Insurance Claim question

Are you entitled to interest on your insurance claims from the date of the incident?

At almost 1 year, my insurance claim is finally nearing completion and to be honest, the money (had I got it straight away) would have gone in my savings account till now. It seems a bit harsh that I ought to forfeit 4% interest, just because the other side were obstructive, lied and generally dragged their feet.

Over 2 or 3 years, I can imagine this being even more the case.

What if you absolutely had to have the damaged fixed and because you couldn't afford to, took out a loan to pay for it? Would they pay that? (I've not done this, I'm just intrigued)

I imagine the answer is going to be a mixture of "No Chance" and LOL smilies, but I thought it was worth checking before ringing my lawyers. I'd argue that insurance payouts are supposed to put you as close to the position you were in before the accident happened. Even if I was to spend the money fixing it now, I've been riding a visibly crashed bike for a year. Hardly the position I'd be in before the "accident" (read: Inattentive old t**t in a car)...

No "No chance" or laughing posts from me!

I reckon that if they've lied & dragged their feet, and you're not claiming against them personally, push for whatever you can get. You never know unless you ask, but there's also no point in twisting the knife if there's a PI claim involved etc.

Double edged sword...

Originally Posted by Baph

No "No chance" or laughing posts from me!

I reckon that if they've lied & dragged their feet, and you're not claiming against them personally, push for whatever you can get. You never know unless you ask, but there's also no point in twisting the knife if there's a PI claim involved etc.

Double edged sword...

Nope, no PI claim (although I was injured and, had I known how they'd behave, it'd be tempting). This is just £1.6K of damage to the bike. Purely aesthetic, hence it having been rideable, but it looked mint before, whereas now it's a bit shabby.

No interest (they all take about a year to sort out these days, any sooner than that and you're lucky).

There's the option of "improving" clothing and PI claims to assist with this. I've had two similar claims and was advised (very loosely, I might add) on ways to make sure you're fully recompensed for PI (explain every little twinge, don't try and pretend it hurts less or causes you any less problem than it really does) and clothing/personal items loss or damage (they'll accept receipts for similar clothing from a shop if you can't find your receipts, and shop prices can be much higher than what you paid... plus you claim for the tiniest scuff, not just items that are ruined completely) which make the delay in getting the money easier to live with.

Did you not get offered a hire bike in the meantime? If it appears to be 100% third party fault, you can usually get a hire bike (at £60+ per day) and the bill is footed by the third party (gives them an incentive to pay up sooner - on one claim I had, the hire bike came to more than the rest of the claim put together. Probably too late now but legal cover/your insurer should help you sort out a hire bike and handle it for you - worth remembering in case it happens again.

Originally Posted by SVeeedy Gonzales

Did you not get offered a hire bike in the meantime? If it appears to be 100% third party fault, you can usually get a hire bike (at £60+ per day) and the bill is footed by the third party (gives them an incentive to pay up sooner - on one claim I had, the hire bike came to more than the rest of the claim put together. Probably too late now but legal cover/your insurer should help you sort out a hire bike and handle it for you - worth remembering in case it happens again.

Hi Sveedy,

I did get offered a hire bike, but it would of only been available for the time the bike was unrideable (whilst waiting for the garage to approve it as safe to ride), also at that stage whilst I was confident that I was 100% clear of any blame, my concern that the other party was prepared to outright lie about what he did made me think there was a possibility it could go to court and costs could be split (even if only 80:20 in my favour 20% of the hire bike costs would be way too high).