Help with dealing with 3rd party insurance please

My bike got knocked over by a van in our works car park a couple of weeks ago. The driver did the right thing and came in to school and admitted liability. His insurance have taken it off and left me a loan bike. I got a call from the insurance inspector at the end of last week and he's saying it's a write off as the repair quote is about £2000. He offered, and was very pushy, £1200. I declined the offer as there's no way I can get another bike for that money.
What is also peeing me off is that it looks like I'll be out of pocket and having to do a lot of running around to get back on the road.
Has anyone had similar dealings and/or know where I stand? I've tried several internet searches and come up with nothing. I think I have heard/read that as the 3rd party is 100% I should get my bike repaired and returned in the condition it was in before the accident.
BLD are the claims company dealing with this and I've been asked to send Bike Trader examples of similar bikes to give them an idea of market value.
I just want my bike back, fixed.
Thanks.

What is actually wrong? If it's just a front end rebuild with plastics go naked for £100-£150 notes and pocket the cash. Send them bike trader links and see what they will push too. Its looks like on bike trader examples go between £1600-£1800 so getting more out of them shouldn't be a problem,

Lower fairing badly scratched and broken, rear brake pedal, right mirror/indicator smashed, high level link badly dented, right bar end and brake lever gouged but not broken, scuff to the rear left side where the van made contact, and I think the forks may be bent as the clip on touches the petrol tank on full right lock, the petrol tank has a small dent from the bar end, number plate broken.
I think the van may have pushed it along slightly as the fairings have gouges in and the possible fork damage.

[Wideboy]

i've gone through it, send them copies of autotrader adverts that match your bike the closest but make sure you know you rights as they're sneaky ****s. I'm pretty sure the rules claim that the search area can be no more than 60 mile radius but they'll try and catch you out saying stuff like "oh, but there's one in scotland for x amount". I sent off 5 examples of adverts, they were all identical to mine but with more miles and at a much higher price than they'd offered me, one was for a slightly different model as i ran out of comparable ads. Conveniently the 4 correct adverts didn't arrive but the incorrect advert did however they were sad to inform me they couldn't use it. Luckily i sent it signed for so had a good argument to them receiving it.

I got a reasonably good price although still not what it was worth. It really does take alot of stress and hard work to get the price up but it does work. In the end i was on the phone for about 45 mins with the manager, i had my laptop on autotrader telling him what to search ect and eventually got the offer up 1500 quid. Look up your rights on that money expert blokes website before you deal with them, his site is really informative and even tells you what to write in the letters you send ect to be firm. Very helpful bloke, I can say if i hadn't read his site i wouldn't have got the offer that i did.

It's not the nicest of experiences.

[DJ123]

Originally Posted by svrich

Lower fairing badly scratched and broken, rear brake pedal, right mirror/indicator smashed, high level link badly dented, right bar end and brake lever gouged but not broken, scuff to the rear left side where the van made contact, and I think the forks may be bent as the clip on touches the petrol tank on full right lock, the petrol tank has a small dent from the bar end, number plate broken.
I think the van may have pushed it along slightly as the fairings have gouges in and the possible fork damage.

I wouldn't worry about any scratches or dents.

The clip on is most likely bent rather than the forks.

TBH i'd see what they'd let you buy it back for and repair it for pennies.

Cheers fellas.
I've just been talking it over with my better half and as much as I'd like it all done and delivered back to my front door, the idea of fixing it up and keeping the difference has its obvious benefits. I think that if I leave the lowers off and repair them myself at a later date I can safely fix it to get back on the road for under a couple of hundred. I just hate the thought, and probable reality, that I'll get shafted along the way.

[TamSV]

I wouldn't let a third party insurer take my vehicle until it was agreed what was going to happen to it. If you've got Comp cover your own insurers are likely to give you a better settlement. You're their customer and you've got a contract with them. To the third party, you're just a cost to be reduced as far as possible. Anyway, that's not helping you. What's done is done and it doesn't really matter all that much.

First things first, what do you want? How far away are you at £1,200? What would be a fair price? Do you want to keep the bike plus cash, get a better cash settlement for a write off, or have it repaired? Forget about the fact there's an insurance company involved - some bloke knocked your bike over so what's he got to do, in your mind, to see you right?

You mention you're going to be out of pocket - what are those expenses? Can you quantify those costs and produce receipts?

All that Bike Trader/ebay stuff is just a huge waste of time. I never do that. There's a deal to be done here - you just need to decide what that deal needs to look like so it's fair to you. Not shafted, not outrageously enriched...just fair.

If your demands are reasonable, then give them one chance to agree or send your bike back to you (and tell them you'll then be appointing your own accident management company to represent you). No need for a lengthy debate.

Cheers Tam.
BLD are a cliams management company. They've got my bike, and I've got their's. They are storing mine and have completed a repair estimate. The 3rd party insurance sent an assessor to their place to have a look at it.
Having had a look at various bikes like mine it would cost about £1700 to get a close replacement. Unfortunately any out of pocket costs to me are the extra time I've had to devote to getting it all sorted - phone calls, time away from general home duties and lunch hours at work etc. Nothing I can really get recipts for. Generally everything I've had to do over and above living my life if the bike hadn't been knocked over.
At the moment I'm prepared to give BLD a chance at getting a good result. If it's not forthcoming I shall be informing the 3r party insurance that I will step it up through my own insurance. I think I'll speak to my insurance company and see if they have any advice to offer.

[Bibio]

it's not your fault. it's their clients fault and so you want your bike put back to how it was before their client broke it. its that simple and you don't care how much it costs as they will be paying it. its up to them to put the bike back to how it was not give you a settlement sum.

if it was you who wrote the bike off then its a different matter but you haven't so your the boss. also claim for any fee's that you incur due to the claim. don't take their bull.

[PyroUK]

What Bibio said, 3rd party claims work differently to comp claims as far as in aware.

They should fix it for you back to what it was previously.

Maybe speak to your insurers and ask then their thoughts and if you have legal cover get their advice too. You can then say to bld that you have got this advice and want it settled to your satisfaction.

Alternatively ask the 3rd party insurer who an authorised agent is other than bld to get a 2nd opinion on the repair costs and see if it makes a difference.

Best of luck mate