Bike Crash - Claim Advice

benhben

Whilst I agree accidents and injuries shouldnt be overexagerrated at a disproportonally large cost to the offener in relation to the size of the accident, the victim should in no way shape or form be worse off because of someone elses carelessness.

If real injuries have been sustained at expense to the individual, and posessions damaged then they should be compensated. The moral issue is how far to people take it towards making up a story.

benhben

Some good news regarding the crash which wrote off my Stretto. The drivers insurance has admitted liability to the soliciters.

Does anyone know if the paying insurance co are likely to ask for the bike to be sent to them.

As all the wheels components saddle etc are still in working order, im thinking of buying a replacement Stretto frame and asking the local bike store to strip the components from the damaged frame and onto the new one.

Probably be cheaper than buying a new bike

BobScarle

From my own limited knowledge I would say to you that if an insurance company write off a car, bike or whatever and they pay out on it, then they own it. That means the wheels and groupset are not yours to remove and put on a new bike frame unless you buy them back from the insurers.

Ankles50

When i had my colnago written off, the insurers contacted me and offered all the components from the frame for just £50 to finalize the claim. So i do think they will be in touch as a matter of course

Also worth knowing that if you have listed you bike on your house insurance contents then alot of policies cover you on accidents and your firm will handle the liaising with the other insurance company. Took just a fortnight for them to sort me out (AA insurance, which turned out to actually be Royal Sun Alliance, claiming on a First Direct holder)

IShaggy

bails87 wrote:

thegibdog wrote:

bails87 wrote:

Slowbike wrote:

thegibdog wrote:

I didn't want anything to do with this, since they're the two main reasons insurance premiums are so high,

Exactly - we end up paying for it all one way or another - we should try and make using lawyers a penultimate resort (last resort will be if the lawyer looses! )

So you wouldn't use a lawyer for a legitimate claim that could get you, say, an extra £1k because it would add a few pence to your car insurance premium ? Meanwhile other people are still making claims (both legitimate and not) and they're each adding a few pence onto your premium. So the end result of being nice to the insurance companies is that your premium goes up by almost exactly the same amount as it would have if you used a lawyer, but you're £1k worse off.

Nice.

Personally if I had serious or lasting injuries I would have gone down the solicitor route. In fact I almost did anyway on numerous occasions following the accident, particularly when the insurance company were dragging their feet, but was put off for the reasons I mentioned. It did take 2 months to resolve what was an open and shut case so I imagine I would have saved time if I'd used a solicitor, assuming I found one that was interested in the damage to my bike rather than any injuries I might, or might not, have sustained.

And yes, one person choosing not to make the most out of a situation and get all the money they could isn't going to make a huge difference in the big scheme of things, but if everyone did the same then insurance premiums would probably be half of what they are now. As mentioned by Slowbike and Gizmodo it's not as if the insurance companies lose out either way, the costs just get passed on to the customers - all of us.

Re the bits in bold: you're not going to stop everyone else doing it. By doing it yourself because of the 'moral high ground' you're just making yourself worse off.

In any case, I'm a British Cycling member so when I was involved in a collision recently I just passed the details onto their legal 'partners' and I'm letting them deal with it.

FFS - where do you draw the line. Let's all de-fraud the insurance companies, submit false tax returns, shop-lift, drink-drive our cars on provisional licenses, untaxed and uninsured. Everyone else does it, so why shouldn't we.

Maybe it's not true that everyone else does it. Instead, maybe only a minority who attach little value to their principles and morals do it.

madtam

Everyone else might be out there ripping off insurance companies, cheating on taxes, shoplifting or whatever. But I am the only one that has to live with myself and my conscience (and my conscience can be a right bastard!) so I wouldn't do it.
Over the years I have unfortunately had to make a couple of claims on insurance of different types. Whilst I have certainly not undervalued any losses I have also never tried to profit from the situation.