The heavy rains in North India over the past few days have caused flash floods, transformed the streets of many cities into waterways and swept away cars and other vehicles. Videos from Himachal Pradesh captured the harrowing scenes of cars being swept away by flood waters. In Delhi, the flooding of the Yamuna River resulted in waterlogging in many areas, leading to car breakdowns and disrupting life in the city. In such situations, a comprehensive car insurance policy can minimize the loss and facilitate recovery from damages caused by natural disasters.
If you have lost your car due to floods or it’s been damaged because of heavy rainfall, you can avail of insurance coverage for that. There are two types of insurance available for automobiles. One is called third-party liability, which is mandatory for all cars. This policy provides insurance against any legal abilities that arise from damages caused to someone’s body or property by you.
Another type of insurance policy is called Package. It provides insurance against third-party liabilities and damages due to natural disasters such as floods, fire, earthquakes etc. Through this policy, you can insure your car against climate calamities and avert a financial crisis.
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Here’s how you can avail insurance coverage of your car if it’s damaged or lost in floods:
Filing FIR is the first step: You should file an FIR as soon as possible at the nearest police station if your car is swept away in the flood. This will help the police in notifying you if they find your located car. If your car is not found, the insurance company will have to pay you the Insured Declare Value (IDV) of your car. However, if your car is located and the amount for the repairs to the damages is more than 75 percent of IDV, the repairing amount equal to the IDV will be paid by the insurance company.
Inform your insurer: The next step should be informing your insurance company about the possible loss of your car after filling the FIR. This will serve as legal proof of your claim. Also, in case of damages, you should not do anything by yourself but must inform the insurer.
Inspection: After the car is found or if the damaged car is availed for the insurance, the insurer will move the car to some garage or storage facility where the damages can be inspected. You will be required to submit a claim form and a copy of your registration certificate. They can also ask for other documents as per the requirement.
Damage and repairing: After completing the inspection of your damaged car in the garage, the insurance company will tell you the amount required for repairing it. It will also tell you the sum that will be paid by the insurance company and the amount that you have to pay yourself.
Delivery of the repaired car: After the car is repaired, it will be delivered to you after you have cleared the repair charges. The insurance company will settle their charges at the facility itself. If the vehicle is not repairable, the insurer will sell your car in that condition to some seller while paying out the IDV to you. If your car is under loan, then it will settle the amount with your bank or the related financial institutions.
