How To Make An Effective Car Insurance Claim For Car Theft

• Protect yourself with third party or comprehensive cover
• Use bumper to bumper policies to reduce your liability
• Enjoy facilities like zero depreciation and roadside assistance covers

A car insurance is an agreement between the policyholder and the insurer where the insurer promises to financially protect the policyholder in the event of a mishap. A car insurance is mandatory in India as per the Motor Vehicles Act where the car owners have to insure his or her car with a third-party liability cover at least. A car insurance can be either comprehensive, covering third-party as well as own damage liabilities or third-party liability covering third-party liabilities alone.

The Safety Net of Car Insurance

Your car insurance acts as a safety net that financially protects you from liabilities that you incur at the time of mishap. Your choice of car insurance determines the extent of your insurance coverage.

When your car has has been stolen, you have to file a theft claim and follow the following steps for a successful claim settlement

• File an FIR - As soon as the mishap takes place, file an FIR at the nearest police station and obtain a copy of the same
• Inform your insurer - Inform the insurer as soon as you finish filing the FIR. Give the insurer all the necessary details with respect to the incident and raise a claim request for theft
• Inform the Road Transportation Office (RTO) - Inform the RTO, where your vehicle is registered to, about your vehicle being stolen
• Collect all the required documents - Collect all the necessary documents that need to be submitted to the insurer
• Submit the required documents for cross verification - hand over the necessary documents, both originals and copies and get the copies cross verified against the originals
• Acquire the no-trace report - In case the police are unable to find the vehicle, you have to get an authorised letter from them stating the same. This letter is called the untraced vehicle report or no-trace report. You cannot process the claim without submitting this document. The police will take close to a month to prepare the no-trace report.

Documentation

Following are the documents to be submitted to the insurer as and when requested:

• A copy of the original FIR
• A copy of the car’s RC
• Copy of the insurance policy documents
• Driving license copy
• The claim form, duly signed
• Signed RTO transfer papers, with Forms 28, 29, 30 and 35
• The original car keys

Car Insurance Claim For Theft

Once you have raised a claim, the insurer will send an authorised tema or a person to carry out incident investigation. Before your claim can be processed, the insurer will investigate the incident. The surveyor authorised team for investigation will also help you obtain the necessary documents for claim settlement.

The time period required to complete the incident investigation is close to 60 days. In case your car is still missing, it would take around 90 days, starting from the date of filing FIR, for your insurer to calculate and determine the IDV of your car.

The entire claim process takes around 3-4 months, so you have to be patient and keep following-up with the insurer.