Insurance question, maybe legal Q?

[jasonbw]

A couple of mates have had this happen...and I want to see if anyone else knows why or what goes on...

Say you have an accident, the assessor drops by and says its a write off for sure, then proceeds to load your bike up and take it away...doesnt that mean he's taking away YOUR property?? What right has he to take it from you at that point.

I wouldnt allow him, but thats personal opinion, not until I have a cheque in my hand for the replacement value, but...

Heres worst case, and I fear this may be becoming relevant to a friend... the assessor takes it away then a few days later the insurance company refuses his claim...WTF ?

What would happen if they damaged it more, or it got stolen while the assessor had it?? Really a heap of potential problems.. whats the normal practise ??

Just throw a 2nd question while I'm at it... if my mate hadnt disclosed a couple of minor speeding (less than 15kph) offenses that happened in the 5 year period prior to starting the insurance, now its a few years later and he's had to make a claim, whats the odds they'll refuse? (Is it normal if they first refuse, you tell them you have a lawyer or something and they change their mind and agree, or is a refusal a sign you now have ZERO chance of getting the bike repaired/replaced)

JasonBW

[MATTK6]

as far as i'm aware jason, if he didnt declare a fine or anything when he was issued with insurance, and they find out at a later date, then they can cancel the policy, because at the time of the policy being granted he would have been read a note stating that he agrees that all the information he has provided are true and correct to the besot of he's knowledge, but if it comes to light that the details provided were not true then that is a breach of the contract he had with them.
i may be wrong but that is just how i have come to understand it to work

[jasonbw]

He asked me recently what my thought was on this.. I hoped the insurance company might be kind enough to consider the minor offenses as just that and that maybe they'd be .. err.. nice, but I'm seeing every mate I ask who's dealt with claims that went wrong that insurance companies will ONLY pay if they absolutely have to..
Kind of makes sence..its a business :(

So, turn this into a positive for everyone, if you have not called your insurer after getting an infringement you should call them and let them know... or call and ask what history they have and make sure it matches what the RTA site shows you have... just in case you forgot !

[Wiccad]

Insurance companies will do whatever they can to get out of paying. And when they do have to pay they want to recover as much of it as is possible. When my 750 was written off last year NRMA had it picked up in under 2 hrs of the Assesor making the decision to write the bike off as a repairable writeoff. I didnt have time to even remove the powercomander or rack that wern't a part of the policy. I did however insist on a receipt for the bike from the towie, said towie didn't want to give me one untill i got on the phone to NRMA and insisted. Towie got a phone call 30 seconds later and I got a receipt. No dramas with the payout though as it was a not at fault claim that had to go through my insurance as the bike was encumbered.

My current situation however remains to be seen. The cheque I've been sent is about $500 short of the price the shop agreed to with the assesor to fix my bike, and its another "nat at fault" claim.

[Kat00]

A few questions there.

The assessors Ive had dealings with have been pretty competent.
If an assessor says its rooted its a fair bet its rooted.
They do usually take the bike, they advise the insurance co and the insurance co will go to the place where it is being held and more than likely agree with the assessor.
The last insurance claim I had there was bugger all damage done to the bike and the assessor actually asked me if I wanted it written off. Seeing the bike was only 3 weeks old (no I wasn`t in any way at fault) of course I wanted it written off. Had a cheque within a week and I actually made 2 grand over what I paid for it :2191:

You here a lot of stories about claims being knocked back. I think that if someone gets declined they maut have a fairly poor non disclosed driving record.

I had a K4 gixxer 1000 that I crashed and I was totally to blame.
The bike had a non disclosed PC on it, non disclosed Yosh, air filter but no non disclosed fines.
Its all in the fine print of the policy, they couldn`t knock me back because there was no mention in the fine print about the type of mods I had done to the bike so they had to pay, which they did..
I was insured with Swan, they investigated the crash with a fine tooth comb, they concluded that the mods done to the bike had nothing to do with the crash

Non disclosure is a get out of jail card for insurance cos and they can knock anyone back for non disclosure of fines or mods if that is what it says in the fine print of the policy.

Saying all that, I reckon if your mate has only 2 under 15K fines he should be pretty right.
Tell your mate to stop doing the head miles and trying to second guess the outcome, it wont get him anywhere. All will be well.
Keep us informed.

[jasonbw]

Thanks Wiccad and Kat00 for taking the time to write that.. I think his overall history is shocking, down to 3 points left he says so I get the feeling the two fines arent the only so hopefully he's disclosed the other fines.

I'll let you know for sure, thanks, if anyone else has been through this too feel free to speak up... particularly about Shannons?

[Poyda]

When I binned my fireblade i was insured with NRMA. In the 18 months prior I had made a claim on a car policy, my car got stolen and torched. It took them 6 weeks to pay out, I think only because I was young and they were suss it was an insurance job, they called me every week and i repeated the same story everytime. So they paid up no probs. They never said they were considering not paying. With the fireblade acco the bike got brought back to my place. I called the NRMA and they said it needed to go to a shop to be assessed. I arranged with Westerns at Penrith to have a look at the bike for me and organised the towie to get it there, along with my helmet, which was covered to $300. I knew the bike would get there no probs because Westerns were waiting for it to start quoting on it. It was there for a few days before the NRMA called. With all the damage to plastics and the dent in the tank and busted foot peg and scraped can there was nearly $9k in damage, that wasnt including the dent in the frame ($1300 to fix) and the gouge in the swingarm ($400 part only), the NRMA gave me a couple of options. They would repair everything, but my premium would go through the roof because the bike was only worth $8k. They would repair everything except the frame and swingarm, but would give me a cheque to get the frame done and buy a swingarm or take it as a write off and get the cheque. I did manage to get a fourth option, and that was a cheque for all parts and frame repair only, but i had to send them all the reciepts and they wouldnt insure me or it again. I opted for the write off for lots of reasons. Mainly cos I was off my face on pain killers most of the time, and didnt know anything about fixing bikes or making them trackies etc. It took all of 3 weeks from crash to cheque, and that included the assessor having a heart attack and dying.

I was always upfront with NRMA, would rather disclose the silly little fines etc than risk loosing a payout. Also i'm lead to beleive that they put a mark against your name if they find out you have not disclosed evrything to them on a previous policy.

Good luck with it

[jasonbw]

Good luck with it

errr, you do know its not me?? I have a near perfect driving/riding record... but I'll let my mate know.. NRMA was a littly pricey for me but it sounds like they were very good at paying up.. nice one. (bit sad about the assesssor though, poor bugger!)

thank you!

[Loki]

my mate who works in insurance told me that as long as the details you kept to yourself wouldn't have stopped them insuring you in the first place (DUI, big speeds, etc), they will still pay out but hit you for the extra premium you managed to dodge by non-disclosure

every insurance place can be different though

[jasonbw]

Ahh, theres 2 who have said that now (a friend + yourself).. he had the 4 years worth of extra premium that they would have charged him taken away from the write-off cheque... good stuff

[MadHatter]

The most important point in this thread is that IF IT IS IN YOUR POLICY NOT TO DO SOMETHING, like modify the bike, or not disclosing your driving record at the time of the agreement, then the policy is null and void!
They CAN declare it null and void legally. (and so they probably would if they knew they could)
It's not like doing something dubious which isn't specified in the policy.. There is no legal grey area with not disclosing your driving record when asked. You could have 35 lawyers, ..in that matter your mate is boned.
I suppose you can only hope they don't find out.

[jasonbw]

I suppose you can only hope they don't find out.
They asked him to fax through a list of his convictions from the RTA site.. I think hes done that already - maybe... They'll know for sure if he does, but they wont pay if he doesnt. Poor bugger.. fingers crossed they're nice about it, I know he did the wrong thing when he stated he had no other offences but he's got the fate of an approx 17K wreck's resting on - kindness by an insurance company.. not good

[Turtle]

In my case I had my driving record sent to me by the RTA and found that i had a couple of under 15kph fines in the 5 years before i got the policy. I rang the guy who is looking after my case and he said that would be okay, (seriously, who can remember back 5 years of driving history ??? I cant remember last year) he said they really wouldn't care too much about two under 15k fines. It matters if you have say a loss of licence or some Major fine. .If that was such a big deal surely they'd have you supply a copy of your driving record upon getting the policy ??.........so far alls good......

[OzFighter]

Ive been seriously f*ked around latley by my insurance co.

I had a small stack on my zzr due to swerving to avoid scrap metal and in turn hitting a traffic island which sent me and my bike sliding for about 20 metres. All is good but the bike was written off because the assesor said it would cost more to fix it than its worth. Everything was ok, made the claim, sent all the relevant documents in and waited.

They call me 4 weeks later and say they found in my driving record 3 defaults that i didnt tell them about so they will be rufusing my claim.

About a year ago i got pulled over by the cops riding my pocket bike in the street and had to go to court. I was up for unlisenced riding, unregistered, uninsured. The judge laughed the charges out of court and sent me on my way with no fines no nothing. But i didnt know that they still went onto my driving record. But no conviction was made and i payed no fines.

So now the insurance co say they have the right to deny the claim because i didnt tell them about it.

I read their policys and the question was "have you ever been convicted, fined, disqualified or had your license suspended".
I said no cause i havent had any of those things.

So now im fighting them with help from the insurance ombudsman. They hate insurance companies and will fight them as long as they believe you were unfairly treated.

Also they told me the base your policy on a point system when they decide to insure you or not. If you have serious charges they have higher points so they may not insure you. Things like 15kph over the limit fines are nothing, they just make you pay a higher premium.

So basicly i now hate insurance companiews with a real passion. They are all leaches. Scum of the gutters. They are happy to take your money until you want to make a claim then they do anything tthey can to refuse the claim. Some companies even give bonuses to employees that can successfuly deny a claim so they dont have to pay out. Assholes.

Funny thing is i got my bike back while all this gets sorted out and the night i get it back cleverlie and my mate got it running and straighted out in about 3 hours. Most of that time was spent f*kin around and dribbling shit. And it didnt cost me a cent. Now shes a mean looking streetfighter. Yes, a zzr streetfigher!

See how i go with all this shit. Ill let you guys know the outcome.

[Jordan]

i had a few under 15 speeding fines and they just hit me with an extra $400 excess.