Insurance payouts?

[LaggyGN]

My GN125 got knocked off the road the other day by a car. I'm fine, but the bike is currently sitting in a garage, and I'm pretty sure the repairs wont be economically feasible. I'm guessing I'm going to get it written off and a payout of some sort.

The guys insurance company has rung me, and despite him contesting it my witnesses came through and the insurance says they're going to pay for my repairs. Has anyone had any experience with this? If my bike is a 2009 GN, despite how good condition it is in I'm worried I'm only going to get $1000 or so. Does anyone know what I can expect from the insurers? The crash was low speed and I walked away, but it seems like the front end got twisted fairly badly, and with the few dozen pieces of plastic that will need replacing I'm sure it will cost more than the market value of the bike to repair. I'm sure I'll find out by the end of this week anyway, but just wanted to know if anyone has a good idea of what will happen?

Forgive the spelling error in thread title..

[Mom]

You will only get what its current market value is, regardless of how well you have cared for it, or what it is insured for. Wait for the assessor to come and look at it, he is the one that will decide whether to write it off or not. DO some homework yourself and get some valuations so you have an idea of what the insurance company might pay out.

Bummer you are looking at losing your bike, but at least you are ok. Good luck!

[LaggyGN]

I've been looking at trademe for how much they go for ($1400 seems like a fair price for a 2009 GN with 35k), but the fact that trademe doesn't show prices of expired listings means I can't really see how much they finally go for. Do you know any other way I could start getting some valuations? Should I present them as proof to the assessor? Or is there anything else I can do to stop being hit by a lowball offer? Thanks for the advice in any case.

[mossy1200]

Ring a different insurance company for a quote to insure and they will tell you the market value if you ask them.

[Gremlin]

Repair cost doesn't even have to equal bike value, it's often 50-75% of value and then it's declared a write off.

As for value, you can search for expired listings (next to search window) but not on classifieds.

I would suggest you ask a couple of Suzuki shops if they have an idea of value.

[tigertim20]

a few things to be aware of.
1. you will get fucked over. by that I mean the money you get paid is unlikely to be enough to buy another bike of the same condition etc.
2. you can contest their 'payout' I went through this, and heres how it went down.
I got T bones by some blind asian bitch. she admitted fault to me and in front of several witnesses who all saw, but told her insurance company otherwise.
I supplied statement from witnesses and fault was again admitted to.
he insurance company fucked me around for 8 weeks before calling me into their office to pick up the cheque. the nsurance guy said their assessor had gone and looked at the bike and determined it's value, and held out a cheque for me. I looked at the cheque for $500 and told the guy to get fucked, Ill be back later.
I walked down the road to a motorcycle shop and explained what was happening. they aid no problems, we can do an alternative valuation. I then went to a second bike shop and did the same. (note, usually they will charge you $50-$100 for their time, which is fair enough, you are asking for their expertise and knowledge, but I was lucky and they did it for free for me)
I took these two alternative quotes back to her insurance company. we sat at a table and the guy offered me an amount halfway between the lower of the two quotes I had got, and their original offer. we argued a little more and I asked him how much it would cot them to go to court, and he eventually just wrote out another cheque for halfway between the two alternative quotes I had brought in.

It will take time and expect to have to fight them, but for a bike of lower value, it isnt worth their time to go to court so theyll likely (eventually) just pay you a decent amount. for more expensive stuff though, it isnt that easy

[f2dz]

It really blows getting money out of insurance companies, not to mention the endless phone calls and emails. Just be ready for that I guess? As for the payout/write off of your bike, you'll just have to wait until the assessor sees it.

Good luck, and sorry to hear about your accident. Ride safe.

[LaggyGN]

Thanks for the help all. I'm hoping that since it's a relatively cheap bike, If they lowball me I only have to increase the offer a few hundred dollars to get it into the slightly satisfactory payout range. They might see that as worthwhile rather than having to deal with an annoyed customer.

If they don't payout anywhere near ($500 is very worrying..) then I might try taking the guy to the disputes tribunal for the remainder of the cash. Not sure how that will pan out, but I'll wait until the insurance company gets back to me first. So far they have been good, the guy contested it but they still onyl took a couple of days to say that I'm not at fault and will get repairs. Let's see.

[Tazz]

Thanks for the help all. I'm hoping that since it's a relatively cheap bike, If they lowball me I only have to increase the offer a few hundred dollars to get it into the slightly satisfactory payout range. They might see that as worthwhile rather than having to deal with an annoyed customer.

If they don't payout anywhere near ($500 is very worrying..) then I might try taking the guy to the disputes tribunal for the remainder of the cash. Not sure how that will pan out, but I'll wait until the insurance company gets back to me first. So far they have been good, the guy contested it but they still onyl took a couple of days to say that I'm not at fault and will get repairs. Let's see.

You'd be better off working hard on getting a proper/fair replacement value out of the insurance company if you can rather than using the joke that is the disputes tribunal.

Good luck man, hope it works out ok but at the end of the day atleast you walked away unscathed.

[Erelyes]

Never used disputes tribunal myself but I understand that it's a collossal waste of time. Go via the insurance coy. Find out how the process works, they will get a bit more fearful if you actually understand what your rights and options are, rather than just tossing around words like 'court' and 'ombudsman' without backing it up.
Good luck.

[LaggyGN]

Thanks for the advice guys. Unfortunately today I got a call and they said that they have changed their mind, since the other person is disputing it. They had already disputed it, and the decision was made against them. The fact that they are changing their mind 7 days later seems incredibly unfair to me. I had their decision, I had been put through to an assessor, but today they said I had to start contacting the claims officer again. Surely this isn't allowed?

[nzspokes]

Your insurance company or theres? If its there's you have a problem. You will have to prove the other party is at fault, probably through court.

Im going through just that at the moment but in a slightly different way.

[tigertim20]

Thanks for the advice guys. Unfortunately today I got a call and they said that they have changed their mind, since the other person is disputing it. They had already disputed it, and the decision was made against them. The fact that they are changing their mind 7 days later seems incredibly unfair to me. I had their decision, I had been put through to an assessor, but today they said I had to start contacting the claims officer again. Surely this isn't allowed?

you have witnesses right? have you contacted the police? that might be your next step.
Tell them you are prepared to take them to court, its most likely all part of their game. If they can make you feel powerless, you might just fuck off and they dont have to pay. Once you demonstrate a willingness to fight them, theyll realise its probably more hassle and expense than its worth to argue with you, and eventually come to the party.

[LaggyGN]

Your insurance company or theres? If its there's you have a problem. You will have to prove the other party is at fault, probably through court.

Im going through just that at the moment but in a slightly different way.

Their insurance company. I'm mostly surprised since they had already said the guy was at fault and they would pay my repairs. He was already disputing it from the start, so nothing has changed. I have two witnesses who are very passionate and wrote really good letters about how at fault the guy was, so court is an option. I don't know if anything in my case is relevant to yours, but if you could message me any advice or details of your story it would be really appreciated. I was calm for a few days, but now my stress levels have gone through the roof again.

[LaggyGN]

you have witnesses right? have you contacted the police? that might be your next step.
Tell them you are prepared to take them to court, its most likely all part of their game. If they can make you feel powerless, you might just fuck off and they dont have to pay. Once you demonstrate a willingness to fight them, theyll realise its probably more hassle and expense than its worth to argue with you, and eventually come to the party.

Yep, and my witnesses are really fired up and helpful, really great and supportive people. I've already left a message on his insurance company's answerphone telling them I'd like to see their policy about final decisions. I can't find the policy for his insurance company, but other insurance company's policies state that decisions are final, and any disputes need to go to the insurance ombudsman. Just reopening up a decision because the guy continues to dispute it after a final decision seems like a joke. Hopefully that at least lets them know I'm not going to let go easily.