*LOOKING FOR ADVICE* - Knocked down on the way to work & now battling with his insurance company

As the story goes... I was cycling along on my way to work, minding my own business when I get side swiped by a fella who didn't see me. Nothing too exciting or extravagant in the story but it was his fault, he accepted liability, I was largely ok, bike was largely ok (minus a few scratches) and so we swapped details and I left the bike into the mechanic to get a quote for repairs which he was going to pick up the cost for.

The mechanic came back to me a week later with his diagnostic report which wrote the bike off as they said they had no way of determining any unseen damage to the frame, hidden cracks and the like without xraying it so labelled it not safe for road use and advised that the only way forward was a replacement bike. Happy enough with this I forwarded all relevant information on to his insurance company.

The insurance company have accepted this report and come back to me with what they would be willing to offer. I'm wondering what I should be accepting as adequate coverage from them.

The bike is a Van Nicholas Ventus and less than a year old. Cost £1,600 new 8 months ago. They have offered the value of the bike minus 20% for depreciation. So £1320.

I'm wondering is the minus 20% depreciation fair enough or should I go for the whole hog?

depreciation is a reasonable reduction in value

Depends if you want an easy life or not.

Something similar has happened to me - and a great deal of power lies with the insurance company - I'm not sure what you could say to them to change their tack and offer you full value.

You could try negotiating with them. Maybe because you haven't claimed for personal injury you may be able to convince them to pay up in full now for the bike rather than face a protracted PI case.

Also - and this is a bit off radar - they may not be willing / able to take posession of the damaged bike, so you may end up keeping that, too, and making up your losses by flogging the undamaged parts. This is common, but it's not great, as technically it doesn't belong to you, but as above the insurers probably won't take posession.

Another approach would be to ask them to simply replace the bike, like for like, which I'd imagine would cost them a great deal less than it would you.

I managed to squeeze new value from an insurer by demonstrating that it wasn't possible to replace like-for-like as a replacement didn't exist in the market, so my only choice was to buy new again. At 8 months old I think you'd stand a chance or arguing the same case.

Alternatively, find a used one for under £1320 and give the excess to a cycling charity. Or spend it on scag.

Advice from the mechanic was go for the full thing - 'You want the same bike and that amount of money isn't enough for that bike.'

Seems fair they do the same for car values in crashes, with any luck a sale is on an you can pick up a replacement for that by shopping about.

£1320 driver will wish he hits a cheap shitty car next time.

I wonder does anyone know if it have any baring on the matter if the driver was the one who has claimed on his own insurance. To clarify, I haven't put a claim in to him, he has decided to cover the cost of the damage by personally claiming on his own insurance.

So provided I am being reasonable and not saying I want a new £3000 bike, a replacement bike costs £1600, so I wan't £1600 to replace it...

For what it's worth, I was knocked off my bog-standard hybrid (£350 new) and the insurers paid me £1300 to not talk to them ever again / claim for personal injury / replace the bike. Similar story - took the bike to a mechanic who told me that it was definitely not rideable, despite no obvious damage.

The insurers even tried to MAKE me go for physio, despite the crash being at about 10mph (me going into the side of a van that turned across me). Admittedly it was a delivery van that hit me so I guess they were insuring a fleet - perhaps they're happier to throw money about as they insure far more vehicles rather than a personal policy. I say ask for the full value and see what happens.

Does that depreciation scale work all the way down? I'm only thinking aloud, my 7 tear-old bike's worth £200 odd according to that scale but I wouldn't sell it for £3k. Sentiment.

^^^Not dependant on type of claim or who makes it.

The aim of any award at this stage is to replicate what would happen if you were to make a claim for loss or damage due to the accident. This is to put you back in the position you would have been in had the incident not occurred.

Normally, it would be necessary to award sufficient damages to enable you to replace the damaged property. The fairest way of assessing the value of the property would be to consider current market value (taking into account depreciation, wear and tear from use).

Insurance companies would likely give you the replacement cost (£1600) but odd that they are reducing by 20%. As above, they are well within their rights to do so. That said, nothing stopping you from asking them to replace as @Howard mentions or you asking for a 'like for like' cost of new. If not, argue that you have been unable to ride the bike and have been getting public transport/private car and claim this cost too - this would be reasonable.

This has been great thanks.

I've gone down the like-for-like route and will keep you posted as it pans out

Not sure on bikes bit with cars you usually get like for like / new value on cars less than 1 or 2 years old.
Personally I'd be after the like for like nothing more on the basis I'd be footing the difference out of my own pocket for a circumstance bright about by someone else's actions. And that they are likely taking posecission of the old bike

A lot of shops just write bikes off as some slight chance it might come back to them if it cracks in 4 years time (regardless of cause).