Yenzarill wrote:I don't see why I should have to spend my time & money finding somewhere to sell the wreck.
That's why your eventual letter of demand to them will include items like,
"Independent assessor fee $60"
Every single cent this costs you, pass it on to them.
All the advice about consulting frame specialists, wreckers etc seems to neglect the fact that you're in_Young,_which, while being a nice place, is a long way from anywhere. That can only be adding to the stress.
Damn this sucks. I'm itching to ride. I find out on Monday or Tuesday what their course of action will be...
Prepare yourself for their initial offer being_extremely_crummy. The arm-wrestling over salvage and market values which normally goes on between two insurance companies is, in this instance, going to be between them and you.
From the responses here I think there is a good chance that the "bike experts" the assessor is going to see
That's just shadow boxing.
"Yeah, mate, I talked to them, and they reckon that, while the frame is rooted, the rest of the bike's not too bad. They reckon it'll take two grand to fix."
There is a finite likelihood that something along those lines will be *exactly* what you hear when they eventually (don't go cancelling dentist appointments because you're expecting a call from the insurance company either; don't be surprised if you don't hear from them for a good couple of weeks) get around to calling you.
Another trick they try is giving you numbers of far-flung wreckers who are, supposedly, prepared to offer you stupidly large sums of money for the wreck... with me and my R1, I was in Sydney, and they tried to convince me to sell the wreck to a wrecker in Wagga!
Now my only worry is them trying to say that it's not worth fixing...
That_is_your worry? Why? If they write it off, they give you two options:
1.) Accept a payout equal to the eventually-agreed-to[1] market value of the bike in its pre-crash condition and relinquish the wreck to the insurance company, who'll send a trayback truck with a lift tray around to whisk it away.
2.) Accept a payout equal to the eventually-agreed-to market value of the bike in its pre-crash condition minus the eventually-agreed-to salvage value of the wreck, and keep the wreck to do with as you wish.
Footnote:
[1] Nothing about this is fixed. They'll start out claiming that, before the crash, the bike was worth $5500, and that the wreck is now worth $3500, "because that's what a wrecker has indicated he'll be prepared to pay for it". You counter by claiming the bike used to be worth $9000 and is now worth a grand as a wreck, and, after significant bickering, you'll meet somewhere in the middle.
)
(please dont hurt me) I binned a '97 blade last year,at the time it was valued at $9,300, dented frame and swing arm, fairings, pipe, rearset, tank. $8,730 for parts and labour, not including $1300 for frame repair and $400 for new swingarm. The assessor was cool, checked it out, gave me options of repair and leave frame alone, do it all, write it off. I took the write it off option, otherwise i'd have to polish the whole frame.
