bike written off by insurer questions????

Hi Guys,

My bike was written off by a hideous act of vandalism a few weeks back.
It was worth about £1500 and I had that on the insurance details, etc.
I had let the MOT lapse at the time of the vandalism now I expect I
will get pennies for my bike.

eek, should I try and step in before it gets salvaged or just hope for
the best. Does a lapsed MOT devalu the bike seriously?

Cheers for any advice!

Paul

 

You can answer your own question here.

How much would you pay for a bike with 12 months ticket - how much
would you pay for the same bike without an MOT certificate?

Your "valuation" of the bike is irrelevant, it just suggests the
maximum figure that the InsCo will pay you in the event of total loss.
The market value of your £1500 bike with no MOT is probably a couple
of hundred quid and that is what they'll pay you - effectively salvage
value.

 

But how will the Insco know it had no MOT? Are they now in the habit
of demanding to see a valid certificate before they pay up?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing)
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

Shite. Utter shite... especially when you consider how much salvage
tends to fetch compared to straight stuff...

 

It shouldn't do, unless the reason it wasn't MOT'ed is because it
needed vast amounts of money thrown at it.

At this time of year, assuming it elapsed not too long ago, I'd
probably try the angle of 'well, I didn't bother getting it re-MOT'ed,
as I'm a fairweather boofty and was going to mothball it til the
spring'.

 

No it isn't unless it's something recent and upmarket like a Gixxer thou
or the likes. Uncollectable SOB salvage is just dead weight.

 

It depends what state it was in when laid up... and why you've laid it
up, really.

Something in useable nick that's merely not got an MOT won't be
devalued by 87%.

HTH

 

****. That's some big shadow on the water, there.

 

How much would *you* pay for a MOTless bike that'd be worth 1500 quid
with a ticket? Yes, you'd use it as a lever as you wave a wad of cash
at the owner - just like an insurer will. Honest answer, now.

 

On a total loss? They want /all/ the docs before you get the cheque.
Not having a MOT cert will give the insurer a big lever to offer less.

 

When my mother's Fiesta was written off in a SMIDSY [1] the insco asked for
an MOT certificate[2][3]. Effectively, they are buying the vehicle and will
want all relevant documentation. Even the market value of scrap is more if
there is a valid MOT. Makes ringing another identical car easier for a
start....

[1] Shogun went over a crossroads ignoring the Give Way sign
[2] erroneously as the car did not have its third birthday until a few
weeks after the crash
[3] although the request was made by a back office jobsworth. The valuation
had already been agreed with the loss adjuster taking into account the
correct age of the vehicle.

 

Whilst I appreciate your simple colonial reasoning - it just don't
work like that, m'boy.

The police would assert that lack of current test cert renders the
bike unroadworthy. You look back at the number of people who have
asked for valuations of bikes for sale on here, and then recall that
they were all told to get a ticket on the POS before advertising it,
as a certless bike is worth scrap value - and not everybody is TOG,
who can sell a pile of oily bits for more than a pristine, provenanced
Sheene Special in purple.

You give an InsCo a lever and they'll hit you with it.

 

More than £200, which is the point I was making old chap.

And without looking at the bike in question, I couldn't say exactly,
but say it was something like the VFR and it needed say a new back
tyre, £1300 if it was something I really wanted and I'd confidently
identified it had no other faults?

That's the thing with bikes - they're a lot easier to do an amateur
pre-MOT on than a car is, due to the 'less to go wrong, less to fail
on' aspect.

All this aside, if you want to stand by the salvage value analogy
(which insurers don't use anyway in a situation like this), I suspect
you've not really looked at the general price of salvage these days
compared to that of straight stuff.

 

Pfft. You've dealt with insurers, loss adjusters and their spawn as I
have. They will offer as little as they can - and without a
"certificate of roadworthiness" (yes, I know) it will be a lot less
than the owner values it at.

Hurhur. You'd do exactly what I would - suck your teeth and offer 1/3
- 1/2 of the asking price ... in tenners, in a wad you had ready in an
outside pocket.

Yes, I'll go with that. However - you go to an insurer and ask for a
payout for total loss, then fail to provide an MOT cert - and they'll
be a little disdainful.

No, I haven't. It will be a fucksight less than Parker's gives for an
average condition bike, though - and that was the point I was making.

 

Unless you're being paid out by a third parties insurer for damage
they've inflicted on your vehicle, although this probably varies from
company to company

Which is exactly what is the case my mate is finding with his freshly
taken roughly from behind by his mother in law of all people, Peugeot.

He's kept the car *and* all the documentation, as well as receiving a
cheque from the third party insurers for the write-off value of the
car.

That's the thing, see... *your* insurer has a contract with you which
you have signed, which basically gives them the right to demand the
docs / salvage in the event of a claim, whereas a third party insurers
has no such contract with you, and cannot demand the docs in the event
you have a claim against their insured.

....but not 87% less, eh.

 

Or nothing at all as the bike was not roadworthy.

 

Not in my experience, and that of others I know overall.

They paid me out considerably more than I paid for my Calibra, when
that disappeared about three years ago, and I'd paid what was around
the average price on the open market for one at that time.

At the risk of leaving myself open to the usual bullshit, you don't
know me very well then, do you...

But not, as I've already said, 87% disdainful.

You can normally pick up a straight one privately for around the same
money or less?

Not... for the last time... 87% less.

 

says...

I've just read the policy conditions for my Daytona and my Bandit. They
state the bike must be roadworthy at the time of the incident. No MOT
renders the bike unroadworthy, so no pay-out.

--
Lozzo
Triumph Daytona 955i SE (Black with added black bits)
GSF600SW (broked)
'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord does not refer to
blasphemy during ejaculation' Tori 2006

 

A bike isn't always unroadworthy just because of an out of date MOT.

Just as an unroadworthy bike may well have a valid certificate.

 

SteveH says...

If it was on the road without an MOT it is deemed as unroadworthy n the
eyes of the law and my insurance company.

--
Lozzo
Triumph Daytona 955i SE (Black with added black bits)
GSF600SW (broked)
'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord does not refer to
blasphemy during ejaculation' Tori 2006