found my bike on ebay!

[TamSV]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

You don't have to buy the bike back from the insurance company if you don't let them have it from you in the first place. It's your bike, they don't tell you what happens to it, you tell them.

Insurance companies are greedy cheeky bustads, they bully people into handing over valuable bikes in return for paltry payouts because they are too lazy or incompetent to do otherwise. You own the bike right up until you take an offer from them, they don't own your bike at any point up to this point. That means that at any time from accident onwards, you tell them you demand they get it repaired and legally they cannot refuse.

It may only be worth a few hundred quid and have £2000 of damage but it's your bike and you can tell them you will not be able to replace it with what they are offering, so you demand they repair it.

Simple.

If there was someone else at fault then, yes, you can press them to pay for repairs. If the vehicle is difficult to replace, that would be reasonable.

There's loads of individual circumstances where a cash settlement will be the best result though. It's worth knowing the cost of repairs so you can use that to push up your cash offer. I also agree that I wouldn't let a third party insurer take control of my vehicle. We have an adversarial legal system and they're the enemy.

However, if you're claiming for your own damage from your own insurance company, then they have the option to repair, replace or settle cash. Sure, you can and should negotiate, but you can't force them to pay more than the value of the vehicle.

Those are two very different situations. In the first you've suffered damage from someone else's negligence and you're legally entitled to restitution. In the second, it's fulfilment of a contract that says you'll get no more than market value.

Sorry, I didn't make myself entirely clear; I was referring to when a third party is at fault and their insurance company wants to write a bike off. In those circumstances I'd hold firm and not let the bike go until I was happy I wasn't losing a penny, or I'd want the bike rebuilding if it was sentimental or difficult to replace.

If the accident is your fault then you're pretty much at the mercy of your insurers and Glass's Guide

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Sorry, I didn't make myself entirely clear; I was referring to when a third party is at fault and their insurance company wants to write a bike off. In those circumstances I'd hold firm and not let the bike go until I was happy I wasn't losing a penny, or I'd want the bike rebuilding if it was sentimental or difficult to replace.

If the accident is your fault then you're pretty much at the mercy of your insurers and Glass's Guide

NOW, it all makes sense.
So if there was a 3rd party involved, not my fault, THEY should fix it, come what may.

If it was just me and my mistake, then its up to them to decide. GOT IT!