Your tricky legal questions answered

Q Insurance valuation problem

I recently bought a secondhand Honda Fireblade from a dealer for £5000. I thought it was a good price and I insured it for that amount. The broker did not query the value. Unfortunately, one week later I had an accident and the bike was written off. I have just received an offer of £3000. I have found many equivalent Fireblades online all well above this. How can I ensure I get paid fairly? Darek Nowak, email

A Assuming you have an invoice to prove the purchase amount, this is excellent evidence of the bike’s market value before the accident.

You have also identified comparable bikes all valued way in excess of the offer from your insurer. I suggest you contact your insurer with the evidence you have as to value (actual price paid and comparable bike prices) and ask them to reconsider and pay you the £5000 you paid, less the excess.

If the insurer does not respond favourably then you can raise an official complaint with the insurer which they must investigate. If they still don’t come up with an acceptable market value figure then you may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) asking them to investigate.

Should the FOS not agree to deal with the matter then you could consider a claim against the insurer for breach of contract. Hopefully, however, stage one of the above will get this sorted out for you.

‘An invoice would provide excellent evidence’