The number of car thefts has been rising in India. It has become a big problem because most of the stolen cars are difficult to recover and it leaves car owners stranded. According to Delhi Police, “More than four vehicles are stolen in the city every hour “. In 2018, till the month of June 30, as many as 3,871 cars were stolen and very few among them are recovered so far. Like the capital city, rate of car-theft cases are rising everywhere in the country. So, it becomes mandatory to everyone to know the procedure how to make an effective car theft claim. One of mine friend’s car was stolen last month. He called up me immediately after he had come to know about theft and asked me to come over the near police station for filing a complaint. What I learnt from this incident, I would like to share with you as it would help you and many others how to make an effective car theft claim.
What is the Most Important Thing
What do you need to do when your car has been stolen? Well, you need not worry too much, if your car insurance plans have a comprehensive coverage of theft claims. If your policy covers the stolen damage, your insurance agent must inform you about this thing at the time you got the policy. If you were already well informed about the procedure, making the theft claim would be a simple and stress-free task. Read to find out how to make an effective car theft claim;
Inform the Police
The claim process for a stolen car starts by registering a complaint to the near police station. You need to file a complaint about the theft once you become sure that your car has really been stolen.
Inform Your Insurer
After filing police complaint, you should notify your insurer immediately to clarify the situation. You can contact directly to your insurance agent or can call to customers’ service number with the detail of your insurance policy. This will also help you to understand the claim filing process too. Most of the car insurance companies take one-month minimum waiting period to finalize the stolen car claim and this time starts right from the time when it was stolen. If you have any doubts about your insurance plan, you can ask your insurance agent or brokerage website for the detail.
Inform the RTO Office
As per the Indian law, you are also needed to notify the Road Transportation Office (RTO) that your car has stolen. From here, you would be able to get the RTO transfer papers, which are among the key documents that needed to be providing to insurance company.
Claim Investigation
The insurance company always investigates car theft claim thoroughly to avoid fraudulent claims. The insurance agent would ask a series of questions during investigation so be prepared for this thing. Common questions include-date and time of theft, location of your car when it is stolen, year, car model and other detail related to the vehicle. Police FIR copy also needed to be submitted to make claim process hassle -free.
Documents Required for Insurance Claim
- The Police complaint (FIR) original copy
- Police documents
- Your driving license
- The car’s RC copy
- RTO transfer documents with the 28, 29, 30 and 35 forms
- The duly signed claim form
- And the original car keys
The No-Trace Report
You need to get the no-trace report from the police as a confirmation that the car has not been located. The police would need a least one month to generate this report after the confirmation that it failed to locate your car. Without this report, an insurance company will not process your claim.
Making an effective car theft claim
You can suffer a lot when your theft claim is rejected. Your carelessness or lack of knowledge could be a reason. Follow the below mentioned tricks in to handle this matter smartly.
- Always choose a comprehensive plan that covers theft of the insured car
- The car gadgets may not be covered under the same policy, so go for the separate plan
- Select the right Insured Declared Value (IDV) of the car
- Provide all supported documents.
At last, the entire car theft claim process will take at least 2-3 months time so, don’t show any kind of desperation as this is a lengthy process and you need to be tolerant for the claim process.