Car Insurance Claim

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About 2 years ago I had a car accident. It was totally the mistake of the other driver (Kuwaiti). I was waiting at red signal, and suddenly another car hit my car from the back at a very high speed. This car was a brand new Prado.

The hit completely damaged my car from the back, and surprisingly nothing happened to the other car. The police report was also against the Kuwaiti man. The insurance company estimated the cost of the damage at about KD 500 only, and they asked me to get it repaired on my own from anywhere.

When I checked the different car repair centers, all of them asked more than KD 800. Then I found one car repair center which agreed to do the repair for KD 700. I gave my car to this center. I have all the original receipts for the repair.

Now for the last 1.5 years the insurance company has been asking me to go from one office to another and every time they ask me to come some other day. I can’t tell you how much they have made me travel for this claim without any legal reason.

Now just last week they gave me KD 250, and they said that it is the law to just give only half of the estimated cost.

Can you please tell me whether there is any such law? I repaired my car at a cost of KD 700, and they just paid me KD 250, even though their own estimated cost of repairing the damage was KD 500. Moreover, over the last 1.5 years they have made me travel a lot unnecessarily and caused me a lot of trouble. Please tell me what can I do to claim the rest of the amount?

Name withheld
Answer: I think that you should take a close look at your insurance policy before you take any further step. The reason we are saying this is because of a certain clause in such policies which say how much of the damage is covered by the insurance firms. Normally, this comes in the form of a very clear “rubber stamp” on the policy. Sometimes, this “stamp” mentions 100%, mostly 75% and 50% and some even less than that. It all depends on the “age” of the car and the type of the insurance policy. On the other hand, you could also take the other driver to the Traffic Court if the mistake was totally his instead on just fighting with the insurance company because the laws of most of these companies leave you in a tangle and all you will be doing is visiting the insurance company offices for another year. Remember that you can sue the other driver for all the damage you suffered if the police report backs the fact that the accident was not your fault…in fact of the other driver.

This news has been read 14725 times!