How to Lodge an Insurance Claim in Kenya.

 

 

Insurance claims can be classified into two major categories. There are insurance claims that may involve investigation by police while others are straight forward and may not require involvement of police. Insurance claims involving police include theft, fire, burglary ,injury, accident, malicious damage to property etc. as a policy holder please note that you are required to report any losses arising from such incidents immediately to police. The police will then take up and investigate the case to establish the real cause of the loss(proximate cause )and whether what caused the loss is covered or not.

You are urged as a policyholder to report the loss to your insurance company immediately it happens. This should be reported in person, by telephone, text email fax or in writing. Your insurance company will then acknowledge receipt of the report and immediately issue you with a claim form and any relevant documentation for you to complete. It is therefore upon you as a policyholder to complete the claim form truthfully by providing necessary information and return the same to the insurance company together with any supporting documents.

There are however some claims that may not require involvement of the police. Such claims include mature life policies, medical claims school fees and similar insurance policies. In such cases your insurance company will ask you for relevant information to facilitate the processing of your claim.

Upon receipt of your claim the insurance company may or may not admit liability (accept responsibility). When the claim is admitted your insurance company will issue you with a discharge voucher to complete. Signing the voucher means that you accept the terms of payment upon which your claim will be processed and settled within sixty days in accordance with insurance act.

A claim may be settled in various ways depending on the type of policy. For instance a motor claim may require payment of excess by the policyholder before the claim is processed while claims may be settled through repair replacement or cash in lie

When the insurance company does not accept responsibility for the loss then they must notify you in writing giving reasons for doing so. Should you as a policyholder not be satisfied with the final decision of the insurance company then you may seek arbitration under the terms of the policy, report to IRA for intervention or seek legal redress in the court as a last resort.