In this article, you will learn five steps to utilize your 3rd party insurance but first, let me tell you about my experience. Sometime last year, someone hit my car from the back. The impact was so bad that my fan belt pulled off. The boot was badly damaged.
I was not in the car when the accident occurred, so naturally, I was called.
The person who drove my car was furious.
” I was very careful”, he insisted. “I don’t even know what the boy was thinking about!”, he fumed.
I asked to speak with the person who hit my car. Immediately the young man got on the phone, he began to beg. He was almost in tears. He pleaded with everything he held dear and asked to be forgiven.
Calmly, I asked him if he had any Insurance. To my shock and surprise, he said no.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “How have you been escaping from the police without having Insurance?” I asked.
“Ma, I just have normal papers” he responded. “The one they gave me with my license”
I asked him to take pictures of the documents he had and send them to my WhatsApp number.
Immediately he sent the documents, I quickly scanned through them and saw that he had a 3rd party Insurance policy with an Insurance company. I then typed the policy number on the NIID Portal to see if it was genuine.
I was pleasantly surprised when his details popped out. He had valid 3rd Party Insurance!!
I just asked him to take a snapshot of his driver’s license and then write a small note for me, admitting that he had caused the accident. Then I told him that he was free to go home.
Everyone at the scene seemed surprised. How did I let him go just like that?
You can now imagine my shock when I was woken up early the next morning by his call. It was around 6am or so. I could tell that he did not sleep. It was a Saturday morning.
“Ma, please I beg you in the name of God” he pleaded. “I am the son of a widow, I don’t have any money on me, the accident was a mistake. Please don’t report the case to the police”.
It was my turn to be shocked.
“Police? I asked. “Who said anything about the police?”
“You took pictures of my driver’s license and made me admit that I caused the accident”
I could not help laughing.
Then I calmly explained to him that my car was comprehensively insured and that I only took his details to enable my Insurance company to claim their subrogation rights from his Insurance company. This way, even though my Insurance Company would pay for the damage to my car, they would recover the money from the Insurance company which insured his own car.
A few days later, my car was fixed.
Most drivers in Nigeria have 3rd party Motor Insurance policies but very few of them ever read the policies to know the extent of their protection.
It usually baffles me to see drivers exchanging words (and sometimes blows) anytime there’s a car accident. And then I keep wondering if neither of them has a 3rd party insurance.
In Nigeria, once a driver has a 3rd party Insurance and an accident occurs the driver at fault, his Insurance Company will be liable to compensate the 3rd party, up to a maximum of N1,000,000 (One Million Naira).
The Insurance company would usually engage the services of a loss adjuster, who would assess the damage and advise the company of the appropriate amount to be paid for repairs.
So next time someone hits your car, take these 5 steps:
- Take pictures of the two cars at the scene of the accident.
- Ask for the Insurance policy of the person who caused the accident.
- Log in the policy number on the NIID Portal via www.askniid.org. This is a database set up by the government for confirming the genuineness of all Motor Insurance Policies. Then take a picture of the Insurance policy and his/her driver’s license.
- Ask the driver to write a note for you, admitting that the accident occurred.
- Check the website of the Insurance company and call them to lodge your complaint.
Once the Insurance company is reputable like Cornerstone Insurance, your car would be fixed in a matter of days.
Call or email today to discuss our pocket-friendly motor insurance or other insurance products. Send a mail to brand@cornerstone.com.ng or call 01-2605800 or visit www.cornerstone.com.ng. Do stay safe.