What to do if the insurance company delays payments or refuses to compensate for the damage at all

It is easier to prevent problems with payments from an insurance company than to deal with them later. That is why it is important to know how to behave during an accident. Simple rules will help you avoid making mistakes that can later be a reason for refusing compensation. You also need to know what to do immediately after an accident - what documents to submit and what to expect. We will tell you what to do in the event of an accident and what to do if the insurance company does not pay compensation:

• What to do in the event of an accident
• What to do after an accident to receive payments immediately
• The company delays or refuses to reimburse payments. What to do?

What to do in case of a traffic accident

The first steps in the event of a traffic accident are important - if you do something wrong, the driver may be accused of fraud. Or simply delay payments while continuing the investigation into the insured event. What to do and what not to do:

• Do not leave the scene of the accident, do not move the car, and do not remove anything from the road. Any reasonable person understands that fleeing the scene of a traffic accident is a crime. But the fact that you cannot move or transfer anything is often forgotten. Any detail, a wheel turn, a torn headlight - is evidence. The police use it to determine what happened and who was at fault for the incident. If you move something, rearrange the car, remove parts from the road - the insurance company may decide that the driver is a fraudster who deliberately tried to hide evidence. Even if it was a rash decision - there may be problems with payments, and the case will go to court. So it is important to stay put and not change anything.
• Call the police, report the accident. This should be done first. See if any of the drivers or passengers, pedestrians, were injured. If at least one person was injured (even if not seriously), you need to call an ambulance. At the same time, report the insured event to the number indicated on the insurance policy (OCTPL policy) that the insured event has occurred.
• If you are not to blame for the accident, but another driver - make sure that he does not try to escape, rearrange his car or remove evidence from the road. His actions may affect the course of the investigation and then payments to you from his insurance company will be delayed for a long time.
• Find witnesses to the accident - other drivers or pedestrians, ask them for help. Usually, people themselves are not very proactive, you need to ask them to give evidence. When the police arrive, the information from the witnesses will also be entered into the report. This will help to understand the situation and speed up the resolution of issues regarding payments from the insurance company.
• Make sure that all damage is indicated in the report - because the amount of compensation for vehicle repairs depends on this. Next, you need to deal with the registration and submission of documents after an accident.

What to do after an accident to receive payments immediately

Carefully collect all documents and certificates. Do not delay this process - it depends on how quickly the insurance company will pay the losses. In order to receive compensation without a court and quickly sort out the situation, you need to perform the following actions:

• Write a statement stating that an insured event has occurred.
• Give the car to the insurance company representatives for inspection. If necessary - call an independent expert examination (but the client pays for it himself).
• Get a traffic police certificate (extended). If a simple certificate simply records the fact of the accident and information about the participants, then an extended one contains all the details. Including whether any of the drivers were under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This certificate must have a stamp, as well as information about the person who issued the document (position, name, signature). The certificate is not issued immediately - it must be ordered from the police.
• In addition to the statement about the accident, you need to collect and submit copies of the documents specified in the contract with the insurance company. Namely, copies of: the contract, car registration certificate, driver's license, passport and identification number of the insured.
• Collect certificates from repair companies where you will repair the car. All repair calculations, bills, cost of services and cost of parts that need to be replaced. It is important to calculate only the restoration work after the damage caused in the accident. If you include in this calculation the costs of repairing old breakages or preventive work - representatives of the insurance company will refuse to reimburse them.

After submitting all these documents - you must be compensated for the damage. If this procedure is greatly delayed, or compensation is completely denied, do not give up - we move on to the second stage of solving the problem.

The company delays or refuses to reimburse payments. What to do?

Insurance companies may look for loopholes and excuses not to pay insurance compensation. There are several ways to prove your case and get compensation:

Written claim

First, you need to write a written official claim. After that, the company has a clearly established deadline to give an answer and close the issue.

Do not rush to file claims. If 3 weeks or a month have passed - you can write an official claim, but before this time you should not panic. The company will have exactly one month from the date of filing the claim (indicate the exact date in the document) to resolve your issue. But such an action on the part of the client may force them to act more promptly.

Application to the State Financial Services Commission.

If the written application did not work - write an application to the State Financial Services Commission. The State Commission for Regulation of Financial Services Markets - controls the activities of insurance companies. This means that this body can withdraw the license from a company that does not pay compensation for no reason.

But remember, you should write a statement to them only if there is direct evidence of your rightness that can be confirmed. In this case, the commission must conduct an official inspection of the company within 15 days.

Apply to MTIBU

Apply to the Motor Transport Insurance Bureau of Ukraine. This bureau unites all insurance companies. If the injured party is delayed in payments or is trying to pay less than the required amount - MTIBU will help to resolve the conflict. But you will also have to wait, because the bureau is overloaded with applications, it works slowly.

Apply to court

Apply to court. If you did everything correctly, have already tried the previous points, and the insurance company still does not pay the damages — the only option left is a trial.

This option is the most difficult — it is long, requires a lot of patience and money. For the result, it is important to hire a good lawyer. But if other methods did not help to resolve the situation — it is still worth going to court.

And to prevent such situations from arising — be attentive to details during the accident and when processing \ submitting all documents. Always record the fact \ date of transfer of documents to the company, keep all copies. Such caution will help you quickly prove your case and receive compensation from the insurance company