THINK bike!
We deal with a lot of claims on behalf of injured motorcyclists, and understand more than most the stresses involved if you’ve been hurt in an accident and your bike is off the road.
While our clients receive step-by-step advice and assistance throughout the claims process, to minimise the hassle involved we thought it would be helpful to deal with a view frequently raised issues and concerns.
Why won’t my own insurers help me with my claim?
Can I have a replacement bike while mine is off the road?
How can I claim for my damaged clothing and helmet?
What happens about repairs to my bike - and how quickly?
How will the accident affect my insurance premium?
What if my bike is on finance?
I don’t agree with the valuation they have put on my bike – what can I do?
I was ‘filtering’ when the accident happened - will this affect my claim?
Why am I being held partly to blame for the accident?
I am under 18 – how does this affect the claims process?
Why do the third party insurers take so long to respond?
Why won’t my own insurers help me with my claim?
There are two types of insurance cover – comprehensive and third party. If you have third party insurance then you are only covered for claims made against you, not for injuries to yourself or damage to your bike. Your insurers will deal with any claims made by the other driver/rider but the only way you will recover damages is to make a claim through a specialist company such as comercrawley.
With comprehensive insurance, the position is different. Here, your insurers will deal with the damage to your bike, and while you may have to pay a small excess we can recover this for you from the other driver’s insurers. This makes things much quicker.
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Can I have a replacement bike while mine is off the road?
As long as you can show you have a need for hire [for example, to get to college or work] and you are not physically restricted from riding because of your injuries, then your broker will be able to organise a hire bike for you through a firm called Plantec. It is advisable to use Plantec because they will not usually charge you anything, and will recover their fees directly from the other driver’s insurance company.
You must speak to us or your broker before hiring alternative transport as there can be problems in recovering these costs.
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How can I claim for my damaged clothing and helmet?
Even if the accident is not your fault, the law requires you to prove every aspect of the claim. This means providing receipts/statements for the purchase of the damaged items where at all possible and/or photographs of the damage to the items – do not dispose of them until the claim is finalised. Payments are not made on a ‘new for old’ basis so the Court can deduct up to 33% for wear and tear.
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What happens about repairs to my bike - and how quickly?
If you have third party insurance then we will need to get the other driver’s insurers to inspect your bike if the damage is serious. They will arrange for their engineer to come and look at it – this will take a few weeks and we have no control over how quickly they move. In the meantime, it is important you keep the bike in a place where it is being stored free of charge – insurers will not generally pay storage fees.
Their engineer will prepare a report, either writing the bike off if it is uneconomic or unsafe to repair or giving a repair estimate. If the bike is written of they will put forward a valuation. You are only entitled to the pre-accident value – not what you paid for it.
If the damage is minor, then you may obtain your own repair estimate and we will forward this to insurers who may agree the repair cost.
We would advise you not to proceed with repairs until these are agreed by the insurers.
Often insurers will make a ‘without prejudice’ payment to you for the bike at the start of the claim while they are still looking into liability - but if you are ultimately found to be at fault, they are entitled to claim this back from you.
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How will the accident affect my insurance premium?
If the other driver’s insurers admit liability, your claim is treated as ‘no fault’ and the premium is not loaded. While liability is disputed, or if you accept blame, then your premium will rise at renewal.
If your premium does increase while the claim is proceeding, it is usually possible for you to recover any rise in premium imposed by your insurer once liability has been accepted.
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What if my bike is on finance?
You are obliged to tell the finance company about the accident if the bike is damaged. You will be required to use any payment you receive for the bike to discharge any outstanding finance.
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I don’t agree with the valuation they have put on my bike – what can I do?
The engineers generally use Glass’s Guide so it is quite difficult to get an insurer to increase an offer. You would need to produce evidence showing what you believe the bike is worth – adverts for similar bikes [same age, mileage etc] may be helpful. Alternatively, you can commission your own engineer’s report, but this would cost around £100 and this is payable by you.
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I was ‘filtering’ when the accident happened - will this affect my claim?
It depends. The Highway Code specifically recognises filtering now, but it is still perceived by the Courts as a hazardous manoeuvre which carries a risk of accident – particularly if there are junctions in the vicinity. For this reason, if an accident occurs while you are filtering, there will almost always be a deduction to reflect this - although each case is different.
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Why am I being held partly to blame for the accident?
Although the other driver may be primarily at fault for causing the accident, if you have been riding in an unsafe way the insurers may seek to hold you partly responsible. We will discuss this with you if it arises.
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I am under 18 – how does this affect the claims process?
We will take formal instructions through your ‘litigation friend’ who is usually a parent and who signs the paperwork on your behalf at the start of the claim.
We can’t conclude a claim if you are still under 18 unless the insurers agree to a procedure whereby your parent signs a form accepting the compensation on your behalf, or the settlement is approved by a Judge. Sometimes it may be necessary to wait until you are 18 (if your birthday is only a few months away) before concluding the claim. Generally insurers will release payments for financial losses.
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Why do the third party insurers take so long to respond?
Insurers’ claims departments are generally understaffed and work to a backlog of up to six weeks – there is unfortunately very little we can do to speed up their response time because everyone is put in a queue. When we first notify them of a claim they do have three months to investigate and we cannot force them to respond any sooner. We do keep matters diarised and chase them regularly at reasonable intervals.
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If you have any other questions to ask, please contact us - by telephone, post or e-mail.
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Free consultation
For a free consultation please call Keely Dougan on:
01379 644311
