A couple of weeks ago I posted that I'd been rear ended by a Transit van at a roundabout 10 minutes after I'd paid Triumph West London £674 for a service. Well, the worst has happened and the other party's insureres have said they think they will write it off and have offered me the lowest end of the scale in a payout for my Thruxton 1200. The bike was a one off special by Jack Lilley with a host of extras, including a fantastic orange paint job. I've also added lots more extras including upgraded suspension etc.. The insurers have stated they will not take into account the value of any extras if the individual cost is less than £380, so that's everything bar the rear suspension! I don't think this is acceptable, if they are going to write it off I want the service costs plus a realistic valuation taking into account the extras. I'm not feeling confident though, I've contacted the MAG recommended solicitor and been looking at the Ombudsman website, I've got claims assist on my insurance but no idea how that works and whther that perversly impacts my no claims, but no matter what happens now I suspect it will take weeks and they will dispute everything. It is so depressing, and none of this takes any account of the personal attachment I had to what I suspect is the last new bike I will ever own. Pissed off.
That is so unfortunate Tony, I feel your pain. Good luck with your negotiating with the insurance company. Hopefully you will be able to get a better deal than their first offer. I’m not sure if Sorrymate compensation solicitors will be able to help. Might be worth giving them a call. Their web site is www.sorrymate.com Good luck.
You have to prove the value of your Thruxton immediately prior to the accident. The Third Party insurers should compensate you for this value. The best way to prove the pre accident value is to go back to Jack Lilley and ask them to provide you with a valuation, IN WRITING, on their headed paper. They should give as much detail as possible as to how they arrive at this valuation. Forward a copy of this to the insurers and ask them to reconsider their offer. You will probably not recover the cost of the service, the aim of the value is for you to be able to go and purchase an identical machine. Purchasing this from a dealer would almost certainly mean that the bike had been serviced prior to sale so, in effect, you are back in the same position as you were immediately prior to the accident. For a dispute of this type forget the Ombudsman, he is their to deal with complaints against your own insurers, in a case of this type your remedy is through the civil courts. The other way to approach the whole sorry saga is to contact your insurers and make a claim on your policy, assuming that you disclosed the extras and paint job on the bike they will deal with you less your policy excess and then seek to recover the cost from the van's insurers, leaving you to just pursue a claim for your excess and any other uninsured losses. If you did not disclose the extras fitted to the bike you could have a problem with your insurers over the value of the bike at the time of the loss. Whichever way you go you will still have to disclose this accident at any renewal of any vehicle insurance for the next few years, failure to disclose could result in any future claim being repudiated. Best of luck with your negotiations, I feel for you all this grief over an incident over which you had no control at all. At least you were uninjured and, personal though it is, a Truxton can always be replaced, you can't!
Maybe your back is acting up a bit since the collision? Or you're having nightmares about the accident? More than 1 way to skin a cat.
I'm so sorry to read about what the accident, @TonyG, and what you are dealing with related to insurance compensation. As @Wessa said, "I feel your pain". We all love our bikes and especially so when we've put so much into them. I hope that you are able to get everything resolved to your satisfaction--and sooner (much) rather than later. I'm really glad that you weren't badly hurt and the injuries were primarily to your Thruxton.
That sucks, Tony. I'm sure you can claim for things like the service cost through out of pocket expenses or something. Then there's your personal injuries to consider Good luck mate, rooting for you.
Thanks for the replies. West Triumph London(Jack Lilleys) have been really helpful and are in contact with the insurers engineers. I have also contacted the solicitors in Wessa's reply and they are going to call back but not sure how or if they will help, if they operate on a no win no charge model then the percentage they would take will probably mean I end up with less than the original offer, I think they are probably more effective on injury claims or when the liability is disputed. Anyway, will see what happens and grateful for your thoughts and suggestions.
I had a similar issue although with my S2000 Westfield kit car. I rejected the insurance offer and supplied various photographs and paperwork to support the car's true worth. After 2 weeks or so they agreed to pay what i was asking for. The car was impounded but i asked if i could recover "personal" items. They helpfully allowed me to take a few added extras from the car..... Just dont accept the first offer.
So West London Triumph told them about all the extras they put on as new and they have revised the offer to a much better figure and seeing as they have now confirmed it as a cat N I think I will take the offer. They are also going to cover the £674 service cost and a new helmet, they have been pretty decent in the end. I feel quite relieved although it's all just a fair result really and around the figure I feel is justified. They also said I could take off the extras I added, e.g. K Tech suspension etc., I've asked if they will make an offer instead as it's just so much hassle and the whole thing is giving me a headache. But worse case I'll have to trek over to Triumph West London and change out the shocks, plus a few other bits of trim, intake covers etc.. So, I might be in the market for a Speed Twin as I think another Thruxton will be out of my price range. Never ridden one and worried the bars might be a bit too upright. Will have some Thruxton parts for sale as well, only recently bought a brown dual comfort seat. Cheers
I was in a similar situation in Nov '22 when my SS got written off and ended up with a similar result. I refused the insurer's first offer, then got a call from an assessor/loss adjuster, whatever you want to call him who turned out to be a decent chap who listened to reason and open to a haggle. The upshot was a got a much better, very fair offer AND I got to remove and keep the extras I'd added that were still serviceable. If the bike is in storage after being assessed the insurers will want to avoid the claim dragging on and escalating storage costs.
If there was ever a case to demonstrate that you must insist your bike is recovered to a dealer rather than the insurers "preferred option" like 4th dimension then this is it. The other is that unlike cars any work carried out by non franchised repairers then invalidates your warranty as the EU law that allows this for cars doesn't apply to bikes (or vans)
That's why I had my SS delivered back to me by the dealer after the assessment. Until you have accepted the payout figure the bike still belongs to you and having control of it's whereabouts is a good bargaining tool. When I had been paid out, the salvage Co. 4th Dimension came and collected it.
Spent two hours taking the extras off my Bonnie recently in similar circumstances. It was a right pain.
We did, but adopted the existing EU laws until such time that they were superceeded by a new UK one. In this v case unless I'm mistaken the old EU law still applies.
They also guest on 44Teeth YouTube channel from time to time. I have used them in the past. They managed to get a 90mph in a 60 downgraded to an SP30.
The insurers have come back with a reasonable offer and agreed to let me remove the extras I'd added on, so I now have some almost new Brembo Thruxto R front discs for sale, straight fit fot T120, etc., plus a few odds like black false carb and air box covers. Have a dual brown comfort seat and original solo seat for sale as well. Also kept the K-Tech shocks but they are going on my new Speed Twin. So, now that I'm over it I'm happy with the result, I've lost out on overall value but have decided their offer is ok and best to just accept it and move on. Mind you I haven't actually been paid as of yet!
