Chandigarh: Insurance firm fined for not settling accident claim of BMW car owner

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, has penalised an insurance company, for not settling the claim of a Chandigarh resident whose BMW car met with an accident in 2019.
Mukesh Kumar of Sector 13, Chandigarh, had filed a complaint against Go Digit General Insurance Ltd, Ludhiana and its Koramangala Industrial Layout, in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
In the complaint, he stated that he got his car, a BMW X3 model 2008, insured from the company with effect from August 19, 2019, till August 19, 2020.
In December 2019, the car met with an accident and he informed the insurance company the next morning. Kumar said a surveyor and investigator visited the workshop, where the car was sent multiple times to survey the loss.
The insurance company, on its website, claimed that it would settle the claim within 30 days but it failed to do so. “Then in February 2020, the company wrote a letter raising queries and asked him to submit documentary evidence despite the fact that he had already submitted all the relevant documents to the company,” the complainant alleged. At last, he moved the consumer commission.
In the commission, the insurance company contested that in a previous claim involving Kumar the make of the vehicle and spot of the alleged accident is similar to the case in hand. “It is safe to assume that the insured have the same modus operandi in all the claims through which they are trying to make a wrongful claim from the company,” it argued.
Seeking dismissal, it added: “Further it was confirmed by the previous owner of the vehicle that he sold his vehicle for only ₹5 lakh, while Kumar has claimed an IDV of ₹13,80,000 and even after repeated requests to submit documentary proofs, he has failed to provide the details.”
However, the commission observed that the complainant has submitted replies to all the queries and it is also a fact that the surveyor has assessed the damage of ₹12,91,329.90 which is more than the 75% of IDV of ₹13,80,000.
The commission directed the company to pay ₹13,36,080/- (IDV value minus salvage) to the complainant along with interest @ 9% per annum from the date of filing of this complaint onwards, along with ₹20,000 as compensation for causing mental agony and harassment to him and ₹10,000 as costs of litigation.