Bike written off by driver – what now?

Morning all,

My friend was rear ended on her commuter bike a few days ago at a roundabout – it’s written off the bike and wheels which are reasonably pricey for a commuter bike.

She’s basically ok, but doesn’t know how to proceed in terms of getting the drivers insurance to pay for a replacement bike. Most of the stuff seems to be related to uninsured drivers or hit and runs. She’s unfortunately not a member of cycling UK so can’t ask them, does anyone know what the normal procedure is?

She’s got the drivers details and the driver ‘seems’ ready to help. Is this something for home insurance legal cover? Or do you just get a quote for the bike from a bike shop saying what it was worth and then send it to the driver who sends it to her insurance?

Any pointers greatly appreciated!

Is it a stock bike and from the last few years?

Equivalent replacement of the full bike (guessing at what the value of a “decent communter”) will likely be cheaper than paying shop rates (which she would be entitled to even if she is a competent home mechanic) to move everything to a new frame and wheels.

It’s worth checking with her home insurance if she’s got legal cover (assuming she has home insurance…?).

Otherwise there are various no-win-no-fee cycling lawyers – a quick search online will dig them up along with reviews. Here’s one of the reputable ones:

https://c-ams.co.uk/

Just be aware that it’s unlikely the driver will know the cost of a bike. I’ve seen cases where the driver has said “oh I’ll give you £200” anxious to avoid going through insurance and because everyone knows that you can get “a bike” from Halfords for £199.99. Then when it’s pointed out that £200 wouldn’t even cover the cost of the rear wheel, the driver gets all shirty and starts changing their story.

If she’s in scotland, while I have never had to use their services, I have met them and they seem nice people (and gave me a cake 🙂 ) – https://roadtrafficaccidentlaw.co.uk/cycle-law/

Just be aware that it’s unlikely the driver will know the cost of a bike. I’ve seen cases where the driver has said “oh I’ll give you £200” anxious to avoid going through insurance and because everyone knows that you can get “a bike” from Halfords for £199.99. Then when it’s pointed out that £200 wouldn’t even cover the cost of the rear wheel, the driver gets all shirty and starts changing their story.

Used to suggest this to people who brought their bike into the shop for repair estimates as well.

Give them a ball park figure *immediately* including likely labour costs so they can start the arguments with the driver and their insurance as soon as possible. Especially a problem with people riding completely stock mid-range bikes, many of the owners generally had no idea how much parts and labour costs. And labour was only about 30-35 quid an hour back then.

Obviously including some arse covering language. Finding a cracked (or bent) frame changes everything very quickly!

She has house insurance, so told her to look into legal cover.

Does she actually need a solicitor if the driver is cooperative – i’ve never actually been in a car accident with insurance involved (que me crashing this evening!) so don’t know the process. How do you pass the bils onto the other party normally?

doesn’t know how to proceed in terms of getting the drivers insurance to pay for a replacement bike

If the driver is acting responsibly, they should be informing their insurance company of the incident and providing your friend’s details. That will be a damn site cheaper for them to deal with than if a legal service gets involved. One slight issue in settling ‘privately’ is if your friend then subsequently suffers any ill-effects that can be attributed directly to the incident.

Is this something for home insurance legal cover?

If she has it, then yes, it can help with these sorts of scenarios if they feel (generally the case) they have a better than 50% chance of being successful. Guy from work did just this recently, successfully – think his home insurance was with Halifax and he dealt with whoever their legal service add-on was with.

Does she actually need a solicitor if the driver is cooperative – i’ve never actually been in a car accident with insurance involved (que me crashing this evening!) so don’t know the process. How do you pass the bils onto the other party normally?

No – if the driver has informed their insurance you can make a 3rd party claim direct to the insurer. However you may be required to pay for everything up front and provide receipts, which is of course a bit of a game. I went round the houses on a wall someone drove through, got messed around for months trying to organise their insurers to get someone in to sort it, but eventually decided to pay for it myself and submit the claim with a receipt; paid next day no quibbles.

Can I just say that if your friend is only wanting the cost of a bike, (even a fairly expensive one) and some clothing, a no-win, no fee lawyer likely won’t want to take it on. It’s because they get paid a percentage of the value of the award these days, not carte blanche to charge inflated fees for minor claims so it’s only worth their while if you are asking for personal injury too.

When I was in a similar situation, and after some delay from the drivers insurers, I wrote a letter stating that settling for the cost of a replacement bike, helmet and some clothing would fully satisfy my claim. Because the cost of all this was around £1k they snapped up the offer rather than arguing further.

I hope she gets sorted out quickly and fairly.

Obligatory link to the LFGSS guide:

http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/131099/

If it were me at this point I would do the bare minimum other than chase and be a PITA to the insurers/driver until it’s sorted.  The more you do/say, the more they can come back with “ahh, but you said………” later on.

Your mode of transport for getting to work isn’t available until it’s sorted and that IS a PITA.  Make sure everyone involved is aware of that, give them an urgent but sensible deadline*.  As for sorting out the bike, figure out the replacement cost of a new bike with the same spec, they’re only going to beat you down so don’t be coy with it. I wouldn’t bother with an LBS just yet, if they want to get quotes form LBS’s, wheelies, or whoever else they can do, but it’s not your job to be doing that just yet.

At the first hint of them dithering, lawyer up via one of the recommended no-win-no-fee solicitors (IIRC the British Cycling ones are Leigh Day).  Cuts and bruises could well be worth more than your bike and that’s where the solicitors will make their fee, so make their jobs easy by photographing every injury at it’s worse and get them checked out by a Dr if necessary.

* TBH lawyering up at this point might be a good idea as they will be better placed to maybe get an interim payment to cover the bike whilst they chase for the injuries

Thanks all – will pass on the info.

Does she actually need a solicitor if the driver is cooperative – i’ve never actually been in a car accident with insurance involved (que me crashing this evening!) so don’t know the process. How do you pass the bils onto the other party normally?

You don’t need a solicitor, although if the driver is an new to this as your friend it might help to focus minds!   The solicitor will write to the driver, and there is nothing to stop her doing the same.  Presumably she has his details, as he was required to provide them at the time.   I presume she’s run a check on the MIB database (askmib website) to check the car was insured?  I assume she was not injured – was any clothing / helmet damaged?

some good tips, PI just delays matters further, been waiting 4 years .

if the other parties insurer can deal direct that would be the ideal, as others have said the third party should have informed their own insurer

Get a solicitor, that works with cyclists.

I had the pleasure in 2019 and instructed a solicitor from the high street. Two cars collided then hit me whilst in a segregated bike lane.

Bike was a Surly steamroller I bought as a frameset and built up, the other side wanted to pay 75% retail value of a stock bike (half the value of my build) even though I could provide invoices for every component and everything bar the right hand crankarm was clearly bent.

Even then my solicitor backed them on that point “you can’t put a price on passion” they said. My argument was I was talking about tangible items, not passion and we should be restoring the position.

As for my clothing (shredded) helmet and garmin edge 1000 (both smashed) they gave me a global figure of £200 because of “wear and tear”, despite the fact that my goretex trousers and jacket were 3 months old.

Of course I could have disputed it and gone to court, but it would have been against the advice of my solicitor and I didn’t dare risk a bill at the end of it.

Also during their sales pitch they told me that losses were not subject to fees, just the personaly injury, but this turned out to be a lie and silly me didn’t pick up on it when signing. So of that £200, £60 (plus vat I think, not 100%) went to my solicitor.

On the personal injury side I had a couple of fractures and a back injury that still plagues me, concussion etc but to my surprise they didn’t have much “value”. Psychological damage was the biggest part of the claim as far as solicitors were concerned.

Oh another point is that the driver that caused the whole thing admitted liability at the roadside but then claimed he wasn’t even there and was 100 miles away at the time.

Might sound like my whole post is a bit of a moan but I just want to get across that it was nowhere near as straightforward as I expected – a solicitor with a background in dealing with cyclist claims would have been much better I would have thought and there is no way I would want to do it again on my own.

Of course I could have disputed it and gone to court, but it would have been against the advice of my solicitor and I didn’t dare risk a bill at the end of it.

Surely it could all be covered by small claims court which doesn’t involve costs?

The advice was if awarded the same/less by the court then fees from the other side would be deductable.

Join British Cycling you can get retrospective access to their legal services (who I believe are provided by Leigh Day so you could probably go direct to them) they can get proper compensation for cyclists on no win no fee basis.

after getting a bike written off and going through all the crap with them taking the ‘oh its second hand so worth 5 quid’ line I’ll be claiming on my home policy (new for old) and letting the insurance companies fight it out.
they’ll do everything in their power to screw her over.

Join British Cycling you can get retrospective access to their legal services

No you can’t – you’re only covered if you’re a member at the time of the incident. This is standard in insurance.
You can’t wait until your house has burnt down then call a company, take out a policy and retrospectively claim.

You can go direct to Leigh Day but you can’t join BC now and claim for an incident last week.

Although it’s well worth joining BC or CUK anyway.

My experience of this kind of thing was refreshingly positive.

Scenario: Car pulls out at junction without seeing me, I pile into the side of it at approx 25mph.

Rang their insurance company the next day, also rang British Cycling as I was a member. BC basically said see where you get to with the insurers and we’ll weigh in if you need us. Insurer was great, driver was very co-operative and honest, I got my LBS to quote to fix the bike and replace stuff, the value of which wasn’t even questioned (higher than the RRP of the bike!) and paid within 24hrs of receipt of the quote. Insurer then arranged physio as my shoulder hurt a bit and it was their physio who informed me I had whiplash and to continue seeing them until it was sorted and then they’d give me some cash for injuries.

Six weeks later I was feeling fine with a replacement, better, bike in the garage and a few extra quid in the bank.

TL:DR – ring their insurer and see where you get, you might not need legal help at all.

I went through their insurer. They were arseholes the whole way through. The driver denied being there even though I had video evidence, the insurer denied he was insured (he was), then claimed he had another policy from an offshore company and I should pursue that. It was all ridiculous.

It took a year (to the day) but I got a cheque. Fortunately I have enough savings that I’d already bought the replacement bike much earlier, but many people don’t have that luxury. 10/10 would not recommend the stress.

If you have a solicitor / legal cover that will sort it all, definitely use that!