WA Insurance claim for bike

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Jimbo!

Well-Known Member
2 February 2019
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My bike (pedal) was written off and my insurance company are paying for a replacement. They said they wanted to sell all salvageable parts. The bike shop who did the assessment and insurance report wrote off front wheel, forks and frame. I've stripped the bike and have binned all written off parts and boxed up all remaining working parts. However insurance company is withholding payment until I can produce written off parts, which I can't.... can they do this?
 

Tim W

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28 April 2014
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Quite possibly, yes.
It can be a term of the contract perhaps in very small print,
for title in an insured article to pass to the insurer.
Those wrecked parts may not have been yours to dispose of.
 

Rob Legat - SBPL

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16 February 2017
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To add to Tim's comments, what is and is not 'wrecked' is a decision the insurer gets to make. Generally in terms of any write off (more often cars, but in your situation your bicycle), to whole 'item' belongs to the insurer on processing the claim.

Look at it from this hypothetical point of view. You claim on an expensive bike and say most of it is wrecked. The insurer agrees to pay out on a replacement bike. Your take the 'wrecked' parts off it - but they're not all unusable. In fact, you make some money out of selling some of those parts - when the insurer should have the right to do so because you've already been compensated for the total loss of the bike.
 
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