| Author | Message | ||
     Yohinan |
Ok for those that dont and those that do know I had a wreck. For those of you who know California and insurance laws can you tell me what public law ( or is there not one, maybe it's just a gentleman's agreement between the ins co and the loan co. ) or what ever it is that states if your vehicle is a total loss, where it states that the money goes back to the loan company rather than you? No where in my policy does it say this but I have a feeling this is what my ins co is going to try to do. Yes I realize this seems logical however I plan on buying it back, which I have the option to do, but I also need the additional funds to actually fix the bike. Thanks for the help. | ||
| Mikej |
The loan company has a lien on your bike, they functionally "own" it via title to it until you pay it off. You are the registered owner of the bike and the primary operator of it and are liable for all maintenance and any tickets you get while riding it. Any money coming from the sale or accident recovery from the bike goes first towards paying off any liens on the bike. Note: if the insurance company pays less than your lien balance then the loan company will come to you to make up the difference. Many people these days are what they call upside-down on their loans, owing more than the vehicle can be sold or traded off for. Depending on the insurance company prepare yourself for them to possibly try to depreciate the bike a whole lot, like one tried to do with a bike of mine to the tune of 10-cents per mile on the odometer. I'm no expert, this is just what I've learned in life so far. YMMV. | ||
| Yohinan |
My insurance company is not trying to screw me at all. I have spoken with my "lien holder" and they stated if they receive a check from the insurance company they will give me none of it to fix the bike. However, they also stated if I am able to get the insurance company to cut the check directly to me ( I highly doubt that will happen ) or get them to cut the check in both my lien holders and my own names that my lien holder would sign off on the check and let me have to funds to do the repairs. I am not sure how easy or not this will be to be able to get my insurance company to do. I guess time will tell. | ||
| Mikej |
Are you planning to do the work yourself or order the parts via mail order? You might try talking with your local dealership and see if they'll work with you, write out a quote for parts/repairs, send the quote to the insurance company, cc the lien holder, get the check cut to the dealership. The only way the check should go to the lien holder is if the bike is being totaled to pay off the loan on it. I'm glad the insurance company is not jerking you around, some do, you must have found a good one to work with. | ||
| Yohinan |
Not sure yet how it is going to work. Yes I do plan on doing the work myself. I am definitely buying the bike back. That is not the issue obviously. I just have to find whatever "loopholes" there are to try to recoup the funds to be able to fix my bike. If I cant then it will obviously take a lot longer to fix than I originally anticipated. It is all up to my insurance company so I am really hoping they come through for me. I really dont see them cutting the check directly in my name so I am really hoping that they do the joint payment in both the lien holders name along with mine. I already got the estimate done and the HD dealership way overdid the estimate. The found it to be 7k just in parts with no labor. I estimate the damage to be 2-3k at the most. Also if I find out they definitely wont cut the check either of the above mentioned ways I may try to say well if you dont total the bike there really is not as much damage as was estimated. I can see if they will not make it a total loss by justifying to them the inaccuracies of the estimate and seeing if they will reevaluate it. If so I can make sure they understand I will be fixing it so no labor costs will be involved. Additionally I can show them exactly what does and what does not need to be replaced. Anyone have any experience with this type of "workaround." Maybe it will work and maybe it wont. Well see. | ||
| Elkman |
Because you have a leinholder listed on your policy your insurance carrier is required to protect their interest. Customarily if the vehicle is repairable, your insurance company writes the check payable to you and your repair facility, you hold on to the check until repairs are complete to your satisfaction, then you give the repair facility the check you signed off on and another check for your deductible and you walk away with a repaired bike. If you aren't going to have a repair facility repair the bike, then the insurer will usually cut the check payable to you and the leinholder, then it's up to your lienholder as to what their procedures are in that case. They want to protect their collateral and make sure that it is repaired. I've had that go different ways depending upon the leinholder. If the vehicle is totalled (i.e. cost to repair, plus salvage value in it's damaged state is greater than actual cash value), then usually the check is made payable to you and your leinholder again. You work it out with your lienholder if your'e "upside down" for the difference. There are no hard and fast rules. Your insurance company and insurance agent should work with you and help you through the process. |
