How to Claim Car Insurance For Damage Caused From Cyclone?

It is as important to know how to raise a claim for damage caused by cyclones to the car as it is to purchase a comprehensive car insurance plan. Here we will tell you everything you need to know about raising a claim for car policy if it gets damaged in a cyclone.

Steps To Raise Claim For Damage Caused By Cyclone

People usually purchase insurance policies but do not go through them properly to learn about the inclusions and exclusions. Since it is mandatory for a person to purchase third-party liability insurance but third party insurance does not provide cover to the policyholder but the third party only.

This is why it is recommended to purchase a comprehensive insurance plan because it provides cover for almost all kinds of risks like theft, manmade damage as well as natural calamities like cyclones. So, here are the steps to raise your claim for the damage caused to your car in a cyclone.

Inform Your Insurer

The first and foremost thing you have to do is to inform your insurer about the damage caused to your car by a cyclone. When a cyclone hits a part of the country, it becomes national news but you cannot expect and rely on your insurer to contact you assuming that your area might have been hit by the cyclone. So, make sure to contact them.

Evidence Of Damage

It would be great and in your favour to collect some evidence of the damage. You can click pictures or record a video of the damaged car and send it to your insurer through email. This will make the process even easier.

Keep Details Handy

To make the process quick, it would be a good idea to keep the details like car details, policy number, and other required documents handy.

Raise The Claim

When you have the evidence, all the details, and required documents ready, you can go ahead and raise the claim. In a car insurance policy, there are two ype of claims, one is cashless and the other is reimbursement claims.

Let us now tell you how to raise a cashless claim as well as a reimbursement claim.

It depends on your insurance policy if it has the feature of cashless claim then you can just simply follow the steps mentioned above and raise a cashless claim where you won’t have to pay any amount and the insurer will pay on your behalf. In case of a reimbursement claim, you will have to pay for the service of the car to the garage and the insurer will reimburse the paid amount in a few days.

In case the car has been swept away in the cyclone and has been damaged that it is not worth driving anymore then it will come under the clause of Total loss. So, what is a total loss?

Total Loss In Car Insurance

Total loss in car insurance is when the repair cost of the damaged car is more than75% of IDV of the car. The policyholder declares the IDV of the car while buying comprehensive car insurance.

If the cyclone hits the car then there are high chances of total loss because the impact of a cyclone is usually severe. It can impact the engine, damage the body and other important parts of the car. So, if you raise a claim and your insurer declares a total loss then you will get an approximately equal amount of your IDV.

Here Is An Example

Rajeev owns a hatchback. He lives in Odisha that was hit by Cyclone Amphan. He is a comprehensive car insurance policyholder and the insured declared value of the car was Rs. 5 lakh. He raised a claim when his car was swept away in the Cyclone Amhan and when he sent the car to the garage, the repairing cost came out Rs. 4 Lakh that was more than 75% of the IDV.

When the insurance company got to know about the repairing cost of the car they declared it as total loss. They provided Rajeev with the claim settlement amount that was Rs. 5 lakh minus deductibles.

Conclusion

It is advised to the car insurance policyholder to purchase a comprehensive insurance policy. Also, read the insurance details thoroughly so that whenever the car meets an unfortunate accident, you would know about the inclusions and exclusions of the policy and the added benefits that the policy provides. Also, purchasing the insurance policy online is beneficial than purchasing offline. It is cost-effective and you can raise the claim online as well as renew the policy and calculate the premium amount.