The Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC), Thailand's insurance regulator, has established integrated approaches to assisting people affected by flooding in several southern provinces, particularly regarding claims for vehicle damage.
Key guidelines are:
Handling vehicles that have suffered complete or total loss due to flooding
As a large number of vehicles suffering total loss are expected, the OIC has stated that insureds must use the vehicle registration document when filing claims.
If these documents have been lost, flooded, or cannot be recovered, the Department of Land Transport has announced a facilitation measure, allowing insureds to contact the transport office where the vehicle is registered in order to request a copy of the document, using only their national ID card.
If they are unable to do so, they can contact their insurer and authorise them, as well as provide copies of existing documents for the company to handle the matter on their behalf. This will ensure that compensation considerations are swift, transparent and fair in accordance with the terms of the policy.
Partial loss
In the event of partial loss of a vehicle, the insurer will expedite a preliminary damage assessment according to the standard claims process, using water level data and the impact on various systems as key elements in the assessment.
If repairs are deemed possible, the company will coordinate the vehicle’s delivery to a certified repair centre or service garage to ensure its return to service as quickly as possible.
Furthermore, insurers have been instructed to expedite the damage assessment process, determine an appropriate repair timeframe and consider waiving the use of certain documents in flood-affected areas if they are not yet available due to accessibility limitations.