Claiming on your insurance policy

Having to claim on your insurance policy can be a stressful and traumatic experience, especially if you've been involved in an accident on the road. Most insurance companies are helpful and polite in dealing with insurance claims, and their aim is to help you to get back on the road as quickly as possible with the minimum of hassle.

The UK government introduced a new law in 1930 that stated that every person who used a vehicle on the road was obliged to have at the minimum third-party personal injury insurance. Today, the 1988 Road Traffic Act defines the law, requiring that every motorist should either be insured, have a security, or a specified deposit (£500,000) with the Accountant General of the Supreme Court) 'against their liability for injuries to others (including passengers) and for damage to other person's property, resulting from use of a vehilce on a public road or in other public places'. [Source]

Car insurance companies will often use an insurance agent to initially underwrite drivers. When claiming against your insurance, your insurance company will employ claims adjusters, who base each claim on its individual severity, and are assigned to adjusters, who will undertake a full investigation into your claim, usually cooperating closely with the insured, to determine whether the coverage is available under the terms of your car insurance policy. If it is, then they will assign the most appropriate monetary value of the claim.

Policy holders are allowed to hire their own adjusters to help negotiate the settlement claim amount with the insurance company - in this case the insured party may have already taken out a separate policy add-on called a 'loss recovery insurance', which has been included in the insurance policy to cover the cost of hiring an individual adjuster.

When taking out an insurance policy on your vehicle, you will be issued with an insurance certificate or cover note that will constitute legal evidence that the car or vehilce specified on the policy document has been insured according to the law. Authorised persons such as the police can ask motorists to produce a valid insurance document certificate for inspection at any time.