Q) How a damage insurance claim can be filed in the event of an accident ?
A) In the event of an accident, which involves damage to the vehicle, one makes an ‘accident claim’ to the insurance company. An ‘accident claim’ covers the cost of repair to the car and the cost of replacing damaged parts to the extent covered by the insurance policy.
Typically, the procedure to claim ‘accident insurance’ is as follows:
• Inform the insurance company about the accident, the time, date and place of the accident. Insurance companies have forms for filling these details and one can obtain these forms from any branch of the insurance company.
• File a First Information Report (FIR) at the police station closest to the place of mishap. Documents related to the vehicle like registration book, tax paid receipt, insurance papers, driving license, etc. are needed while lodging the FIR.
• Take the vehicle to a reputed workshop for repair and get a repair estimate from the workshop.
• Submit the estimate to the insurance company.
• A surveyor from the insurance company will come for an inspection of the vehicle, and to assess the cost of restoring the vehicle to its pre-accident condition.
• Based upon the surveyor’s report, the insurance company will make a final settlement of the estimate and the deal is closed.
• Inform the insurance company the time, date and place of the accident. You can get a standard form for filling in these details from any insurance company branch.
‘Accident claims’ are normally processed quickly enough. To enable the process go smoothly, it is advised to keep all documents related to the vehicle handy. However, vehicle surveyors are a moody lot, and one may have to bargain a bit to increase the claim amount from the insurance company. |