Will Bengaluru floods affect motor insurance?
In the wake of Bengaluru being back to normalcy following the massive floods, insurance companies are now assessing the damage caused from the torrential rain. Experts believe that the increase in claims intimations shouldn’t raise the premiums for motor insurance rates since insurers take the possibility of such events when formulating their pricing estimates.Bengaluru floods affect motor insurance 2022.
“Insurers always take into account the likelihood of natural disasters like floods and catastrophes within their price models. This year , in particular, is atypical in the sense of floods as well as other natural events as rains have been intense and concentrated in specific regions. Similar outlier events have occurred in the past and all insurance companies take this into account when formulating their pricing estimates,” says Ashwini Dubey, Head – Motor Insurance Renewals, Policybazaar.com.
Dubey states, “Insurance premiums and loss are generally measured over a longer term and any change in pricing or product construct would probably happen to take the long-term impact into account.”
Experts recommend dealing with the situation with patience because there’s likely to be a huge queue at workshops. Raghavendra Rao Chief Distribution Officer of Future Generali India Insurance adds, “In an event of this size, there are quite many challenges confronted by insurance companies and the service companies (motor garages and towing services, etc.) as well as the customers. The customers may have to be patient as there could be many people waiting in the workshops. The loss is assessed by surveyors in accordance with the particular situation.Bengaluru floods affect motor insurance. As we’re still waiting for our customers to submit losses, it might be too late to identify the loss.”
“Once we receive notification of claims from our customers our surveyor will examine the vehicle to examine the damage. The assessment of loss will be based on the extent of damage to the areas of the vehicle that were submerged by the flooding,” adds T A Ramalingam Chief Technical Officer of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.Bengaluru floods affect motor insurance.
The disaster has raised awareness of the additional covers that provide an additional layer of security to customers. “With regards to our customers, we’ve seen an increasing number of people asking about additional coverages like Zero depreciation Engine Protector cover and other protections in the event of loss. In our guide, we’ve seen an increase in the number of customers selecting this Engine Protector add-on (which helps when there is flooding to engines) in the past couple of months” says Dubey.Bengaluru floods affect motor insurance.
