[Need advice] knock down neighbour motorbike when parking, requested repair bill >£1k

starkiwi26

Dear all MSE fellow members,

My house didn't have a parking, so we park at the roadside of the street I stay.
Last week Wednesday, when I parked my car, I accidentally knocked down the motorbike parked there.



I quickly go down and check, the owner saw it and came out from his house also.
He scolded me, and I apologized, I admitted it was my fault, and I would pay for damage.

He examined his motorbike, and one side mirror is broken, and the side of motorbike was scratched/broke a bit. We agreed that he would go and asked for quotation. I was shocked with this accident and tire that day, and he is my neighbour (a few houses from my house, though we never meet and never talk to each other), I didn't take down his motorbike details. because I would leave my details even if he didn't know I knocked his motorbike.

Today he finally SMSed me the quotation, it is >£1k, and he asked if I would pay or go for my car insurance. If I want quotation in writing, it would cost another £25. :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
I am very shock, I just lightly knocked his motorbike, how can it cost so much! I now asked him, how can it cost so much, what is repair in this >£1k, which garage he got the quote from and also his motorbike details.

I didn't know what to do now. This is really too expensive for lightly knock the motorbike. I prefer not to go for car insurance, actually didn't expect to go for car insurance for small knock like this, therefore I didn't even inform my insurance on this incidence.

My dear fellow member here, please advise what should I do?

Many thanks in advance.

starkiwi26

why I cannot post picture?
I draw out how this happen, hope to post here

arcon5

Just phone your insurer and inform them you knocked over a parked bike.
Then give the neighbour insurance details.

Rolandtheroadie

Go through the insurance.
Had a bike knocked over before, at very low speed. The gentleman was very apologetic, We lifted it up, and his wife said "it's ok, just a couple of scratches".
Insurer told me to take it to a garage for a quote for repairs. It cost me £25.
End result? A bit over £3000 worth of damage, meaning the bike was written off.

Edited to say, for "damage" read "repairs needed".

starkiwi26

Yes, why it can cost so much for the repair? this is even more expensive than car damage i think..
I was parking my car, just move forward to adjust the car, so the car speed is <5mph.. somehow knocked his motorbike a little, and the motorbike is not stable and fall down....

Warwick_Hunt

starkiwi26 wrote: »

Yes, why it can cost so much for the repair? this is even more expensive than car damage i think..
I was parking my car, just move forward to adjust the car, so the car speed is <5mph.. somehow knocked his motorbike a little, and the motorbike is not stable and fall down....

Because bikes are expensive to repair when knocked over.

Without knowing the make, model and damage anything else would be a guess.

starkiwi26

I prefer not to go for insurance because my UK driving license is a new license (about 2 years old only, but I had been driving at other country for >10 years, I never involve in an accidence yet). my car insurance is very expensive because it was quoted with new UK driving license. losing the NCB, and with this claim, it will likely hike my insurance price a lot

Warwick_Hunt

Looks like you're paying £1000 cash then.

walwyn1978

Warwick_Hunt wrote: »

Because bikes are expensive to repair when knocked over.

Without knowing the make, model and damage anything else would be a guess.

Agreed. Bikes have no crumple zone and no protection from even a minor crash. Every bit of a bike is important. I've had a very gentle collision on a bike (sub 10mph) and caused my bike to be written off (bike worth approx 2k, damage costing more than 1.5k to fix)

Aylesbury_Duck

You have two options if the neighbour allows you the options. Pay your neighbour for the repairs and notify your insurance for information purposes only, or ask the neighbour to claim from your insurance. You are in no position to argue because he will probably insist on going through insurance the instant you quibble over the price.

If you were in his position and he queried the costs, would you be confident to go and get the repairs done and be sure that he would pay the bill? I wouldn't be. I'd insist on going through your insurance.

marlot

Bike plastics can be VERY expensive. When someone hit my bike there was only a little damage, but it cost £1600.

You damaged the bike - either pay for it or put it through insurance!