question about insurance claim to claim or not?

My son bought a bike approx 4 months ago and the value then was £800
its an x reg yamaha sr125 it was stoen and has been returned badly
damaged, he is asking my advise and I dont know what to advise him.

This was his first bike and it cost £250 to insure with £200 excess,
if he claims what is the norm, is his insurance likely to rise?

If he sells it for spares he wont get a lot, doubt a dealer will take
it as trade in and I dont know the market value - have advised him to
ask a dealer this in the meantime.

I know the last time I claimed on a car accident some 15 years ago the
car insurance value was £5000 and the car was written off and we only
got £3500 as the market value was £4000 less our excess at that time.
I guess thats the way the bike insurance will work?

He is covered 3rd party fire and theft

 

The best thing to do is to ring up an insurer, explain that you're
investigating the options as you don't know if it's worthwhile you
making a claim.

From very recent experience, yes. I hadn't revised my zx10r's value
down enough, and although it was insured for more the value offered was
the "market value". I.e. someone had a quick flick through
biketrader.co.uk, I suspect.

I would imagine this would come into the theft bit, but the problem you
need to address is the long-term. In high risk categories it's not
unknown for the premium hike over five years to more than cover the
outright cost of fixing whatever it is / replacing it yourself.

The best thing to do is to get a couple of quotes and see what your
son's likely to be looking at. If you can get online ones then do one
as he currently is, one with the claim on, then do the same quotes a
couple of years later (with the NCD, of course).

There's a sum to work out:

Increased Insurance Cost - Insurance payout = ?

If he claims, a quick look on autotrader sees that he might be offered
the £800 value, less the excess, so that's £600.

If his premium goes up because of a claim, is it going to cost more
than £600 over the timeframe you're looking at? I'd have a look at
that, then decide.

 

But there's also a 98 R plate up for £895, a w plate for £995 and a v
plate for £1095. How the insurance people would work out the actual
value is probably more down to twiddling a finger in the air and seeing
which way the wind blows.

 

Never accept the first offer the insurance company come up with ,

--

 

As others have said, the bike isn't worth £800, so they won't pay that.
£600 is nearer the mark, less £200 excess, means £400.

What is important is that a theft payout ends the policy there and then,
so he'd lose two-thirds of his £200 premium. Say £130. Now we're down to
£270.

Then his future premiums will be loaded, and my guess is that the first
two years' loading would exceed that £270.

My advice - don't claim. Take the bike, break it for parts, sell them on
Ebay. People are always bending or breaking learner bikes and there are
a lot of SR125s out there, so plenty of customers. The engine alone is
probably worth £100.

Buy another bike immediately - you will help your son with that, won't
you? Switch the insurance cover to that bike, as the policy is still
running if you haven't claimed. Carry on.

 

Dealer or private sales?

 

How badly damaged is 'badly damaged', though?

Can't imagine it would be too hard or expensive to bodge it back to a
usable state with bits from eBay.

 

I wondered about that. Ignition switch bound to be buggered if it was
nicked. £25-odd for a pattern item. Crashed, because tea-leaves always
seem to crash nnicked bikes. Probably a load of cosmetic damage.

Worst thing is if the bastards torch the bikes.

Trouble is, IMHO, once some scrote has really fucked with your bike, you
don't seem to want it back, IYKWIM.

 

Havent seen it but the thief tried to steal it and smashed the lock
plus I guess when he couldnt get it going he smashed the lights and
one of the indicators plus my son says its leaking oil so he must have
tried to damage the engine.
Dont know whether the police have managed to get prints or not yet.
Funny how the thives win all the time.
Poor lad cant afford a bike so will have to prop him up again but he
is devasted.

 

This is par for the course, but it's not the end of the world. Pattern
indicators are cheap. A headlight isn't expensive either.

I doubt he's tried to damage the engine. Much more likely it was
dropped, and lay on its side for some time, and oil escaped from
somewhere.

Plod cannot be arsed to pursue this sort of thing, I'm afraid.

I feel for the poor sod.

But look:

Here's what a new indicator costs

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YAMAHA-SR125-DT125R-RR-XT600-NEW-FLASHER-LAMP_W0QQ
itemZ260236697728

Here's an SR125 that's being sold for parts:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YAMAHA-SR125-SPARES-OR-REPAIR-L-REG_W0QQitemZ14023
0288284 Take the bits you want and throw the rest back on Ebay.

And here's what looks like a bloody serviceable little SR125 to replace
the whole bike with. Sell the bits that are left OK on your recovered
one, and you might even break even.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1995-YAMAHA-BLACK_W0QQitemZ200223143479

 

They aren't bad bikes at all. They're a bit flimsy and the finish is
iffy. Oh, and they really don't suit the lanky.

 

My first bike (technically), I did my CBT and a day's DAS on it, and
found it to be a willing little machine. I felt like a Tesco Value
Peter Fonda on it too.

--
Dan L

Too much time to think, too little to do.


http://thebikeshed.spaces.live.com/
1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr (IT'S FOR SALE)

BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005/6/7/8)
X-FOT#000
DIAABTCOD #26
BOMB#18 (slow)
OMF#11

 

My lad's TS50 was stolen some years back, it was not a nice experience
for him either.

I actually found it again, and we brought it home and repaired it
together, which was actually good fun for both of us, and quite
therapeutic, it was like we were de-scroting it and making it his again.

All it really needed wqas a few bits bending back into position and a
new ignition switch. We subsequently fitted a cheap and cheesy
"Cheetah" alarm to it which seemed to deter future scrotes, oh and an
FOAD lock with it's own special carrier, which we u-bolted to the rear
rack.

Loz of this parish now has it's remains, and would (hopefully) testify
that being stolen and recovered hasn't added significantly to it's
intrinsic shiteness.



--
Dan L

Too much time to think, too little to do.


http://thebikeshed.spaces.live.com/
1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr (IT'S FOR SALE)

BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005/6/7/8)
X-FOT#000
DIAABTCOD #26
BOMB#18 (slow)
OMF#11

 

Er, he's got it back. Therefore the theft insurance doesn't apply
AIUI, and he's basically got a vandalism claim. Given he doesn't have
fully comp, he's probably shafted.

Would have been better if he hadn't got it back.

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote:

That looks pretty good, I wouldn't be surprised if someone hits the
"BiN" in the next couple of days.

 

Dan L wrote:

All sixteener mopeds look like they've been stolen at least three
times. Lady Nina's ZXR has that same look about it.

--
Lozzo
Suzuki SV650S K5
Honda CBR600 FW trackbike
Yamaha SR250 Spazz-Trakka
Suzuki GSXR750 L
Suzuki TS50X
Suzuki TS50X

 

Rubbish. Check your policy wording. The key phrase is "lost or *damaged* as
a result of theft or *attempted* theft." Note the highlighted words.

If the policyholder decides to claim then the insurance company are obliged
to repair, replace or settle in cash.

 

Rubbish, see my reply to Ben

 

Quite. Otherwise, when filling in a proposal form for a new policy, the
term "Theft - Partial Loss" wouldn't make much sense.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, ogden

"Was your vehicle on fire when it was stolen?"

"No..."

"Ah! Then you wanted our Third Party, Fire *OR* Theft policy..."