PROCESS OF GETTING YOUR CAR REPAIRED BY YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY AFTER AN ACCIDENT.

* An accident is a sudden , unplanned and unforeseen mishap not under your control or that of the authorized driver. 

Being Indemnified after an accident simply means restoring you to the financial position you were in immediately before the accident. 

    DO'S & DON'TS AFTER AN ACCIDENT 

1) NEVER ADMIT LIABILITY AFTER AN ACCIDENT: This exposes your insurance company to financial losses through compensation of for third party property damage or Injury/ death to third parties. Never take it upon yourself to admit & settle on a matter with the police or the person you are in involved in an accident with. Let the insurance company hanle every bit. Remember they are the professionals in Risk taking & management.

2) NEVER MOVE YOUR VEHICLE FROM SCENE OF ACCIDENT : Only move your car after a policeman arrives to record & take photos of the Scene of accident & identify who is wrong on his report. A police abstract will be issued to you at the nearest police station where the matter is reported & where your vehicle is towed in cases of extreme damage. For minor damage where the vehicle can still move , have the vehicle inspected at the police station. A police abstract & inspection report comes in handy when reporting a claim to your insurance company. These Two documents MUST be presented in their original form when reporting an accident.

 AT THE INSURANCE COMPANY

1) Once at the company or your Broker , fill a claim form, providing details of how the accident happened. You may have to draw a rough sketch of the accident & give a written down statement usually referred to as "statement by the Driver.

A copy of your valid driving license & national ID must be presented & photocopies taken by the insurance company. One must be a holder of a VALID driving license issued in Kenya at the time of accident or else the company may fail to process your claim & indemnify you based on this technicality.

2) It is imperative to present a copy of the logbook in your name so as to ascertain & prove insurable interest. You can only insure that which legally belongs to you. The logbook acts as proof of legal ownership of the vehicle. If logbook is not in your name , compensating you may proove difficult. You may be forced to initiate an immediate transfer to your name through NTSA.

Kindly note that If the vehicle is under a financing or hire purchase agreement with a seller/showroom for which interest was noted in the insurance policy then the insurance company will pay the financier/seller/showroom for any total loss or damage. The insurance company will then have no further liability to you. It is imperative to present facts to the insurance company the point of taking out insurance i.e whether a vehicle was bought on hire purchase or through bank finance so that the names of these entities are captured in the policy at the start of your insurance cover or incorporated midway in cases where you opt to use your vehicle as security against a loan.

3) Once the insurance company admits the claim, you will be instructed to take the vehicle to any garage in their panel or to a preferred garage of your choice in cases where the insurance company allows for such. 

4) The garage will then take photos & give an estimate of repairs to the insurance company inform of a quotation. Damages with low repair costs i.e below 100,000/= are authorized for repair immediately while those with high repair costs may necessitate the professional input of an assessor who will be sent by the insurance company to assess the damage on the vehicle & give an estimate of repairs back to the insurance company.

Insurance companies may also use an assessor in instances where they feel the garage has ove quoted for cost of repairs. Remember that they are in business & will always want to save money in All ways possible. 

5) Once the insurance company approves the repairs based on the estimate provided by the garage or assesor , they will issue a repair authority to the garage & repair works will start. You have to be patient at this point as most garages take time to complete repairs depending on the volume of work at hand or availability of spare parts for your damaged vehicle. 

6) After repair works are completed , the Assessor will be sent back to give a green light on the condition of the vehicle & that repairs were satisfactorily done. 

7) A release letter is then issued to you (the insured)  to collect your vehicle from the garage. A copy is also sent to the garage. You will sign against a garage release letter that you indeed picked your vehicle after repairs & is satisfied with the repairs.

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