Insurance write offs

[Matt_TG]

LOL, yes I'm confused, seeing your avatar I don't know whether the chicken or the egg came first, just call me the egg!

Anyway, it would save a fair bit of time for the office chicks getting rego plates and taking them to the AA if we didn't have to dereg every written off vehicle. It's also a hassle filling in the forms. I'll tell the boss a big yellow bird told me we didn't have to do it anymore - he'll be stoked, it'll save us time and money!

[FROSTY:Me]

Al No mate tiss you getting confused.
Nail on the head though with--The MAIN reason insurance companies deregister bikes is to protect themselves.
Now not doing the my dick is bigger n your bit but I'm "in the system.
(When vehicles actually sell ARGGG.) I comply and recomply roughly 10 vehicles a month.
A low vol is not needed if the bike is back to stock standard -or thereabouts.
Technically for example fitting a replacement front end should require a low vol if you are not using factory replacement parts.
But I've used a gsx500e front wheel and disk on a GSX250
I've used headlights from Yamaha's on honda's etc.
Where low vol gets involved is for example buying a crashed R1 and making it into a FZ1 lookalke

I think back to the origonal question really--If a person hasn't the experience to identify what is structural damage and what is cosmetic/economic damage they shouldn't do it on their own --at the very least consult someone with experience

[Wheeliemonsta]

Thats how I bought my current bike...

I've probably done half a dozen of them over the years...

You need to know what you are doing because the pitfalls are many & varied

But, I.M.H.O it's definately a viable option for getting yourself on a cheap late model
bike...

A lot of the Insurance companies now offer "Direct Replacement" on there Motorcycle Policies for bikes under 12 months old -using STAR INSURANCE purely as an example, this is why you are seeing alot of near brand new low k bikes, seemingly, with very little damage coming up for auction at some very keen prices...


Cheers

[wickle]

Neither bought a Insurance write off yet,have bought a couple " only good for parts " off trademe. recharged battery thru in some oil, bought 4 in 1 , for example passed warrant. so I would buy one if model I wanted came subject to how much damage

[RSV Boy]

I would if the bike was right, I love turning a wreck into a beautiful bike again, great winter project. As long as you've got good mechanical
knowledge and are prepared to search Ebay for good parts its a pleasure.

[Whytey]

Yep , as long as the frame wasnt shagged and the missus would let me work on in front of the fire , in the lounge , in piece and in my on time . Not to much to ask i think !

[blossomsowner]

a lot comes down to having some knowledge of bikes and mechanics. even better is having knowledge of the bike and/or circumstances.

A past flatmate dropped his gpz750 at about 15 kmh. Was written of due to cosmetic damage and a hole in engine casing somewhere. He bought it from the insurers, had it fixed up and still kept 80% of his payout. so it can work out well.

[trainingwheels]

I worked for an aution house that sold things called DVA's (Damaged Vehicle Auctions) these were the vehicles that were sent to us via the insurence companies and they make sure that 9 times out of 10 the bikes and cars are all DEREGISTED, this even happens to the ones which arent that bad, ie 91' nissan primera 130'000kms written off due to kick in door panel.. go figure??
But the main reason they derege the bikes is... if they are dropped or crashed it is safer to dereg to save their own skins....
bike gets crashed, jo blogg fixes, then has another crash, is this insurence companies fault for second crash? no but they get sued anyway because they didnt dereg the bike or car......

also to have the bike stripped, frame checked, new parts, new plastics, most likely over the value of the bike... dereg then sell at auction.

[AllanB]

Heres one I've been watching. This has 1900 ks on it! A new Hornet is $11k

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/List...x?id=154917936

It started as a $1 reserve. My budget died at a grand

I have added up about $4.5-5 k of brand new parts ex USA (cheaper than NZ) including the entire front forks, wheel, brake disks, triples.

If you need a frame US$1100 plus shipping.......

Could be cheaper by just replacing male fork sliders etc or with second hand.

I'll be interested to see what it goes for.

Parts pricing is weird - a part on the left side may be dearer than the exact replica on the right. ie a left muffler. Weird.

[R6_kid:Me]

Done it twice now, and will do it again when the time is right. Some deals to be had. Depends whether you are buying it as a bike for yourself or a bike to sell for profit as to how much you should/would spend. Knowing where to find parts helps, and knowing where to find good deals is even better. Learn the system, learn some mechanical stuff, and be thorough. Don't cut corners or sacrifice safety for affordabilty and you'll be fine.

[xwhatsit]

Where do you get 'em? Now that I'm going through insurance people with my bike, I keep hearing about buying back your bike from the insurance company after it's been written off for just a few hundred dollars.

Where do you get these sorts of deals if it's not your own bike that is being written off?

[sinfull]

Where do you get 'em? Now that I'm going through insurance people with my bike, I keep hearing about buying back your bike from the insurance company after it's been written off for just a few hundred dollars.

Where do you get these sorts of deals if it's not your own bike that is being written off?

http://www.turners.co.nz/Branches/Tu...5/Default.aspx

Scroll down a bit and you'll find all the damaged vehical auctions , its a bit of johnny on the spot , check it weekly to see if any bikes come up ! Stolen and recovered come under the damaged vehical auctions !

[Matt_TG]

I'm at my desk right now after discussing a case where underegistered car wrecks have been sold and used to 'stage' accidents. We were talking about deregistration and I thought of this thread. I didn't say that a BiGal said we didn't need to follow the law though lol.

I'll repeat what I said earlier, Insurers do not deregisiter vehicles to cover their ass. It's a legal requirement. If a vehicle is written off (and that's because it's not worth spending the money to fix it) we deregister them.

Transport (Vehicle and Driver Registration and Licensing) Act 1986 is the relevant Act. Section 27 is appropriate,particularly Sub Section. 1 and 1A.

I have bolded the areas that appply here.

Cancellation of registration on destruction or permanent removal of motor vehicle

(1) If any registered motor vehicle is destroyed, or is written-off by an insurer or the owner, or becomes permanently useless as a motor vehicle, or is removed permanently beyond New Zealand, the owner of the motor vehicle shall forthwith give to the Registrar notice of its destruction, condition, or removal, as the case may be, and shall deliver to the Registrar the certificate of registration of the motor vehicle, and, unless the Registrar considers it is impracticable to do so, the registration plates issued for the motor vehicle and the current licence (if any) issued for the motor vehicle. The Registrar shall cancel the registration of the motor vehicle.

(1A) For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, where an insurer writes-off a motor vehicle, the insurer shall be deemed to be the owner of the vehicle.

Doesn't stop you fixing one up and re-registering it, but it confirms that deregistration is a legal requirement for write offs.

[Ixion]

Not quite. The intent of the clause is clearly to deal with the situation where a vehicle ceases to exist. So, a 'genuine' write off. Where the vehicle is destroyed . Or permanently useless. They don't want plates floating around without vehicles. for obvious reasons. It is to stop the old trick of stealing a vehicle and fitting the plates form a destroyed vehicle

However, vehicles "written off " are quite often not really physcial writeoffs. They may even be in quite good nick (eg recoved after theft). In which case the vehicle is not destroyed or useless, and the plates will remain with it.

Insurance companies have tagged onto the requirement (which hwas actually in place long before 1986) as a justification for deregistering ANY bike on which they pay out in full. I think the insurance companies call it a "constructive total loss". Which is not really the same as a genuinely written off vehicle.

To put it into simple context.

That clause puts the same requirement on an owner and an insurer. So, if I bin my uninsured bike, nothing major, just some cosmetic stuff and smashed fairings, and decide I can't be bothered fixing it up, (cos I'm pissed off with it), and so I sell it "as is where is", suit streetfighter. By your argument, I would be obliged to deregister it. I don't think so, Cyril.

In fact , that clause is not limited to crashed vehicles. If I blow up my motor and decide likewise that it's not worth my while fixing it, but someone else may wish to, your logic would require that it be dereigistered, then reregistered once the motor is fixed.

Compare that with what the law actually intends, which is if I blow up my motor and sell the bike for parts, to someone who is going to dismantle it. In that case, yes , the bike should be dereigistered, it has been destroyed and ceased to exist.

[Matt_TG]

Nice response Ixion.

The term Constructive Total Loss is a long standing insurance industry term that relates to the cost to reinstate or repair exceeding the insured value of items.

If it's a constructive total loss by nature it's a write off. That's how the legislation applies to the insurance industry. If it's a write off we deregister.

The difference to the owner of an uninsured bike is that it's not insured, and not subject to defining it a write off as a constructive total loss, and therefore the owner can do with it what he likes, keeping it registered if he wants to keep paying for it. Hope the purchaser of the parts bothers to change the ownership name and doesn't put the plates on another vehicle....

We are still deregistering written off vehicles and I don't see it changing in the near future. This decision is not my logic, I said much earlier it would save us time and money to stop dereigistering vehicles.

I best get back to work....