairly.

NCC-1701

Why not post in the Insurance section of the forum where you'll get way more professional advice?

MEM62

I fail to see why the underwriters providing the GAP insurance would need the third party's insurer to confirm the pre-accident value. This makes no sense.

Am I correct in that the bike was new and a 125? In this case you GAP insurer would be able to make their own determination of the value. I think you are being given the run around.