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-   -   My Experience with Royal Sundaram Insurance (Total Loss Case) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-loans-insurance/117674-my-experience-royal-sundaram-insurance-total-loss-case.html)

Hello Friends,

I am creating this new Thread to discuss my experience with Royal Sundaram Insurance Company. My car has gone as Total Loss case.

I will narrate the exact sequence of events later, first for the benefit of everyone here let me share my experience in case of Total Loss scenario.

Pre-Owned Car Purchased in June 2011 for Rs. 2,55,000
IDV of Car Rs. 2,50,000.
Insurance Policy taken in June 2011.
Insurance Premium paid Rs. 8,000

Total Loss figure agreed: Rs. 2,40,000
Salvage Value: Rs. 1,30,000 (payment received)
Royal Sundaram's share: Rs. 1,10,000 (expecting payment within a day or two)

After accident the car was lying at Chamunda Motors Borivali from 31.01.2012 & they asked for original RC Book, Original Insurance Policy Document & my Original Driving License which are required by Surveyor at time of inspection. I submitted the documents & the inspection was done after four days & surveyor was of opinion that damage is on higher side & he will consult his seniors & get back to us.

We did constant follow-ups & they told us they are looking at various options & have asked for Scrap Valuation.

After almost 10 days of follow-up, we got a call from Royal Sundaram suggesting they would like to go for Total Loss & the Total amount that would be paid to us would be approx Rs. 2,20,000. We disagreed & asked for a personal meeting, which was arranged on 17.02.2012 at their Powai office.

At their office, we waited for some time & then the concerned person (I will disclose the name after taking permission from them) took us to a meeting room.

He told us that damage to Car was extensive & it would be better to go for Total Loss. We told him that we loved our car & would like to repair it. The repair quote given by Chamunda Motors was approx Rs. 1,75,000 + Painting charges thus the total would go around Rs. 2,00,000. Now out of that amount our share was supposed to be approx Rs. 40,000.

The Salvage buyer (who was regular buyer of Royal sundaram Cars) had quoted Rs. 1,10,000 for our car.

So the options for Royal Sundaram were:
1. Repair the Car: Where their share would be approx Rs. 1,65,000 (Rs. 2,00,000 - 40,000)
2. Total Loss: Where their share would be maximum Rs. 1,40,000 (Rs. 2,50000 IDV - Rs. 1,10,000 scrap value)

Thus they were trying to push us to go for Total Loss option. We loved the car & wanted to repair it by paying our share of Rs. 40,000. Only problem was that Chamunda Motors will take almost 1.5 to 2 months to get the car back on shape. Also we were little skeptical as to will the car serve us for next few years after such extensive repairs?

But then we inquired at various Used Car Dealers & we were getting 2008 or 2009 Wagon R Vxi for almost Rs. 2,75000 or Rs. 2,90,000. Thus we made a decision to go for Total Loss (get someting like Rs. 2,40,000) & buy another car.

Subsequently during negotiations, we struck to getting full IDV of Rs. 2,50,000, which they said was not possible, as we need to depreciate the car for nine months of usage after taking the policy. I took a print-out from Team-BHP, we ICICI Lombard has to pay full IDV for Chevy Spark. (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ys-truant.html) (We sincerely Thank Team-BHP for this)
We gave final figure of Rs. 2,40,000 & left the meeting room. The Royal Sundaram person informed us that he will consult his seniors at Chennai & get back to us.

Then on Monday, 20.02.2012, he called us & said he is finalizing the Total Loss at Rs. 2,40,000 & we will get the Salvage Buyer's Demard Draft within a week & balance payment from Royal Sundaram. We agreed.

To our surprise, Chanumda motors arranged for a Salvage Buyer who finally paid Rs. 1,30,000 (as Royal Sundaram's Salvage Buyer also increaesed his offer to Rs. 1,20,000). Which meant that Car was good enough to be repaired, but we were not repaired because we can buy a another car for the same amount.

To our surprise, 2007 Maruti WagonR Vxi is currently available at varios Car Dealers for Rs. 2,30,000 or maximum Rs. 2,40,000. The scrap buyer has bought the car for Rs. 1,30,000 now what will be his repair cost (as Chamunda quoted Rs. 2,00,000) & for how much will he sell it for.

We handed the Original RC Book & Signed RTO Car Transfer Papers & got the Demand Drat of Rs. 1,30,000. I am now waiting for payment of Rs. 1,10,000 from Royal Sundaram, which I feel is little slow than we expected. The payment is expected either today or tomorrow.

I will keep the forum posted about exact sequence of events, names of concerned persons, once I recieve the final payment from them.

Thanks,

Just a quick update Friends,

I have finally received the Balance Payment of Rs. 1,11,000 [Rs. 1,10,000 + Rs. 1,500 for towing car, less (-) Rs. 500 standard deduction] from Royal Sundaram today.

I am updating this here in this forum before informing my near & dear ones.

I once again sincerely thank Team-BHP for creating such a wonderful platform where we can not only discuss Cars but all possible things in & around Cars.

Had I not read Insurance topics on Team-BHP, we would have settled for atleast 10% less than IDV (Rs. 2,25,000 on IDV of Rs. 2,50,000). But after going through posts here, specially Ketan Tendulkar's post which I mentioned above, we approached Royal Sundaram with confidence & in defiant state of mind.

I also thank Royal Sundaram Insurance Company & its following staff for their co-operation & action:
1. Sagar B (Senior Executive, Mumbai)
2. Siddhesh Acharya (Field Officer, Mumbai)
3. M.I.Khan (Surveyor, Jodhpur)

Thanks,

Hi Jignesh,

Good to know that you've received the complete amount from your Insurer without much hassles. Now for the story...

What happened to your WagonR? Have you already booked a new WagonR K10B as is evident from your signature?

Hello Santosh,

Yes. I am considering myself lucky that I received almost full IDV from Royal Sundaram without much delay & problems.

Yes. I have booked a 2010 WagonR K10 & will be taking delivery tomorrow (Gudi Padwa). The car is pre-owned & has ODO reading of 17,700 kms.

I will write the detailed story of the incident soon.

Thanks,

Nice!! good to read that your exchange with you car insurance company was short and sweet.
All these incidents affirm my belief off getting the full IDV value for my car,wherein I have got my Ikon's insurance renewed at a higher IDV paying a higher premium with Bajaj Allianz.
Jignesh, all the very best for your K10 WagonR. Buying a pre-owned car always makes immense financial sense.

That's good news !! I completely can understand the sigh of relief that you are experiencing. Truly, Team-BHP and its knowledgable members rock !! clap:

Hello Fordmanchau,

Frankly speaking, if you have increased IDV of the Car mid-way (say after 3 years IDV was 3 lacs & you have increased to 4 lacs), I don't know whether Insurance Company will pay this full amount. Would request you to go through Team-BHP Threads, there is a mention about this & people have clearly said that Insurance company might not pay full IDV in such cases.

Regarding buying a Pre-Owned car, by Gods grace I have never taken loan for anything in my life. Also I don't feel like taking loan for Car because you will have to pay Interest + you will spend for fuel & regular maintenance. Thus I go for Pre-Owned Cars.

Hello HorsPwr,

Yes I am really relieved, it is like a huge burden taken off my head. But my first sigh of relief came when I saw that myself & my family (especially my 5 years daughter) were absolutely safe.

Thanks,

Hello Friends,

Just a quick update.

After almost 1.5 months the Car that we disposed as Scrap to Salvage Buyer, is finally repaired & available for Sale at a surbarban Mumbai used Car Dealer.

The Used Car Dealer has put up the Car for sale at Rs. 2,20,000. I genuinely wonder that in how amount was the Car repaired & what would be the quality of work. Considering the fact that we were paid Rs. 1,30,000 as Scrap value & Chamunda Motors quoted us almost Rs. 2,00,000 to repair the car. Now that the Car is up for sale for Rs. 2,20,000 which means that the Dealer has not spent more than Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 70,000 to repair the Car.

Just a advise to all the Used Car buyers to be very careful while buying a Used Car from a Dealer, as you may not know what is the origin of the Car you are buying.

Thanks,

Jignesh, do you have photographs of your car after the accident? Can you post the details of the damage (visible and discovered during physical inspection) ?

On my daily route I routinely come across various vehicles right from Maruti 800 to Tempo Trax or Sumo being taken apart part by part and being rebuilt to an almost brand new condition. That's a big deterrent to buying a used car from a dealer.

Hello Honeybee,

Regret the delay in responding to your query. Actually I was not sure whether to make the accident pictures public. This is so because none of my family & friends know of this accident, except for my parents.

Anyways I have posted the pictures of the Car post accident in the below thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...rajasthan.html

Thanks,

The thread could be merged and would make it more comprehensive.

Hello Jignesh,

Good to know that you stuck to your judgement and made Royal Sundaram pay the IDV although not full. I was surprised to know that the IDV was being calculated by RS on pro rata basis in case of total loss. I guess by this time RS must have known that they cant mess around with a T-BHPian.

Glad to know about your faith and confidence in Wagon R when you picked up another one. Thanks for bringing it to the forum that the car is already available in market, pray put up the registration/chassis no also so that one is aware about the car.

Hello Ghodlur,

Yes. I am sure Royal Sundaram now knows that they cannot mess with T-BHPian. Infact when the surveyor started negotiating from Rs. 2.2 lacs (against IDV of Rs. 2.5 lacs), I did not utter a word but just presented a print-out of T-BHP thread that I have mentioned above where our member ensured that ICICI paid full IDV. The Royal Sundaram executive was just speechless after reading the details of that thread. I once again thank T-BHP for this.

The reason for accepting Total Loss settlement figure little less than Actual IDV was it was almost two months since the accident & we wanted to get out of the situation & start things new.

Yes. I can now swear by Maruti WagonR's build quality. After God if it is anyone else I can thank then it is Maruti for building a Car like WagonR that not only saved our lives & but also ensured that we were absolutely unhurt.

As far as registration number is concerned, it is already visible in the accident picture I have posted. But still for someone's benefit the details are
Registration Number - MH-03-AM-1108
Model - Maruti WagonR Vxi
Colour - Golden

Thanks,