[ask99]

Found myself in a bit of confusion regarding coverage of Car Insurance. A car insurance was recently renewed where the person at the time of purchasing policy mentioned No claim (while unknown to them a claim had been filed in the previous year). The old insurer was Royal Sundaram and new insurer is ICICI Lombard.

Now while the car was in for an accidental repair, we were informed that due to incorrect NCB reported during purchase the Zero Depreciation cover has been deleted by ICICI. There has been no previous communication regarding this matter, and only through the surveyor did we find out about the NCB mismatch and coverage deletion.

The NCB amount was 1425/-, while the Zero Dep premium paid was 5297/- (plus 1471/- for Consumables cover).

The surveyor is essentially saying that the deletion of ZeroDep has been endorsed in the policy and therefore the cover will not be provided. Is there a solution to this issue caused by an oversight while buying the policy? Is it normal to lose coverage without being informed or given the option to pay the difference to whatever expected NCB should have been?

Any suggestions on how to proceed would be welcome!

[self_driven]

Unfortunately, there's little you can do in this case. We as customers sign a NCB declaration at the time of purchase to validate that the details specified are correct. This is because claim history has a significant impact on insurance premium. There is a time limit, 7 days from policy start date IIRC, for corrective action if there is any discrepancy. But this will not be applicable in your case at this point.

Anyhow, consider yourself lucky to have your claim processed and approved, although without zero-dep coverage. I've heard of cases where companies deny own-damage coverage entirely when NCB is found to be incorrect.

I'm curious to know how you were not aware of the claim filed under previous policy?

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by ask99

Now while the car was in for an accidental repair, we were informed that due to incorrect NCB reported during purchase the Zero Depreciation cover has been deleted by ICICI. There has been no previous communication regarding this matter, and only through the surveyor did we find out about the NCB mismatch and coverage deletion.

That's unethical from ICICI Lombard (cursing myself now for having renewed my policy with them for next year). Every Insurance co when offering the policy would know the claims made against the car as they cross verify in the IRDAI database which is updated by all insurance cos offering motor cover for the policy year. So I am sure ICICI would have known the claims and zero NCB applicability. However they chanced upon the customer still declaring the NCB which they could use later as an excuse to reject a motor claim. Ideally ICICI should have come forward proactively and made it clear to the customer regarding the NCB and asked for the amount refund rather than wait till the claim to find out.

I am still not clear how is Zero dep connected to NCB declaration. Zero dep add on is based on the depreciation of the vehicle in terms of years of ownership and is a % of the IDV.

I suggest to take this up with the ombudsman of ICICI as well as raise a complaint on bimabharosa website.

[ask99]

Originally Posted by self_driven

Unfortunately, there's little you can do in this case. We as customers sign a NCB declaration at the time of purchase to validate that the details specified are correct. This is because claim history has a significant impact on insurance premium. There is a time limit, 7 days from policy start date IIRC, for corrective action if there is any discrepancy. But this will not be applicable in your case at this point.

Anyhow, consider yourself lucky to have your claim processed and approved, although without zero-dep coverage. I've heard of cases where companies deny own-damage coverage entirely when NCB is found to be incorrect.

I'm curious to know how you were not aware of the claim filed under previous policy?

Thank you.

It was missed because the car is used by a different family member and hasn't had a major incident, so it was some minor bodywork claim about a year ago that the person renewing the policy wasn't clued in on unfortunately. Definitely an oversight on our end.

Just surprised that there was no intimation from the Insurer regarding the matter. The surveyor in fact sent us a picture of a page addressed to the policy holder with the change to policy, but we never received any such information prior.

I have got in touch with ICICI and am waiting for clarification on the matter. The phone rep suggested they have a process where they ask you to repay the NCB discount amount in cases of such discrepancy, which again we were never approached about.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

That's unethical from ICICI Lombard (cursing myself now for having renewed my policy with them for next year). Every Insurance co when offering the policy would know the claims made against the car as they cross verify in the IRDAI database which is updated by all insurance cos offering motor cover for the policy year. So I am sure ICICI would have known the claims and zero NCB applicability. However they chanced upon the customer still declaring the NCB which they could use later as an excuse to reject a motor claim. Ideally ICICI should have come forward proactively and made it clear to the customer regarding the NCB and asked for the amount refund rather than wait till the claim to find out.

I am still not clear how is Zero dep connected to NCB declaration. Zero dep add on is based on the depreciation of the vehicle in terms of years of ownership and is a % of the IDV.

I suggest to take this up with the ombudsman of ICICI as well as raise a complaint on bimabharosa website.

I have contacted their customer support for clarity on the same. Hopefully there will be a reasonable resolution to the issue.

[pratika]

Originally Posted by ask99

Any suggestions on how to proceed would be welcome!
Attachment 2535058

Attachment 2535059

I was in a very similar situation just few months back and with same insurer. I declared 30% NCB by mistake during insurance renewal. Few months later they sent me a notification asking for NCB recovery. I paid up but had some issues with their gateway timing out, so finally I did a chargeback on my card. Their customer service was pretty pathetic and they didn’t understand how to claim money from their gateway.

Long story short, the surveyor said they’ll pay only 70% of claim amount since my NCB claim of 30% was incorrect and recovery amount was not paid. I talked with my lawyer and this fell in a gray area due to chargeback so I decided to accept their term of 70% payment.

Note that the surveyor told me if their company sends NCB recovery notification and if you still don’t pay then the standard practice is to deny claim fully. If they fail to notify you of NCB recovery then their standard practice is to pass 100-claimed NCB, which is probably what they’re offering you. FWIW, even I had 0-dep insurance.

[Cavityavenger]

Here's my situation:

My vehicle has been with ICICI lombard for about 5 years. The motor insurance was due for renewal in Sept. 2022 and as usual, i paid the premium online on their portal and received a soft copy.

Fastforward to Sept. 2023 and it's time to renew again. However, the ICICI portal kept giving me an error so I called CS and they informed me the the insurance policy is not active and it was never issued to begin with. They offered me a full refund of the premium after confirming that they had indeed received the payment but for whatever reason, their system didn't tag the payment with the policy.

After 2 months of back and forth, I had to approach the local obundsman's office to get my premium back.

Time to move on and when I started to solicit new insurance providers, because it showed a lapse in insurance, my premiums were doubled and NCB reset to zero.

ICICI Lombard's premium quote was comparable to what I was paying the previous year, so I decided to go with them as a "NEW" policy, not a renewal. I paid the new premium, ICICI sent a guy over to take photos of the car and approved the policy and sent me a copy via email.

However, fast forward 45 days since then and the Mparivahaan portal still shows that my vehicle insurance is expired since 2022. Calls/Emails to ICICI to resolve this have been futile and I get the same BS response that the portal will be updated within 24 hours, but it's been a month and nothing has changed.

What should I do? Is there a way to verify that my policy is active or not? ICICI CS tell me it's active, but they have a proven track record of screwing things up.

Please advise. TIA

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by Cavityavenger

What should I do? Is there a way to verify that my policy is active or not?

This is the second case of ICICI Lombard high handedness seen in the recent days.

To check whether your policy is active or not, download the IL Take Care app where it show the policy taken by you and whether its active or not. Showing for me atleast in the app. But my policy is yet to start. Thanks to your post, I checked the policy status on mparivahan app as well and it shows the correct validity.

Its scary to complete a year without a valid Insurance policy on the car.

[Cavityavenger]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

This is the second case of ICICI Lombard high handedness seen in the recent days.

To check whether your policy is active or not, download the IL Take Care app where it show the policy taken by you and whether its active or not. Showing for me atleast in the app. But my policy is yet to start. Thanks to your post, I checked the policy status on mparivahan app as well and it shows the correct validity.

It’s scary to complete a year without a valid Insurance policy on the car.

The IL Take Care app showed my policy was active in 22-23 and that’s why I never bothered to double check on the Parivahaan website. Go figure..! Really shady stuff

[self_driven]

Originally Posted by Cavityavenger

The IL Take Care app showed my policy was active in 22-23 and that’s why I never bothered to double check on the Parivahaan website.

If you are an android user, search for vehicle details on RTO Info app and see what it says. Or PM me your car number I'll check it for you.

[Cavityavenger]

Originally Posted by self_driven

If you are an android user, search for vehicle details on RTO Info app and see what it says. Or PM me your car number I'll check it for you.

RTO website is not accurate, it's showing old information accurate uptil 2021. Not updated.

[kavensri]

One of my relative is going abroad for a long term assignment (~2 years). During this period, he would park his car in his apartment basement. No one would be driving his car during this period.
His question is, what happens if he does not renew his car insurance during these two years (to save around Rs20000) and then take a fresh insurance after he comes back? Is this even advisable to do?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by kavensri

One of my relative is going abroad for a long term assignment (~2 years). During this period, he would park his car in his apartment basement.

Just tell him to sell the car and buy a new one once he's back with dollars in his bank account.

[Aviator_guy]

Originally Posted by kavensri

One of my relative is going abroad for a long term assignment (~2 years). During this period, he would park his car in his apartment basement. No one would be driving his car during this period.
His question is, what happens if he does not renew his car insurance during these two years (to save around Rs20000) and then take a fresh insurance after he comes back? Is this even advisable to do?

My unsolicited advice to your friend. Keeping the car unattended for 2 years may be prone to many issues like rodent bites, tyres/battery degradation, unforeseen mechanical issues etc. From my personal experience of moving abroad for short term, I'd suggest your friend to sell off the car and just buy another one whenever he is back. Trust me, It is much more peace of mind that way

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by hserus

Just tell him to sell the car and buy a new one once he's back with dollars in his bank account.

Originally Posted by Aviator_guy

My unsolicited advice to your friend. Keeping the car unattended for 2 years may be prone to many issues like rodent bites, tyres/battery degradation, unforeseen mechanical issues etc. From my personal experience of moving abroad for short term, I'd suggest your friend to sell off the car and just buy another one whenever he is back. Trust me, It is much more peace of mind that way

Thanks for your advices.
Unfortunately, selling off the car is not an option for him.

[Aviator_guy]

Originally Posted by kavensri

Thanks for your advices.
Unfortunately, selling off the car is not an option for him.

If that's the case, then here is advice about insurance. Please make sure third party insurance is renewed without fail, which is a legal requirement whether car is driven or not. Your friend can skip own damage renewal if he wants to save money. But be advised that for renewal of lapsed OD insurance, the insurance company would need to inspect the car and most likely would ask your friend to visit their office for physical inspection. Secondly, the premium may go up significantly and/or they may not offer add-ons like zero dep etc due to break in insurance (it is at the discretion of the company).