'Pending' insurance claim, need to renew & need advice

I had a van knock my parked SV over last month and after getting a quote for him he's decided to go through insurance. Now my insurance is up for renewal and quotes are crazy!
Having fully comp with what i believed (and is now in dispute) protected no claims (9 years!) I decided to claim through my own insurance, speed things up and after all, that's what I paid fully comp for.
Now my insurance is up for renewal and my quotes have to reflect i have a pending claim and unprotected no claims, more than doubling quotes.
I realise that once the third party settles the claim in full i will get my no claims back, and (hopefully) whichever insurers I go with should rebate the difference, there will no doubt be administration charges.
My bike is likely to be an economical write-off (i have had a garage quote) and I may not even be able to buy it back if things go that way.
What to do? I am wondering if I'm able to take my current insurers up on the offer of a replacement bike beyond my policy cover duration, and then perhaps take my damaged bike off road until the claim is settled.

Anyone have a similar experience or can offer advice?
This is such a PITA, I am paying in time and costs and may end up losing my bike all because some tit knocked it over. Oh what a World! What a World...
Thanks in advance

whats your renewal with the same company like? ask if they will refund part/all of the difference once liability is established

or factor in the costs of loss(higher premium) into your claim

It's with CN, the renewal was £277 (currently looking at £194 with Bennetts exc. claim, £331 with) but as it is not a renewal it will go up to £297, plus whatever admin fees they charge; cost me £25 to change address mid contract, god knows what they'll charge to rebate, probably call it a new contract and charge a small fortune.

I'm not happy to renew with them, they've really pee'd me off whacking it up £20 as a 'new policy' and not a renewal. They want £440 now, and say they will rebate but I didn't let her get as far as investigating 'rebate' charges after she gave me the extra £20 cost.

I did think perhaps I could cancel the claim and go direct to the third party insurers, but a little research shows that as i have reported the incident, I'm kind of shafted now.

I'm just thinking that if I take a replacement bike, it's then in their interest to handle the claim quickly. I'm not sure how to handle it and don't really want to start enquiring with them lest they smell a rat and it somehow goes against me in my claim.

[PyroUK]

This sounds like a world of hurt mate!

From my understanding it would go a similar to this anyway, in terms of settling costs at least. The claim would go through the 3rd parties via your insurers. They would handle all the stuff for you. Least that's what happened with mine in '11.

The prob you have is that the cost is currently unknown. I would do online quotes and log the claim as non fault with the value of your estimate that you got. Then call the companies and explain the situation. I.e van hit your bike, claim still on going but all costs should be recovered as they accepted liability and the amount you out in was based on a private quote. Then see what they say, as effectively unless you don't get the costs back your ncd is intact up to that point in my view.

Hope it works out for you!

stop worrying about pushing it, if your in the right then chase it as much as you want, my gf was hit by a drunk driver last year, it went to court recently and such still waiting for an outcome, im phoning everyweek and im on first name basis with a lot of people involved inlcuding the investigating police office t the traffic criminal justice unit, it will cost you to NOT chase it

Typically what will happen in cases such as this is as follows:

1) As your insurers are currently dealing with the claim to repair the bike, it goes down as an at-fault claim.
2) This will reduce your NCD, and probably apply a premium loading to your policy, hence the massive premium jump.
3) Once they have made a recovery from the 3rd party's insurers (which looks straightforward in this case, since he's admitted liability and it's open/shut, hit stationary vehicle), they will reinstate your NCD and (almost certainly) remove any premium loading
4) They will backdate this to the inception of your policy (i.e., renewal) and you'll get a refund.

This is how I'd expect it to be handled for any of my clients, but you might want to query whoever currently looks after your insurance

Sorry for the late response - been away in the sticks.

Thanks all for the replies. Seems like the best way to go is bite the bullet and pay now in the hope of re-imbursment once everything is settled. I don't think i'll be renewing with current broker as their quote is ridiculous in comparison, but I will make sure it's all legit and confirmed with the new company.

apchara - Sorry to hear that, I hope she is OK, good that you can take that burden off her shoulders.

Cheers all!

Got a similar situation where my mrs reversed into a car back in November. I settled cash, but he's raised a claim for whiplash (estimated £4.5k claim for a 1mph bump that barely popped the panel).

Had to bite the bullet earlier this week, as my insurance have yet to inform me whether they intend to fight the claim.

[Dave20046]

I has this situation, being a young driver and needing to drive for work the quotes of £4k+ meant changing roles or losing my job pretty stressful

Managed to get a few insurers to generate a price but with a caveat that if the pending claim did not go 100% in my favour I'd have to pay them the thousands of pounds which they required to insure a driver with a fault accident


Churchill was one of those insurers