The Supreme Court has held that in motor accident insurance claims the compensation fixed by the official surveyor is not binding on the claimants or the insurance companies. - A newspaper reported on the 22nd of June 2009. This basically means that the surveyor’s report is not the final verdict for the claim amount. The insurer or the insured do not have any legal liability to rely or adhere to what the report has to say.
Currently every claim needs to have a surveyor report and on the basis of surveyor report the insurance companies had to pass the claim and the insured had to accept the claim amount. So in turn made surveyors very powerful. This creates lots of ambiguity on the entire process. However, now the insured & insurer do not have to depend on the surveyor’s approval of the claim amount.
This may prove to be a good move to incorporate professionalism in this sector of insurance. This can get a whole lot of stability and ethical behavior to this side of insurance.
However, the other argument to this can be the possibility of inflated claims. Since the insurer as well as the insured can argue or not abide by the surveyor’s report, one can inflate the claims. So who will be the final judge of what exactly will be the amount of the claim is left unanswered. Only once, claims are registered from now on, one will know what exactly is the appropriate process. The role of a surveyor now is also in question. This is because the company or the insurer who themselves appoint the Surveyor, now has the authority to not agree to their claim figures. Does it mean that the job of the surveyor is in danger? Or have they realized or witnessed the unethical behavior?
Hence will this move help to get the truth out or worsen the situation? Only time will tell!
