Team-BHP - Insurance claims for own damage

Hi and Wish everyone a very happy new year in 2010.

I have a question regarding insurance claims. My car got scraped and badly scraped at that all along the left side of the car. The damage ranges from the left mirror to the rear door handle and is quite extensive.

Basically wife was learning to park the car and it scraped right across the compound wall while it was being brought in through the gate. The side protectors were ripped clean off, and there are deep gashes made by the stony wall.

My question here is, does it matter to the insurance company if I own up my mistake. Will the claim be processed smoothly without any penalty on me if I say that it was my mistake and I caused the damage on the car? Or do I have to cook up some story and label it as an unavoidable accident and brush against a lamppost?

I don't want them to say that I caused the damage due to negligence, so I will have to bear xx% of the costs incurred. In that case, I will wait and get it repaired later on at a more opportune moment.

Finally I understand that insurance doesn't cover some kinds of parts and covers on 50% of other parts, such as rubber, plastic etc. Is this true, and are such restrictions present even on a comprehensive insurance policy? I want to call them up tomorrow morning, but I want to get my facts straight first and see how to proceed with the call and then the claim.

try to catch hold of authorised service centre and as far as possible go for cashless claim where the service centre will take care of the damages.
no need to willingly accept that its your mistake.

if your wife does not have driving license dont even utter a word that she was driving. say you were driving and suddenly a kid or someone came in front and then you tried to steer and brushed the wall.

Quote:

Originally Posted by herculesksp (Post 1660265)

I had the same situation sometime back but i also had some damage due to external factors added. The hyundai service advisor suggested not to mention own negligence and cover all under external damage only. The policy does not cover 100%, for plastics,rubber etc its 50% i guess...the policy doc explains it. Also u would need to pay some 10% of the amount for sure on own and your premium will increase the next time you pay up.

herculesksp,
Check your policy, they will usually list what is covered in the insurance, you will get only 50% coverage on rubber, plastics, beadings. But as amit_mechengg said check with your A.S.C, they usually have a guy dealing with insurance and he will advise you on the claim. And even accidental damage thru' ones own mistake is covered by the Comprehensive coverage.

I recently claimed Rs 4000 for dent removal/painting on the rear left door of my Alto. I bumped in to the gate post, although slowly, while entering my compound. I have to make a steep left turn from the road to enter my compound, the right gate had swung partly closed due to wind, I was over confident and miscalculated the angle of entry.

I went for cashless settlement of Maruti insurance through the MASS. I just wrote "bumped in to the gate post" in the column for cause of accident in the form. Claim was settled without any questions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gansan (Post 1660358)

How much did you have to shell out ?

Don't understand the not admitting part. I recently took claim of getting the whole driver's side repainted on my santro and paid merely 800 bucks which includes the requisite Rs.500 for every claim that we take. When the insurance guy asked me what happened, I openly told him that while reversing the car, I misjudged and scraped the whole side.

An accident is an accident. IMO, even if you own up (provided the person who has a valid license owns up), there shouldn't be a problem.

From my past experiences, I can say that if the claim is for anything upto 10000 bucks they are cool with it. They ask some minimal question (if they see you around) or else even make do with what you wrote in the claim form. Most of the time when the surveyor turns up at the A.S.S. only car and the claim form is what they get to see. Though of late they have started asking for the driver and the original DL for verification.

However, if the claim runs over 10000 I have seen a certain amount of resistance creeps in the way of claim processing. They start asking pointed questions and generally get more aggressive about it. In fact I think the amount of claim that triggers this behavior is directly proportional to the last premium that you paid. So if you paid say 8000 bucks as the last premium and your claim seems to be going above that you can probably expect some resistance.

Also, I would say you do not mention that your wife was driving the car even if she holds a license. The surveyor may want to speak to your wife or even the claim processor/approver may call you up and ask you to get your wife to their office (they asked me once to come to their office which I outrightly rejected at that time). Your wife may not be able to handle very pointed queries of a shrewed Insurance claim manager. So better you just put yourself in as the driver at fault in the claim form. Thats my personal opinion though.

P.S.: I hope your insurer is not ICICI Lombard. They are the worst when it comes to insurance payout. I know of multiple cases where they have rejected claims in the past on the basis of Deliberate Negligence, Pacemaking and such other crazy reasoning. Pacemaking (Racing in loose terminology) is one favorite clause they like to invoke in the cases of bad road accidents where they have to shell out big money for repairs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by esteem_lover (Post 1660376)

How much did you have to shell out ?

I paid Rs 573.00, which included a minimum charge the owner has to bear and 50% cost of the rubber beading on the door + taxes.

@herculesksp
I agree with Zappo. Even if your wife holds a valid licence, just state you yourself scraped the wall accidentally and be done with it! Say it happened when you were leaving for work, to indirectly hint alcohol had no part to play in it.