Need some help dealing with insurance company

So as the story goes, I hit a patch of oil, ended up hitting the curb as I tried to keep the bike on the road and broke my collar bone. I thought simple enough won't claim will pay to fix the bike myself. Turns out I managed to shatter the radiator, crack the exhaust system do all sorts to the fairings and a few other things. Came back the bike has been written off.

At the time I wasn't too bothered, with a broken collar bone there wasn't much I could do. Except now, I've had my operation and I feel a lot better and I would like to be riding again.

I've been told by the shop I bought the bike from in the first place, as the bike was only 3 weeks old and only had 1000miles on it, I could ask the insurance company to buy me a new bike rather then fix my current one.

Or what they have offered me so far is £3800 to cover the cost of the finance (which it obviously doesn't)

Now i'd like to get a bike back, and keep my insurance for this year so i don't have to fork out again for that. Any advice from anyone or is this going to be a dream situation and in reality i'm going to have to buy a new bike and insurance all over again?

Cheers for any help
Dave

Some insurance companies offer a new vehicle guarantee whereby they'll replace the vehicle if it's less than a certain age/milage. If they don't do this remember that the insurance company have an obligation to put you back in the same position as you were before the accident. Hope the collar bone heals soon.

Have a look in your policy book to see what cover youve got. As chakraist says, some policies will replace a vehicle which is less than 12 months old, normally if the repair costs exceeds around 60% of the vehicles value. If your policy does not offer this then you should be paid the value of your bike at the time it was damaged (assuming you are covered comprehensively).

Hope you get it sorted.

I do have fully comp cover, is it complicated at all by the fact it is on finance? They made the origional offer at £3800 which surely is not the value for a 3 week old 1000 mile 08 plate SV?

I wouldn't expect the finance bit to change anything. This is something for you to deal with after you get the insurance money.

The first offer will usually be low and then you'd go back and ask for me stating your reasons and if possible providing evidence of the price you're asking.

How much did you pay for it? On the face of it ?3800 doesn't sound bad, certainly any second hand SV struggles to get much above ?3500, since people just look at it and then see 0% finance from the dealer for not much more...

If you could buy another for ?3800 (not sure how many are available at only 3 weeks old though) then it wouldn't hurt to take it. It might be hard to find evidence that it's worth more than that though.

[Viney]

I was under the impression that the insurance company has an obligation to settle the finance outstanding in the event of a write off. i may be wrong and the reason that people take out Gap insurance!!

are you sure that the £3800 does not cover the finance? Phone the finance company up ask them what the settlement payment is, it will be lower than your workings out. ASk them for that in writing then send that to the insurance company and ask them to settle it. As the bike is only3 weeks old, then i dont see why they shouldnt. However, you may loose a bit, but your intention is to get close to the asking price.

Sorry to hear that you are in this situation, its not nice.

ooo, and another thing. If youa re paying your insurance by instalments, they will want you to settle that before they even think about paying out.

Well ideally I'd like a bike back. I've seen a similar situation to this on a car forum where a guy driving a 406 got crashed into and his car was written off, but he wanted it back so he asked the insurance company to fix it and after legal arguments they had to. (Don't see why you'd go to so much trouble over a 406)

And just so you know, I would read the policy booklet but I never got one? Just going to go see if its on their website have a quick flick through that.

cheers for responses i'll let you know what happens.

If your finance is secured on the bike then the Insurance company are obliged to settle the finance, this due to the loan company having a financial interest in the bike! If you just have a personal loan then this wont apply.

A similar thing happened to me with a cage. I had a new Volvo with added bells and whistles. I wrote it off after 18 months.

I think I paid about 13000 for the basic car, but Volvo have these additions like Winter pack, Sport pack etc. I also had metallic paint as an option. The list price was as I mentioned 13k but the options put it up to around 16k

I was originally offered about 9 grand to settle the finance which I refused, my brother was in the trade and he supplied the insurance with a revised value. Although the car was in metallic, there wasnt a straight panel, the winter pack had been torn off and the sport handling pack clearly didnt work.

However after about 3 weeks I received a cheque for 4,200 brick after the 9k finance was paid off.

Keep at the insurance, list every extra, they probably charged you more insurance when you bought the bike for the bells and whistles, so why should they not pay you out more?

Forget any special deals Suzuki or the dealer were offering, tell the insurance what the list price was, explain how well you looked after it, never rode in the rain, kept it in the attic under chiffon etc.